High school students conduct a science experiment with their teacher, right.
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education
It’s not hard to imagine why we are currently confronted with a crisis of teacher burnout. After decades of being severely underpaid while costs of living skyrocket, combined with heightened safety issues and the incredible stress of the pandemic, it’s no wonder why countless teachers across the country are fleeing the profession.
It has resulted in a national teacher shortage that we are experiencing acutely in California. According to the California Department of Education, there were more than 10,000 teacher vacancies during the 2021-22 school year, particularly concentrated in rural communities, communities of color and low-income communities, as well as a 16% reduction in new teacher credentials, the first decline in nearly a decade.
Even when people decide to make the courageous decision to become teachers, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ensure they stay in the profession. A recent nationwide survey found that 1 in 3 teachers say they are likely to quit in the next two years.
It’s a dire crisis that must be addressed with urgency, coordination and innovative solutions. As state superintendent of public instruction, I have partnered with educators and legislators across California to craft teacher recruitment and retention policies that comprehensively confront this momentous challenge.
SB 765, which Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed, will help develop a statewide recruitment strategy that’s never been seen before, incentivizing longtime, qualified educators back in the classroom to provide short-term help and removing financial barriers to those attempting to enter the profession.
The financial incentives include expanding the Golden State Teacher Grant Program to provide a $20,000 scholarship for anyone who wants to be a teacher or school mental health clinician, as well as a $10,000 undergraduate scholarship for any student who is enrolled to become a tutor in our College Core program. It also offers people who complete the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification a $5,000 annual grant for five consecutive years of their teaching career.
These measures are invaluable tools to provide bonuslike incentives for people from marginalized communities looking to enter the profession, which many believe is critical in hiring more teachers of color across the state to ensure that our classrooms actually look like California — something that greatly benefits every student.
We’re also working to expand outreach to specific communities that may have an interest in teaching in our state, including recently retired educators, the spouses of military personnel who have teaching backgrounds in other states, as well as recruiting from the ranks of the classified staff and expanded learning educators.
Teacher recruitment has historically been a disparate process that is executed at the individual district level. But due to the overwhelming scale of the crisis, we’ve made creating a coordinated statewide effort under the California Department of Education a top priority, including developing a one-stop portal that’s a resource for teaching credentials, scholarships and teacher openings throughout the state.
In addition to building a comprehensive teacher recruitment system, California must invest in providing desperately needed raises for educators. AB 938, which was introduced this year by Assembly Education Chair Al Muratsuchi but didn’t make it through the state Legislature, would have increased teachers’ salaries across California 50% by 2030, aiming to close the existing wage gap between teachers and similarly educated college graduates in other fields.
At a time when costs of living in our state, including the skyrocketing cost of a four-year degree, are greatly outpacing the rate of stagnating teacher pay, it’s absolutely essential that we fund a significant increase in pay so educators, including classified employees, can remain in the communities they teach in.
It’s one thing to recruit teachers to teach in local schools, but it’s another to retain them for decades in our communities. The best way to do that is by providing a living wage for educators in every California neighborhood. That’s why ensuring that teachers are properly compensated for their tireless work next year through the budget or a bill like AB 938 that would significantly increase their salaries is so important.
Ultimately, the best way to combat our teacher shortage crisis is by developing a coordinated recruitment strategy, increasing compensation and providing additional financial incentives to build a sustainable pipeline of educators in our communities. In California, we’ve invested in bold recruitment and retention strategies that, if paired with the doubling of teacher salaries, will be a comprehensive solution to this overwhelming crisis.
Teacher candidates in the Claremont Graduate University teacher residency program spend an entire year working with a mentor teacher in Corona Norco Unified classrooms.
Courtesy: Claremont Graduate University School of Education Studies
Public schools in California are facing historic staffing challenges: rising rates of dissatisfaction and burnout within the current workforce and unprecedented shortages of future teachers, as increased housing and education costs deter potential teachers from entering the field.
But university teacher preparation programs and school districts can create more effective partnerships to meet these demands.
Historically, the partnerships between teacher preparation programs and school districts have been transactional: teacher preparation programs place student teachers in districts for short periods of time without considering district needs. To change this dynamic, teacher preparation schools launched residency programs to ensure new teachers better understood the communities they were serving. Residencies are similar to student teaching models, but differ in that they are for a full year. Within a residency, aspiring teachers take on increasingly more responsibility in the classroom alongside a mentor teacher for the entire year, gain familiarity with the ebbs and flows of the school year, and assume full teaching responsibilities by the end of the year.
Over the last five years, California has dedicated more than $350 million for teacher residencies to better prepare future educators and help diversify the workforce. Research shows candidates who go through a residency become more effective teachers more quickly than those launching their careers through other pathways, and they are likely to remain in the profession longer. It costs a district roughly $20,000 to hire a new teacher; by reducing turnover, residencies are not only good for new teachers and K-12 students, but also for school district budgets.
One promising avenue to meet these challenges is by creating mutually beneficial partnerships between university teacher preparation programs and school districts to help place and nurture new teachers in the field. These partnerships require transparency, a clear vision, and shared investments. With these elements in place, they have the opportunity to meet districts’ staffing needs and teacher preparation programs’ enrollment goals while surrounding new teachers with systems of social and professional support. These partnerships also provide stipends and embedded professional development that enrich existing teachers’ work with new avenues for leadership as mentors to new teachers.
One example of a creative and effective partnership can be found between Claremont Graduate University and Corona-Norco Unified School District. The university and the district had worked together for many years, with Corona-Norco hiring many Claremont alums, but they had never formalized a partnership. With a foundation of mutual trust and understanding, the district shared data about their current and anticipated staffing needs, and the faculty of the Claremont teacher education program shared insight into their students’ experiences, strengths and needs entering the profession. Understanding the benefits that a residency program provides to veteran teachers, students and the district as a whole, the district committed to paying residents a living stipend from reallocated budget dollars.
A shared vision is key to a successful partnership. For example, both the university and the district have a strong commitment to diversity. This is visible in the diverse participants recruited by Claremont’s teacher education program, who are drawn to its deeply rooted commitment to social justice and humanizing relationships. It also reflects Corona-Norco Unified’s mission to foster the wellness of their students by cultivating an educator pool that better reflects the diversity of its students and communities. This mutual commitment to what teaching can and should be created pathways for recruiting experienced mentor teachers from the district interested in professional development with the university that leveraged and built from their knowledge and expertise. Research shows that grouping mentors in community with other experienced teachers and giving them opportunities to engage not only as practitioners but also as intellectuals helps fend off burnout and gives them a renewed sense of purpose.
The teacher residencies that have come out of this partnership buffer participants from the overwhelm and burnout so many other new teachers face by embedding them within a community of support that includes university advisers and faculty alongside mentor teachers and advisers at the district. The residents not only learn from their university classes and experiences in their mentor teachers’ classrooms, but also from opportunities to work with colleagues to support students who are struggling academically, working with small groups of students, analyzing students’ work with department teams, and interacting with parents and caregivers at drop-off and during teacher conferences. The breadth and depth of these experiences give residents confidence that when they step into their own classroom, they’ll be ready to meet the needs of students and have colleagues to call upon when they need support.
District leaders are ready to hire their residents after they earn their master’s degree and credential and eager to have more residents at their school sites. School principals note that residents provide data-driven, hyper-personalized instruction to students that they otherwise would not be able to offer. Students love residents, often running up to them during lunch and recess for hugs. And parents and caregivers appreciate having more people around who care about their kids. Having more adults on campus who know and are known by more students benefits everyone.
With more partnerships like this, the possibilities to innovate and strengthen learning for everyone at our schools grow exponentially. This story is just the beginning.
•••
Rebecca Hatkoff, PhD, is the interim director of teacher education at Claremont Graduate University.
Debra Russell works as part of the California Educator Preparation Innovation Collaborative team at Chapman University to promote strategic teacher residency models across the state.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
A 2022 study by the Rand Corporation found that nearly every school district in America had to combine or cancel classes or ask teachers to take on additional duties due to a nationwide shortage of teachers.
The US has struggled with shortages for decades, but the pandemic worsened the problem, according to the Learning Policy Institute, with teachers citing online teaching and disruptive student behavior as reasons why they are leaving the profession.
Join EdSource reporter Diana Lambert on Wednesday, March 6 at 3:30 p.m. for a Reddit AMA focused on the nationwide teacher shortage, why teachers are leaving and what leaders are doing to bring educators into classrooms. Not a Reddit user? Create an account here.
An AMA, which stands for “Ask Me Anything” is a crowdsourced interview. The interviewee begins the process by starting a post describing who they are and what they do. Then commenters from across the internet leave questions and can vote on other questions according to which they would like to see answered.
The interviewee can go through and reply to the questions they find interesting and easily see those questions the internet is dying to have the answer to. Because the internet is asking the questions, they’re going to be a mix of serious and lighthearted, and interviewees will end up sharing all sorts of things you won’t find in a normal interview.
Bullard High School senior Isabell Coronado works with Gibson Elementary first grader Mayson Lydon on March 15, 2024, as part of Fresno Unified’s Teacher Academy Program.
Credit: Lasherica Thornton / EdSource
In mid-March, Bullard High School students Merrick Crowley and Craig Coleman taught an interactive science lesson for a fifth-grade class at Gibson Elementary in Fresno.
At the front of the classroom, Coleman held an egg above one of three containers filled with liquids, such as saltwater. He and Crowley asked students to predict what would happen to each egg: Will it sink or float? The fifth graders, wide-eyed and smiling, raised their hands to share their predictions.
“You said if we took a field trip (to the Red Sea), we would float,” said one fifth grader to explain why she thought the egg would float in the saltwater.
Once Coleman dropped the egg in the water, the students expressed joy or disappointment, depending on whether their predictions were accurate or not. “Can anyone tell me why it’s floating?” Crowley asked as Coleman hinted that the answer was related to density.
The high schoolers were in Fresno Unified’s Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathway course, one of the district’s three Teacher Academy programs that has the potential to increase the number of educators entering the K-12 system.
According to educators and leaders in the school district and across the state, introducing and preparing students for the teaching field, starting at the high-school level, will be key to addressing the teacher shortage — a problem affecting schools across the nation.
Teachers are retiring in greater numbers than in years past, and many, burned out or stressed by student behavior, have quit. Fewer teacher candidates are enrolling in preparation programs, worsening the shortage.
Since 2016, California has invested $1.2 billion to address the state’s enduring teacher shortage.
Despite the efforts, school districts continue to struggle to recruit teachers, especially for hard-to-fill jobs in special education, science, math and bilingual education.
As a result, districts and county education offices have been creating and expanding high school educator pathway programs under “grow-our-own” models intended to strengthen and diversify the teacher pipeline and workforce. High school educator programs expose students to the career early on by “tapping into (students’) love of helping others” and “keeping them engaged,” creating a more diverse teacher workforce and putting well-trained teachers in the classroom, said Girlie Hale, president of the Teachers College of San Joaquin, which partners with a grade 9-12 educator pathway program.
“The high school educator pipeline is one of the long-term solutions that we can incorporate,” Hale said. “Through the early exposure and interest of these (high school) educator pathways, it’s going to have a positive effect on increasing enrollment into teaching preparation programs.”
Growing their own
Fueled by the expansion of programs, increased participation and positive outcomes, “education-based CTE programs over the past decade have increased in high schools,” said James F. Lane, a former assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education and CEO of PDK International, a professional nonprofit that supports aspiring educators through programs such as Educators Rising.
Educators Rising, a community-based organization with chapters in high schools in each state, teaches students the skills needed to become educators. Lane said the organization has seen 20% growth in the last two years, including the creation of a California chapter.
“District leaders are seeing the benefits of supporting future teachers in their own community due to the fact that 60% of teachers end up teaching within 20 miles of where they went to high school,” he said.
That isn’t the only benefit districts see.
Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest school district, enrolls higher percentages of Hispanic, African American, Asian, Pacific Islander and American Indian students than other districts across Fresno County and California, according to California Department of Education data from 2022-23. The district’s current high schoolers resemble the demographics of the elementary students and the next generation of learners.
Fresno Unified’s Teacher Academy Program can feed those high schoolers into one of the district’s teacher pipeline programs and back into schools, said Maiv Thao, manager of the district’s teacher development department.
“We know how important that is, to have someone that understands them, someone that looks like them and is able to be that model of, ‘If they can do it, then I can do it as well,’” Thao said. “We know that teachers of color make a huge impact on our students; they’re the ones who can make that connection with our students.”
In San Joaquin County, there are at least a dozen teacher preparation academies across five school districts, including a program launched in 2021 through a partnership with the county education office, a charter school, higher education institutions and nonprofit grant funding.
Students interested in pursuing a career in education can enter Teacher Education and Early College High (TEACH), an educator pathway program offered at the charter school Venture Academy to support students from freshman year of high school to the classroom as a teacher.
Through the early college high school model, students simultaneously take their high school classes and college courses and will graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate degree in elementary education from San Joaquin Delta College. Further, a relationship with Humphreys University allows students, who’d be entering as college juniors, to graduate debt free with their bachelor’s degrees. Then, students can complete the teacher credential program at the Teachers College of San Joaquin.
“The idea was to grow students within our community to become teachers and, then, have them return and serve as teachers in the communities that grew them,” said Joni Hellstrom, division director of Venture Academy.
But first, schools must get students enthusiastic about teaching.
Split model of learning: Time in the class as students
Students in TEACH in Stockton and the Teacher Academy in Fresno experience a cohort learning model and fieldwork opportunities. The teacher preparation is done over four years of high school in TEACH.
Because the entire program is meant to prepare them to be classroom teachers, core subject areas are taught so that students can evaluate the effectiveness of teaching styles on their own learning, Hellstrom said. For example, as students learn math, the teacher points out the strategies he or she is using in the lessons, preparing those students to “become teachers of math, not just learners of math,” she said.
Students also take classes each year to learn different teaching approaches, and they’re encouraged to incorporate the methods into class projects and lessons they’ll develop for elementary classes.
As freshmen, students visit elementary classes as a group to be reading buddies to the kids. Sophomores partner with the elementary teachers to design activities, such as a science experiment.
Three Teacher Academy options in Fresno Unified
Fresno Unified has expanded its program to offer various opportunities at its high schools, including the Teacher Academy Saturday Program, Summer Program and CTE course.
The Saturday program, requiring a commitment of four Saturdays in a semester,is a paid opportunity for high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to develop and teach STEM lessons.
The Summer Program, a paid internship also for grades 10-12, allows participants to work with students in summer school.
As juniors, students do field work in a class or subject area they’re interested in. For example, a student who enjoyed sports worked with a PE teacher this past year and taught lessons she designed, then reflected on what she learned from the experience and how the elementary school kids responded.
“It’s a really powerful learning opportunity for them,” Hellstrom said.
This upcoming school year, the first cohort of students, now seniors, will participate in internships in school districts across the county.
Under the umbrella of Fresno Unified’s Teacher Academy Program, students learn, then apply skills at an elementary school through embedded workplace learning.
The CTE course is designed for juniors and seniors to develop their communication, professionalism and leadership skills as well as learn teaching styles, lesson planning, class instruction, cultural proficiency and engagement techniques while gaining hands-on experience in elementary classes.
In Marisol Sevel’s mid-March CTE class, Edison High students answered “How would you define classroom management to a friend?” as Sevel went one-by-one to each high schooler, performing a handshake and patting them on their backs — modeling for them how to engage students.
Key components of the lesson were: building relationships and trust; providing positive reinforcement; exhibiting fair, consistent discipline; and other strategies to create a welcoming classroom environment.
“These are things that should not be new to you,” Sevel said about concepts the students have seen in the classroom and experienced, “but what is going to be new to you is how do you handle it as a teacher?”
Time as teachers
Fresno Unified’s literacy team trained high school students in the district’s Teacher Academy Program on the science of reading teaching method, which the high schoolers use to help elementary students during small group or individual sessions. Pictured is Bullard High School student Alondra Pineda Martinez with Gibson Elementary first graders Sara Her and Rowan Bettencourt. Credit: Lasherica Thornton/ EdSource
With schools within walking distance, Fresno high schoolers walk to the neighboring elementary school, where they apply the lessons they’ve learned in class.
At Gibson Elementary, first-grade teacher Hayley Caeton helped a group of her students with an assignment as others worked independently. In one corner of the room, two first graders created a small circle around Bullard High student Alondra Pineda Martinez while another first grader sat next to Bullard High student Marianna Fernandez. “What sound does it make?” the high schoolers asked as they pointed to ABC graphics.
Each week, Pineda Martinez and Fernandez covered specific concepts with the first graders in their groups based on the lesson plans that Caeton prepared.
The first graders, guided by the high schooler in front or beside them, moved from one activity to the next — from identifying words with oo vowel sounds to reading a book with many of those words.
“Good job,” Fernandez told first grader Tabias Abell.
More of Caeton’s students get academic support, as do other Gibson Elementary students across campus, because the high school students can pull them into small groups or individual sessions.
For instance, in Renae Pendola’s second-grade classroom, high schoolers provided math support as the teacher went around the class answering questions about an assignment.
Isabell Coronado and a second grader used fake coins to explore different ways to come up with 80 cents while Rebecca Lima helped three students with an imaginary transaction.
“Wouldn’t you make it just $1.24?” a student asked Lima, who reminded the group that they only had one dollar to spare at the ice cream shop, per the assignment.
Learning the reality of teaching
From the professional development to the hands-on involvement with elementary students, high schoolers in Fresno are experiencing the “daily struggle” and “joyous moments” of being a teacher, students attending Bullard, Edison and Hoover high schools told EdSource.
“It’s preparing you for what’s coming,” Edison High student Alyssa Ortiz Ramirez said. “We’re not romanticizing teachers in here; we’re being real.”
A Gibson Elementary first grader drew a picture of Bullard High School student Marianna Fernandez. Photo courtesy of Marianna Fernandez
The high school students spoke about how difficult it is to engage and educate a class full of diverse learners.
“I was confused,” Edison’s Issac Garcia Diaz said about the first time he saw different learning styles among King Elementary students. “I thought everyone learned the same.”
The high schoolers aren’t the only ones learning from the experience; elementary students are more often engaged and supported.
“It’s not just academics. They’re connecting,” Gibson Elementary’s first-grade teacher Caeton said about the teacher academy. “With an older kid, (the elementary students) just come out of their shell a little bit more.”
Hoover High junior Saraih Reyes Baltazar was able to help the diverse learners at Wolters Elementary. Baltazar, who spoke only Spanish when she emigrated from Mexico, explained science concepts to Spanish-speaking students. She narrated parts in English and parts in Spanish, hoping to make the students more comfortable to open up and use more English.
Hoover High graduating seniors Vanessa Melendrez and Johnathon Jones also provided individualized support for Wolters Elementary first graders. Melendrez usually slowed down a lesson to help kids struggling to read at grade level, and Jones most often helped students with comprehending the material.
“There’s only one teacher in the room, and there’s over 20 students,” Melendrez said. “A teacher can’t answer every question while they’re up, teaching.”
Gaining skills
Crowley, the graduating senior who worked in the Gibson Elementary fifth-grade class, said leading whole-class presentations and small-group lessons taught him public speaking and effective communication skills.
“It got me ready for the real world,” he said.
Teachers and students said the Teacher Academy Program in Fresno develops and builds skills that can be used in the teaching profession or any career, including life skills of communication, soft skills such as punctuality and personal skills of confidence.
“It’s broken me out of my shy shell,” said Bullard High’s Fernandez. “It’s taught me how to connect with people — classmates, teachers, students, everyone. It’s made me communicate in ways that I haven’t been comfortable with.”
Fernandez, a graduating senior, was able to talk with substitute teachers about what students were struggling with.
Her mom is a day care provider, and she has always enjoyed working with kids. She joined the Teacher Academy Program to test whether she’d consider majoring in education once in college.
She decided to pursue teaching as a backup plan, she said.
Hoover High School junior Kyrie Green wants to be a math teacher for high school freshmen.
Green, who is shy, viewed stepping out of her comfort zone and leading a classroom as her greatest challenge in becoming an educator.
But her time in the program has helped her speak up, she said. Now she’s looking forward to the next steps in becoming a teacher: graduating and earning a teaching certification.
Making an impact
There isn’t yet a system to track the students who go from a high school pathway into a teacher credentialing program after college, then into the education career, partly because of the number of years between high school graduation and teacher certification.
Students who’ve participated in high school educator pathway programs, such as those in Fresno, have gone on to become teachers, including Thao, the department manager. She worked at an elementary school while in high school, obtained a teaching credential and started teaching at the same elementary school.
“I did what these kids did; I know it works,” she said. “Little by little … we are making an impact.”
Still, only 18% of Americans would encourage young people to become a K-12 teacher, according to a 2022 survey by NORC, previously the National Opinion Research Center, at the University of Chicago.
With the programs in Fresno and San Joaquin County, “We have a whole group of students that are excited to go into a profession that is waning right now,” Hellstrom, Venture Academy’s division director, said.
Whether reaffirming a plan to pursue education or weighing it as an option, students told EdSource that the program has changed their perspective about teaching and has empowered them even more to become educators or to make an impact in another way.
“If I can be a teacher who gives students what they need, like attention, love or anything,” Ortiz Ramirez said, “then that’s why I want to be a teacher.”
For years, California has been faced with a shortage of teachers that predated the pandemic but which the pandemic certainly did not help. A key factor that exacerbates this shortage are the high-stakes teaching performance assessments (TPAs) used in the state, such as the California Teaching Performance Assessment (CalTPA), the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA), and the Reading Instruction Competency Assessment (RICA).
These act as overly restrictive barriers preventing us from solving not just the teacher shortage but also our significant teacher diversity problem. This is why the introduction of Senate Bill 1263 last year was a sign of hope and a step in the right direction.
The original version of SB 1263, in essence, sought to dismantle the use of TPAs in the state of California and was strongly supported by those of us at the California Alliance of Researchers for Equity in Education (CARE-ED), and the California Teachers Association (CTA).
But since its introduction, the bill has been modified to keep TPAs intact and instead implement a review panel to oversee the TPA and make recommendations about it to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC), the agency tasked with overseeing the TPA.
We in CARE-ED and the CTA found this development to be deeply disappointing. While there are naturally differing viewpoints about the TPAs, with voices calling for keeping the assessments intact, it is education researchers and actual teachers on the front line who grapple with the realities of classroom pedagogy on a daily basis and are best positioned to know if TPAs are serving their stated purpose of ensuring qualified teachers or are actually undermining this very goal.
In theory, TPAs are designed to measure and assess the educational knowledge, skills and readiness of teachers and predict their effectiveness in the classroom. In addition to being a measurement tool, they are also framed as being a learning experience in themselves by providing student teachers with feedback regarding their performance.
In practice, however, TPAs are a severe source of stress and strain on student teachers, many of whom come from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds and are already overburdened in various ways.
In 2022, I was part of a team of researchers at CARE-ED that examined the pass rates of the edTPA, CalTPA, and RICA according to different demographic groups. What we found were consistent racial disparities across all three assessments. In effect, the TPAs are functioning as racialized gatekeepers systematically impeding candidates of color — especially Black, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, and Southeast Asian candidates — from attaining certification. This exacerbates the teacher shortage and the diversity gap, and undermines efforts to mitigate them.
Then there are the expenses involved with the TPA process which, while temporarily waived during the pandemic, have been resumed. The TPA consists of two cycles, each one costing $150. This is in addition to the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET), which also costs anywhere from a minimum of $63 up to a few hundred dollars. Furthermore, there is the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA), which costs over $200.
These fees are all in addition to the expenses student teachers are already paying while completing their coursework, such as tuition, books, supplies and living expenses. And it’s helpful to remember that many student teachers are trying to make ends meet — while raising families, in many cases — with juggling the full responsibilities of leading classrooms of 30-plus students and completing coursework requirements and, at the same time, having to fulfill the stringent requirements of the TPA within the one year they are allotted upon registration.
Yet, despite the steep costs and stress of the TPAs that student teachers face on top of juggling so many other challenges, there is often also a lack of support from the teacher preparation programs they are enrolled in, as well as insufficient support from state and local government.
This is why providing concrete support, both financially and educationally, for student teachers is one of my priorities as interim dean for the school of education at Notre Dame de Namur University. If we can’t relieve student teachers of the burden of TPAs, then we can at least alleviate the burden of some of their expenses and provide as much educational support as possible while they navigate the TPA process.
Based on our research at CARE-ED and the CTA and our many collective years of working with student teachers, we believe the best-case-scenario would be to pass SB 1263 as it was originally written. But since the bill has been modified, I would urge that at the very least the review panel that has been proposed in lieu of removing the TPAs have fair representation.
This means that representation from the CTC, the aforementioned agency tasked with overseeing the TPA, should be minimal, and there must be a just representation of teacher educators and, most importantly, teachers themselves, because they are the ones who best understand the realities of teaching and what they need to do their jobs. This is critically important. Otherwise we run the risk of losing this precious opportunity to address California’s teacher shortage and lack of teacher diversity in a way that could make a real difference.
EdSource file photo courtesy of Oakland School for the Arts
Raising the curtain on California’s landmark arts education initiative, funded by voter approval of Proposition 28 two years ago, has been a highly complex endeavor marked by a lack of arts educators, classroom space and free time in school schedules, according to a new report.
These challenges are among the key issues schools must address to make Proposition 28’s ambitious vision of arts education a reality, according to a new report studying the impact of the groundbreaking statewide initiative on schools in the Los Angeles area. Passed by voters in 2022 by a wide margin, the measure sets aside roughly $1 billion a year toward TK-12 arts education programs statewide.
“Given the historic nature of this investment in arts education, all eyes are on California and our schools, and so we want to make sure that we get it right,” said Ricky Abilez, director of policy and advocacy at Arts for LA, the arts advocacy organization that commissioned the report. “I also know that there are a lot of really tough challenges that schools are facing on the ground.”
Accountability is among the most critical issues in building trust with families, according to this analysis, which focuses on 10 Los Angeles school districts. The report recommends creating a statewide oversight and advisory committee of administrators, teachers, families and community partnersto make sure that arts education funds are properly spent. It also calls for subsidizing teacher credential programs to combat the teacher shortage.
“We hear these resounding calls for transparency from our community members, but many district arts leaders also share those same interests and concerns,” said Lindsey Kunisaki, the Laura Zucker fellow for policy and research, who wrote the report. “They wanted to make sure that they’re putting their best foot forward with Prop 28 implementation, but they also had questions about their peers and neighboring districts and wanted to make sure that ultimately everyone is doing their best work and using these funds responsibly.”
The need to build bridges between schools, communities and families is part of what drives that recommendation. Roughly 66% of respondents to the survey were uncertain whether Proposition 28 was being implemented in their school, according to the report.
“One of the central insights of the report is the link between confidence in Prop 28’s success and public involvement,” said Kunisaki, a research and evaluation specialist at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s visual and performing arts education program. “Respondents expressed less skepticism when they believed their communities were actively involved.”
Arts education in schools can help foster a sense of social connection that has frayed in the wake of the pandemic, many experts suggest. The rub is that many community members express passion for arts education (89%) but have not yet gotten involved with their schools for a variety of reasons. Only 20% of respondents have been actively involved.
Districts with vibrant arts advisory councils make it easy to participate, Kunisaki notes, but other paths also exist.
“If it isn’t clear how to get involved,” said Kunisaki, “then even just showing up at a school board meeting, getting to know the school site leaders, principals, that could be a great way to start the conversation.”
Proposition 28 represents an attempt to bring arts education back into California schools after many decades of budget cuts eliminated many such programs. Before this influx of funding, only 11% of California schools offered comprehensive arts education, research suggests. Wealthier schools were far more likely to be able to fundraise enough to foot the bill for arts education.
Spearheaded by former Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Austin Beutner, the measure is an attempt to give all students access to the arts, which has long been associated with everything from higher test scores to greater social-emotional learning.
All the money must go to arts education, but that is very broadly defined. The disciplines include, but are not limited to, dance, media arts, music, theater and such visual arts as folk art, painting, sculpture, photography and animation. Film and video pursuits are also encouraged, from script writing to costume design. Each school community is invited to design the program to meet the needs of its students.
The report also notes that some districts are falling behind others. While some districts quickly launched new arts ed programs, from music to dance, others are still in the planning phase, according to the report. Districts with preexisting arts councils and strategic arts plans have the upper hand. Proposition 28 funds are allocated based on enrollment, so larger schools get more money. Also, schools with more low-income students receive extra money.
Uncertainty and confusion about the rules, heightened by a lack of clarity from the California Department of Education (CDE) on spending, have significantly complicated this process, the report suggests.
“One of the recommendations that I heard was basically for CDE to take more of a central leadership role,” said Kunisaki, “especially when it comes to oversight and accountability.”
The long-standing teacher shortage also remains a critical obstacle. In 2022-23, California schools employed about 11,113 full-time arts teachers, primarily teaching music and visual arts. Another new Proposition 28 report, commissioned by the Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program and conducted by SRI Education, concluded that California must increase the arts teacher workforce by roughly 5,457 teachers to meet the new demand. Many experts estimate a much higher number.
The need for greater transparency in the rollout of Proposition 28 is another key concern. At the core of Proposition 28 is the rule that funds are designed to supplement, and not supplant, existing funding, which means that you can’t use the new money to pay for old programs. Nevertheless, there have been reports of districts using the funds to pay for existing programs. Amid these allegations, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond issued a letterreminding superintendents of the law’s requirements.
One potential fix, the study suggests, would be a statewide oversight committee charged with monitoring the rollout and settling disputes on key issues.
“There’s a real need for CDE to step in here, to create a more formal advisory and oversight committee, and most importantly, to include practitioners,” said Kunisaki.
“That’s administrators at the district level, at the school site level, teachers, parents and guardians, families, students and community partners, because we know how important community involvement is.”
CDE has provided guidance in FAQs and webinars to help districts navigate the rules. Thurmond has also established a new task force to clarify the issues facing the field. It remains unclear whether the task force will provide the depth of oversight that many experts suggest is needed.
“The California Department of Education commends the districts represented in this report who have approached Prop 28 implementation with urgency, care, and a commitment to expanding all students’ access to arts education,” said Elizabeth Sanders, spokesperson for the department. “Especially as California’s local educational agencies are still in the beginning of this implementation process, CDE will continue to provide guidance and technical assistance to support effective and robust implementation.”
Beutner, the former LAUSD Superintendent who authored Proposition 28, is also calling on the department to hold districts accountable for how they spend the money.
“CDE needs to provide more leadership on the proper implementation of Prop 28,” said Beutner. “They’re understaffed to handle the implementation of a new law like this, but some of the confusion and misinterpretation that is happening is because CDE hasn’t been on top of this. CDE should be pursuing public enforcement action now against school districts that are alleged to have violated the law.”
