Success Story:
Kern County Schools

In 1999-00, there were 1256 underqualified teachers (most of them with emergency permits) working in Kern County schools.  Since implementing a county-wide initiative to attract and retain qualified teachers, in 2002 they reduced this number by 22%.  And they are working to reduce this number significantly in the next few years.  According to a report published in 2002 by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, "Schools defined as hard-to-staff (where 20% or more of the staff is not-fully-credentialed) will reduce the percentage of not-fully-credentialed teachers to no more then 10% and will be schools where experienced teachers want to be."

At a time when demand for well-qualified teachers is increasing and the supply diminishing, how has Kern County managed to make such progress?  The complete story is told in a comprehensive report titled, Kern County Initiative for Recruiting, Preparing, and Retaining Highly Qualified and Effective Teachers.  This report includes a detailed analysis of demographic and achievement data which has guided their work and has served as a baseline for measuring their progress.  And it describes the strategies they have implemented to achieve their goals.  Undoubtedly, this report will serve as a useful resource for other counties and districts that face similar staffing challenges.

Click here to view the entire report (2.2 megabyte PDF file)

Some highlights from the report:

A Shared Commitment to Solving the Problem
The success of Kern County's initiative rests on a widespread commitment to ensuring that all students in the County (especially those in harder-to-staff low-income schools) have access to well-qualified teachers.

With almost 1,200 teachers not-fully-credentialed in Kern County, with higher percentages of those teachers in schools with low API scores, it was timely to tackle an issue facing Kern County, the state, and the nation. The goal is to make sure every student faces a qualified and effective teacher in every Kern County classroom. That means more promising prospective teachers must be identified and a better job done of giving them the skills to be effective teachers. Retaining quality teachers is also essential; teachers must be provided with the professional development they need to be successful with their students. It also means the implementation of creative solutions to keep fully-credentialed teachers in hard-to-staff schools. And, it means fully-prepared teachers must be available for the many and varied needs of special education students. (Initiative Report, pp. ii.)

A Comprehensive Strategic Plan
Committees were established to study and to develop targeted action plans in the following areas.  A summary of each committee's goal is included.

• Teacher Preparation

  • "A concerted effort will be made to assist all not-fully-credentialed teachers complete their formal teacher training as quickly as possible in quality programs. The number of teachers recommended for credentials each year by the local universities is well below the number of teachers needed. This is particularly true for teachers of special education and teachers of science and mathematics. The local universities will increase the size of the training programs to meet the needs of the school districts."

• Teacher Pipeline--Attracting Students Into The Teaching Profession

  • "There is a need in this County to better recruit the brightest and best students into pursuing a career in teaching starting as early as the middle school years, continuing into the high school years and at the community colleges. Developing and expanding support systems that assist teacher candidates in their path to a full credential must be identified, coordinated, and expanded if the demand for high quality and effective teachers is to be met."

• Teacher Recruitment and Retention With an Emphasis on Hard-to-Staff Schools

  • "With the shortage of new teachers nationally and across California it is not as easy as it once was to recruit teachers from other states. It is also necessary to coordinate recruitment efforts of districts to get the most from the short supply of recruitment dollars in local school budgets. Creative means must be utilized to keep the very best teachers in schools that tend to serve poorer children, children whose primary language is other than English, and schools with low student achievement test scores. These schools must be places that teachers will want to be!"

• Teacher Professional Development

  • "This last year the primary focus of the professional development discussion was on the first year teacher. Was he or she ready for the first day and week of school?  Over 70% of those teachers without full credentials, when asked about the extent of their training prior to their first day in class, indicated no training or some informal training was received."

• Research: Data Drives the Discussion

  • "Data was gathered in 2001-2002 to assess the needs of the not-fully-credentialed teachers in obtaining full credentials as well as describing the relationship between schools that were hard-to-staff and those that had fewer than 20% not-fully-credentialed teachers. The number of teachers that will be needed in the next five years and the number of fully-credentialed teachers ready for first employment were compared to guide the universities in the necessary growth of their teacher training programs. Student population projections, anticipated retirements, number of teachers leaving the profession, and the reasons for leaving, new teacher comments and views about the professional training received prior to their first jobs, were the subjects of various research efforts. The data has driven the development of the action plans."

It is interesting to note the important role access to reliable data has played in guiding Kern County's initiative. Some of the data they used was the TQI data prepared in 2000 especially for the schools and districts in their county.  Our hope is that others in California will find the TQI data available on this website equally useful.