Teaching and California's Future: The Status of the Teaching Profession 2003. Research Findings and Policy Recommendations

Abstract

As California has struggled through economic and policy shifts, the "Teaching and California's Future" initiative has worked to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the system of teacher development in the state and to provide policymakers with the data they seek to inform their decisions in strengthening schools. During the 2002-03 school year, SRI International launched a third comprehensive round of data collection. This work included a statewide survey of a representative sample of K-12 teachers, focusing on teachers' preparation, job search, induction, workplace support, and professional development. To complement the statewide data gathered through the survey, SRI conducted in-depth case studies of four local systems of teacher development. The local system of teacher development includes the organizations and programs that serve both teachers in the workforce and individuals preparing to enter teaching. Each local system studied typically included four schools, a central office, and the surrounding teacher preparation programs, county offices, and other providers of support to teachers. The findings from these data collection efforts and from continued analysis of secondary databases in the state constitute the bulk of this report. This document includes the main research findings of Teaching and California's Future and the detailed recommendations. This report is organized into five chapters. The first addresses the status of the teacher workforce, with a focus on shifts in the number and distribution of underprepared teachers. The second tracks the system of teacher preparation, including an extensive analysis of alternative pathways into the teaching profession. The third describes the study's findings on the system of induction into the profession for new teachers. The fourth concentrates on the professional development system. The final chapter summarizes the findings and includes recommendations. The three appendices provide information on data collection methods and analyses, technical information for figures and tables found in Chapters 2 through 5, and supplemental figures for Chapter 2. (Contains 34 figures and 6 tables.