Worsening teacher shortage puts more underprepared teachers in classrooms, report says
e number of underprepared teachers working in California’s public school classrooms has more than doubled in just three years, a key indicator that the teacher shortage continues to worsen, according to a new report from the Learning Policy Institute.
For the 2015-16 school year, California issued 10,200 intern credentials, permits and waivers. These candidates had not yet completed, or sometimes even started, teaching preparation programs, according to the report, “Addressing California’s Growing Teacher Shortage: 2017 Update.”
In recent years, the state issued an increasing number of these temporary credentials from fewer than 5,000 in 2012-13, to just over 6,000 in 2013-14 and more than 7,600 in 2014-15.
These temporary credentials reflect a tiny fraction of the state’s more than 300,000 teachers.
“There are thousands of students today in classrooms with teachers who are wholly unprepared,” the report concludes.
The institute, a leading voice urging the state to confront the teacher shortage problem, said the state needed “to invest in rapidly building the supply of qualifiedWorsening teacher shortage puts more underprepared teachers in classrooms, report says | EdSource: