Ready to Succeed in the Classroom and Grappling with the Gaps

These new publications are focused on improving the educational outcomes of one of our most vulnerable populations – children and youth in the foster care system.

Ready to Succeed in the Classroom brings forward the voices of experienced classroom teachers. In the fall of 2009, a team from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning convened six discussion groups to explore how teachers work with children and youth in the foster care system in the classroom. These discussions produced ideas, advice, strategies, and “wish lists” that went far beyond the classroom. Specific classroom strategies and tips are included in the summary report for teachers. Ideas about how schools, districts, and communities can better meet the needs of these children and youth are summarized in discussion cards specific to each respective group. Each document stands alone or can be read with others.

Grappling with the Gaps identifies current gaps in the research on the education of children and youth in the foster care system based on interviews with twelve nationally recognized experts in education and child welfare.

The Center’s work in this area is part of the broader Ready to Succeed Initiative funded by the Stuart Foundation which focuses on improving educational outcomes for children and youth in the foster care system.

Ready to Succeed in the Classroom

Grappling with the Gaps

Who will be Left to Teach?
Pink Slips + Retirements = Empty Classrooms
The routine issuance of pink slips has already damaged California’s teacher workforce pipeline. This CenterView takes a close at the data and makes specific recommendations.
PDF | WEB

Previous CenterViews

California Teacher Workforce Data Now Available

The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning now provides online access to the data sets used in The Status of the Teaching Profession 2009, the most recent annual report on California's teaching workforce. The content, platform and format for the site were designed especially for use by policymakers, academic researchers, philanthropic organizations, journalists and others interested in public education in California.

This new and important resource provides access to data that are publicly available through the California Department of Education but compiled and analyzed in unique ways for the Center by SRI International. Use of the data sets, which are not found elsewhere, is available free of charge.

This new resource allows users to examine the preparation and experience of California’s teaching force as well as the distribution of teachers by school characteristics, including poverty and minority. This year’s data also provide a rich picture of the high school teaching force. Some, but not all of the teacher workforce data, are also available on a county-by-county basis.

Initial funding for the Center’s new Web-based data resource was provided by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.

Access Teacher Workforce Data

The Status of the Teaching Profession 2009

Culminating two years of research, The Status of the Teaching Profession 2009 focuses primarily on the landscape of high school reform, including implications for the teacher workforce regarding ambitious efforts to increase academic rigor, make instruction more relevant, and create learning environments that are more personal and supportive.

All aspects of these reforms have implications for developing teacher skill, knowledge, and instructional practice yet the report finds that California’s teacher development system is not adequately aligned to support teachers serving in those high schools. The research also shows that high school teacher knowledge and skills differ substantially by school poverty level. 

In addition to its focus on and the implications for high school reform, The Status of the Teaching Profession 2009 includes the latest available data on demand, supply, qualifications and distribution of the state’s K-12 teacher workforce. Trends identified by the research suggest that the state has made important strides toward building a high quality workforce, but cautions that progress is highly vulnerable due to reduced resources.

Press release

Summary report and fact sheets

Full research report

Presenter's Kit

Print copies

California’s Unique Opportunity to Build a Comprehensive Data System

This year federal stimulus funding provides a unique opportunity to strengthen our statewide teacher data system to offer educators and policymakers essential information on California's educator workforce. A new policy brief from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning outlines the need for, and benefits of, devoting a portion of the federal stimulus funds to expand and accelerate implementation of the California Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data Education System (CALTIDES). The brief also examines why strengthening CALTIDES may be critical to meeting commitments made to the federal government when the Governor applied for stimulus funding necessary to stem thousands of teacher layoffs this year.

Download brief   

Creating a Well-Prepared STEM Workforce:
How Do We Get From Here To There?
Release date: April 28, 2009

On February 2, 2009, a group of California science and mathematics teachers, policy makers, researchers, and representatives from business, industry, and higher education met to consider how California could do a better job of preparing today's students for the future STEM - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - workforce. The Symposium was co-sponsored by the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) and the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning (CFTL), as well as the California Teacher Advisory Council (Cal TAC).

http://www.ccst.us/publications/2009/2009CalTAC.php

Strengthening California’s System for Preparing and Supporting Principals: Lessons from Exemplary Programs

Current data shows that school leadership is a key factor in the recruitment and retention of teachers, and effective school leaders can be instrumental in creating a culture of learning within schools and supporting improvements in student learning and achievement.

This new research brief from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning describes the major challenges facing the education leadership workforce, reviews existing data about California principals, provides an overview of the state’s current principal efforts and draws upon what is known about promising programs in other states that can inform improvement of California’s education leadership system.

Despite increasing demands for performance, principals in California generally have not received the support, preparation, mentoring or professional development needed, according to the brief.  Based on a 2007 study conducted by Linda Darling-Hammond and Stelios Orphanos, the report is augmented with analysis on California school administrators prepared for the Center by SRI International.

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