What California's 10 Largest School Districts are Doing to Ensure
that All of Their Students Have Access to "Highly Qualified" Teachers

An Exclusive Report
by Ken Futernick, Ph.D.

California, like many states, has in recent years experienced a shortage of qualified teachers, but the problem was made far worse after class sizes were reduced in 1997.  With thousands of new openings, many teachers fled the most challenging schools for better working conditions and, in some cases, higher pay. 

Since 1997, many education experts and a number of policy makers have called attention to the devastating effect this shortage has had on access to quality education and particularly on poor students in urban schools--the ones most likely to have underqualified teachers.  Efforts by the state to recruit qualified teachers have resulted in only modest reductions in underqualified teachers (9% annually over the past three years).  Observers have offered a number of explanations:  increased teacher retirements, teachers leaving the profession (for more pay and better working conditions), rising student enrollments, insufficient spending by the state to ensure adequate working conditions, districts not doing enough to attract and retain qualified teachers.

In 2002, the federal government passed the No Child Left Behind Act ("NCLB") which now prohibits school districts from hiring any teacher who is not "highly qualified" for a school that qualifies for Title I funds.  In 2005-06 school districts will no longer be permitted to employ any teacher who is not "highly qualified." High poverty schools receiving Federal Title I funds risk losing this support if they do not comply with NCLB.  Not surprisingly, most districts are stepping up their efforts to ensure that every child has access to a "highly qualified" teacher. 

Given the magnitude of what's at stake, I thought it would be useful to find out what California's 10 largest school districts are doing to comply with the the staffing requirement of NCLB.  

Most of the questions I posed deal directly with NCLB's staffing requirements.  But I also wanted to see what districts are doing on matters not specifically addressed in NCLB that, in my view, are just as important to ensuring that all children attend schools that are well-staffed.  One such matter pertains to the use of interns and beginning teachers.  In order to be considered "highly qualified" by NCLB, a teacher must be "fully certified" and have appropriate subject matter knowledge. But because NCLB's definition makes no mention of experience, a teacher with just one year of experience--even an intern who has not completed his or her teacher education program--is considered just as "highly qualified" as a teacher with a master's degree and 15 years of experience.  Why is this a problem?  Because some schools could be staffed in large part by teachers without much experience or professional training .  There is good reason to believe that when schools are overstaffed with beginning teachers, their students pay a price.  The TQI ratings (which take experience into account) reveal that this is exactly what is happening in many of our schools--particularly those with high percentages of poor students, minority students, and English learners. For example, at Lincoln Elementary School in West Contra Costa Unified School District, 47% of the 30 teachers were beginning teachers (i.e., interns or first- or second-year teachers) in 2002-03.  An additional 17% were not fully credentialed which means that only 36% of the teachers had a credential and more than two years of experience. 100% of the 536 students are poor (i.e., they all qualify for free or reduced lunch) and 61% of them are English learners.  Not surprisingly, the school's API rank is 1, the lowest rating.

Making matters worse, the current budget crisis in California is putting additional pressure on districts to replace the most experienced, and most expensive, teachers with less costly beginning teachers.  Ruth Peshkoff, the senior human resources administrator at San Diego Unified, reports that her district opted this year to offer veteran teachers an early retirement program.  This resulted in the replacement of 700 veteran teachers with beginning teachers (read the entire interview).

My aim here is also to give readers an indication of the work being done in each of these districts.  In some districts real progress is being made and it is reflected in their TQI and API data.  Some of these district have developed well-crafted strategic plans and, when available, I have provided links so others can learn from them. In other cases, however, districts are struggling just to make modest staffing gains.  Although all of the HR administrators predicted their districts would meet the 2005-06 deadline, the likelihood of this happening in some districts seems small given the slow progress they have made in recent years and the enormous challenge that still remains (read more).  Which raises the question, What will the federal government do if districts do not meet the deadline?  Will it withhold money?  Will it provide more time to comply?   While the answers to these questions remain unclear, there is one thing we can be quite certain of: students in poorly staffed schools will continue to struggle. 

California's 10 Largest School Districts

Did you know...

• There are 1039 public school districts in California

• There are 6,133,483 students enrolled in California's public schools

• There are 1,388,797 students (22.6% of all students statewide) in California's 10 largest school districts