A new report by the Learning Policy Institute paints a bleak picture of teacher workforce trends in California, warning of "severe consequences" to special education, math, science, and bilingual education.
The state has wrestled with teacher shortages for some time now, and the California-based think tank says that districts have responded to the shortages by hiring underprepared teachers, relying on substitute teachers, and assigning teachers out of their fields of preparation. This is disproportionately happening in schools that serve the most vulnerable students, the report found through analyzing data from California government sources.
Teachers hired with "substandard credentials"—meaning emergency permits that allow people who have not completed a teacher-prep program to teach for one year, intern credentials that allow people to teach while still taking courses, or permits that allow credentialed teachers to teach outside of their subject areas—are twice as likely to teach in high-poverty schools than in low-poverty schools and three times more likely to teach in high-minority schools than in low-minority schools.
