With support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning has convened advisory panels to examine some of the most critical issues facing California education today:

Teaching Quality
Teacher preparation and the process of becoming credentialed—although a critical first step toward becoming a teacher—stop short of guaranteeing high quality teaching.  The forum on “Taking a Fresh Look at Teaching Quality” examined what constitutes teaching quality along a teacher’s career continuum and how the state’s teacher development system should be strengthened to emphasize and reinforce the elements of high quality teaching.

Ensuring Access
At the time this forum was convened, children in California's low-performing schools were five times more likely than their peers in high achieving schools to have an underprepared teacher. Seventy-five percent of interns (the fastest growing route into the teaching profession) were assigned to high minority schools; only seven percent of interns were assigned to the lowest minority schools. The forum on “Ensuring Access: A Well Prepared and Effective Teacher for Every Child” addressed the need to eliminate the barriers to equitable distribution of underprepared, novice, and out-of-field teachers.

Advisory panels include experts in the field of public policy, education, select practitioners and analysts who meet multiple times and develop recommendations for both state and local policymakers. Recommendations are shared with elected officials and representatives of education interest groups for their review and comments prior to being released to the public.