This paper is the fourth revision of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) paper on equivalency adopted by the delegates to the plenary session in Fall 1989. Previous revisions were adopted in 1999, 2006, and 2016. The original paper was intended to help local academic senates develop policies and procedures in response to…

How are California districts handling deepening teacher shortages 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic? Following up on a March 2021 study, "California Teachers and COVID-19: How the Pandemic Is Impacting the Teacher Workforce" (ED614374), this report describes the severe shortages many districts are experiencing and the strategies some…

In 2021, California made major new investments to advance its commitment to early childhood education through universal preschool. One important investment was extending state funding for transitional kindergarten (TK), previously just for older 4-year-olds, to all 4-year-olds by 2025-26. To ensure the quality of new preschool investments,…

This paper is the third revision of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges' (ASCCC) paper on equivalency adopted by the delegates to the plenary session in 1989. The original paper was intended to help local academic senates develop policies and procedures in response to Education Code §87359, which requires that each district's…

Student success is dependent on teacher quality; therefore, it is imperative that principals hire the teachers most likely to experience success as measured by the impact on student outcomes. This study investigated teacher hiring processes to determine the extent to which practices that are supported by selection science and teacher quality…

A highly competent teacher workforce is a necessary foundation for improving children's educational outcomes, especially for those who rely most on schools for their success. Yet a survey of over 200 California school districts reveals that three out of four districts report having a shortage of qualified teachers and that this shortage has gotten…

California schools have had persistent difficulties filling special education vacancies, but in the past two years, these shortages have skyrocketed, as evidenced by the growth of substandard special education authorizations. When schools struggle to fill a position with a qualified teacher, they often hire teachers who are still in training or…

Classroom size, curriculum, and student attendance are all important factors that affect student outcomes, but these factors cannot compare to the classroom teacher's influence on student academic performance. Unfortunately, highly qualified teachers are not equally effective in different school settings. Findings associated with highly effective…

In a January 2016 report on teacher shortages in California, "Addressing California's Emerging Teacher Shortage: An Analysis of Sources and Solutions," the Learning Policy Institute found that there were too few qualified California teachers to meet the growing demand of school districts across the state. A fall 2016 survey of more than…

In the past year, overall teacher workforce trends in California have worsened, with especially severe consequences in special education, math, and science, and significant threats in bilingual education. California's teacher shortage has worsened as teacher demand grows and teacher supply stagnates. As a result, districts are having to hire a…

This brief summarizes successful strategies for creating a strong and stable teaching force. These strategies are drawn from "positive outlier" districts in California that have excelled at helping African American, Latino/a, and White students achieve at high levels on assessments of academic standards in English language arts and…

Teacher shortages have been worsening in California since 2015. After years of budget cuts and teacher layoffs, the passage of Proposition 30, officially titled Temporary Taxes to Fund Education, and the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) brought more money back into California schools after 2014. Many districts began to hire again, looking to…

California is experiencing one of its most severe teacher shortages in two decades. Budget cuts and layoffs resulting from the recession contributed to a steep decline in the number of teachers in California, falling from a high of 310,362 teachers in the 2007-08 school year to 283,836 four years later. Recent efforts, including Proposition 30 and…

Teacher shortages have been worsening in California since 2015. Growth in teacher demand as the economy has improved has collided with steep declines in the supply of new teachers, leading to significant increases in the hiring of underprepared teachers, especially in districts serving high-need students. Shortages are most severe in special…

California, like many states, is experiencing significant challenges with teacher staffing. Numerous headlines over the last few years highlight the difficulties that the state faces in developing, recruiting, and, ultimately, hiring enough teachers (Blume, 2016; Apodaca, 2017; Calefati, 2017; Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017; Times…