What California's 10 Largest School Districts are Doing to Ensure
that all of their Students have access to "Highly Qualified" Teachers

FRESNO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Interview conducted on October 6, 2003
Interviewer: Ken Futernick
Interviewee: Mike Gengozian, Human Resources Coordinator

KF: Do you expect to comply with the NCLB’s requirement that all teachers in Title I schools be “highly qualified”?
MG: YES. We are confident that we will meet the requirement. We still have teachers on emergency permits but most are working with special education students and are not teaching core academic courses.

KF: Do you know what percentage of teachers at each school meet the federal definition of “highly qualified”?
MG: Difficult to know because the federal definition of “highly qualified” is still unclear.

KF: Do you have an idea of how your highly qualified teachers are currently distributed throughout the district?
MG: Yes. We try not to place too many inexperienced teachers in low-performing or our urban schools. What helps us do this is our collective bargaining agreement which has no seniority transfer restrictions that prevent us from getting more experienced teachers into these types of schools.

KF: Does your district have an official position and/or specific goals for providing qualified teachers to all of its students?
MG: We do send letter home to parents, as required, when their child is assigned to a teacher with an emergency permit. But I do not believe we have an official position or specific goals in this regard. 

KF: Although not a requirement of NCLB, do you know what percentage of teachers at each school are beginning teachers?
MG: Absolutely. The first part of our “leveling process” is to make sure we have the right number of teachers at each school to meet student enrollment. Then we work to ensure that no school, especially low-performing and urban schools, have too many beginning teachers.

KF: Does your district have an official position and/or specific goals for limiting the number of beginning teachers and interns at each school?
MG: No.

KF: Does your district have a strategic plan to ensure that all students will be assigned to qualified teachers?
MG: I am not sure, but this is something other administrators might know about.

KF: Have district administrators examined strategies employed by other districts?
MG: I do not think so.