Teacher Staffing Challenges in California: Exploring the Factors That Influence Teacher Staffing and Distribution. Technical Report. Getting Down to Facts II
Author: Goldhaber, Dan
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Supply and Demand,Teacher Shortage,Teacher Certification,Public School Teachers,Intellectual Disciplines,At Risk Students,Teacher Qualifications,Mathematics Teachers,Science Teachers,Special Education Teachers,Teacher Selection,Disadvantaged Youth,Disproportionate Representation,Low Income Students,Minority Group Students,Rural Schools,Urban Schools,Suburban Schools,School Districts,Teacher Education Programs,Barriers,Labor Turnover,Teacher Distribution,Board of Education Policy,Teacher Salaries,Teacher Recruitment,State Policy,Elementary Secondary Education

California, like many states, is experiencing significant challenges with teacher staffing. Numerous headlines over the last few years highlight the difficulties that the state faces in developing, recruiting, and, ultimately, hiring enough teachers (Blume, 2016; Apodaca, 2017; Calefati, 2017; Carver-Thomas &amp; Darling-Hammond, 2017; Times Editorial Board, 2017). In a 2016 survey of over 200 California school districts, roughly 75% of districts reported having a shortage of qualified teachers and a little over four in five districts indicated the problem has gotten worse in recent years (Podolsky &amp; Sutcher, 2016). Similarly, in a 2018 survey of 206 California district human resources (HR) personnel conducted by the California School Boards Association for the &quot;Getting Down to Facts II&quot; studies, 76% of HR staff reported having teacher shortages. This reported trend comports with data collected by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) which shows that the number of emergency permits, teaching credential waivers and limited assignment permits issued by the state has increased over the last several years, going from approximately 2,100 in 2012-13 to nearly 8,000 in 2016-17; an increase of nearly 300% (CCTC, 2018). These staffing difficulties likely stem from a combination of reasons, including California's relatively high rates of teacher attrition (in some school systems and subject areas), declining enrollments in teacher preparation programs, severe cuts to education budgets alongside recessionary layoffs, and the fact that the recovery from the Great Recession means that California schools attempting to attract and retain teachers are competing in an increasingly tight labor market. In this paper the authors use district-level aggregate student and teacher administrative data publicly provided by the California Department of Education (CDE), information on teacher job postings, and local policies established in district collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and associated compensation policies to assess the association between district staffing needs, district characteristics and school district pay and workforce policies. They address five interrelated questions: (1) What do districts' vacancy postings tell us about California districts' staffing needs and how they vary across districts?; (2) What is the landscape of district compensation and workforce policies that affect the California teacher labor force, and how do these policies vary across districts within California?; (3) What is the association between district compensation and workforce policies (e.g. those governed by CBAs) and the number of posted vacancies?; (4) What is the association between district compensation and workforce policies and the number of vacancies that districts post late (i.e., in the fall for the current school year)?; and (5) What is the association between district compensation and workforce policies and the duration of job postings? [To view the research brief, &quot;Teacher Supply Falls Short of Demand in High-Need Fields, Locations,&quot; see ED594728.]