Ensuring Access: A Well Prepared and Effective Teacher for Every Child

California has made significant progress in teacher recruitment, preparation, support and retention over the past decade. The number of underprepared teachers is less than it has been in years. However, the substantial progress toward education quality and equity is now at risk of reversal due to the effects of the ongoing budget crisis and a looming tidal wave of teacher retirements. With children in low-performing schools five times more likely than their peers in high-performing schools to have an underprepared teacher, the Center partnered with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to sponsor an advisory panel to address the matter—Ensuring Access: A Well Prepared and Effective Teacher for Every Child.

The Ensuring Access Advisory Panel brought together ten members of California’s educational leadership, policy, and research communities who are focused on addressing the persistent maldistribution of fully prepared and experienced teachers in California. In addition, eight notable leaders in the education field served as advisors to the panel. (Click here for a list of panel members and advisors.) Panel discussions centered on ways to revise, streamline and/or expand existing state initiatives, while focusing attention on local efforts that have proven effective in recruiting, preparing, supporting, compensating and evaluating educators in order to improve conditions in high-need schools. 

Distribution of Interns, by School-Level Percentage of Minority Students, 2005-06

This forum resulted in a policy brief which presented research findings grouped by major themes:

• Attracting, Preparing, and Inducting Teachers
• Recruiting, Hiring, and Assigning Teachers
• Compensation

This brief was presented to members of the Legislature and was used to inform a number of bills in the 2006 legislative session.

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