The Status of the Teaching Profession, 2003

This report was produced by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning in consultation with our cosponsors—California State University, Office of the Chancellor; Policy Analysis for California Education; University of California, Office of the President; and WestEd. The report is based on research conducted by SRI International.

California has gone through political upheaval, and now new leadership is facing enormous fiscal problems. There is a palpable public demand for more responsive government, and a cacophony of voices clamoring to be heard in a system where the rules of governing are in flux.

While this profound change has produced great uncertainty, there is a continued consensus for better educating California’s children, all of them. This report argues that the issue demands the kind of long-term investment of resources and leadership typically devoted to highways and water supplies. It requires a state response as intense and sustained as California offers without hesitation when there are wildfires or earthquakes or floods.

For the past several years, there have been annual reports on California’s teaching force. Much of what was in those reports focused on what was a growing shortage of qualified teachers and how the most prepared teachers were distributed unevenly across the state. The shortage has eased, but the maldistribution of underprepared teachers still is very bad. This year, it is time to be deliberately blunt to be clear. Readers should take from this report at least two points:

• The state needs but does not yet have a system of teacher development that ensures that all who enter the classroom have the knowledge and skills they need to get their students to reach the academic standards the state has set.

• The existing distribution of teachers is horribly unfair—the students who live in the poorest communities, the children most in need of the best teachers, are assigned to teachers who are the least prepared to meet their needs.