For more than a decade, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning has supported the Teaching and California's Future (TCF) initiative to provide California policymakers with objective and timely data on the state's teacher workforce. Each year, the Center publishes a report on the status of teaching profession. This year's report focuses…

For each of the past 10 years, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning has issued a report on the status of California's teaching force based on research conducted by SRI International. The Center provides practical information to help policymakers and education leaders understand the challenges they face is provided. Context, clarity…

Since 2003, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning has reported that the number of fully prepared teachers assigned to California's classrooms has increased significantly due in part to the efforts of federal, state and local education policy-makers. As Chart I demonstrates, the overall number of underprepared teachers--those who have…

The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation aims to achieve the national goal of ensuring that every child meets rigorous standards of academic achievement. In particular, California is challenged to meet the NCLB requirement that by 2005-2006, all teachers be "highly qualified," meaning they must have a bachelor's degree,…

For the past decade, as concerns over the quality of California schools have risen, state policymakers have sought ways to strengthen the state's teacher workforce. In the face of teacher shortages, numerous policy efforts have focused on preparing, recruiting, and retaining fully qualified teachers. The results of these policies have been…

This policy brief presents a strong case for the creation of a statewide teacher data system in California by highlighting some of the simple teacher workforce questions that cannot be answered because such a system does not currently exist. At the state level, data on teacher qualifications are needed to fulfill the new reporting requirements of…

Reliable and current data is the foundation upon which good public policymaking is built. While California collects a good deal of data on its teaching workforce, policymakers have lacked a state-level data and analysis system to provide answers to even some of the most basic questions: How many credential holders actually take jobs? In what types…

To its considerable credit, California has set rigorous standards for all of its students in the past decade and provided considerable focus on where schools are falling short. Now, there are plentiful data about which schools and students are not succeeding. But the standards come with high stakes for students and schools-- consequences that…

This statewide public opinion survey highlights new information about the priorities of Californians, their attitudes about spending on education, their opinions about key issues such as teacher qualifications, and priorities for the steps the state should take to improve its system of public education. The survey shows Californians believe that…

During the 2004-05 school year, SRI International, an independent research firm, launched a fourth comprehensive round of data collection. They conducted analyses of statewide teacher data to follow trends in teacher distribution over time and to document changes in California's teacher development policies and programs. They also collected…

In this report on California's teaching force, the authors make two main points: (1) The state needs but does not yet have a system of teacher development that ensures that all who enter the classroom have the knowledge and skills they need to get their students to reach the academic standards the state has set; and (2) The existing distribution…