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

Ensuring Access
Despite increases in the numbers of prepared teachers, children in low-performing schools are still 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) are assigned to the highest minority schools; only seven percent of interns are 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.

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.

The advisory panels included experts in the field of public policy, education, select practitioners and analysts who met multiple times and developed recommendations for both state and local policymakers. Recommendations were shared with elected officials and representatives of education interest groups for their review and comments prior to being released to the public.