Kern County Initiative for Teacher Recruitment, Development and Retention

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What actions can a community take if a large number of teachers hold emergency permits?

Kern County responded to this challenge by launching an initiative designed to reduce the number of emergency permit holders. Education leaders, in partnership with the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning (CFTL), established a K-18 data-driven collaboration to address the critical teacher development issues facing the region in February 2001. A two-pronged approach focused on the 1,100 teachers in Kern County schools who were not fully-credentialed - 15 percent of the 7,350 teacher workforce - and on the number of new teachers being prepared and recommended for credentials by the local universities. A key to the success of the Kern County partnership is the unusual culture of trust among education leaders. The "Group of Six" -- the region's top education officials including the president of the state university, county superintendent of schools, chancellor of the community college district, and superintendents of the larger school districts -- have been meeting regularly and guiding cooperative education projects for several decades. For this initiative, these education leaders established an organizational structure that includes an executive committee, steering committee, five working committees, and a blue ribbon committee of educators and community members. They also have devoted considerable personal time and political capital on the initiative.

Another strong aspect of this partnership is the extent to which it is driven by data. Early in the project, a research team was established to provide in-depth analysis of the region's teacher workforce. Data were collected during 2001-2002 to assess the needs of the not-fully-credentialed teachers in obtaining full credentials as well as to describe the characteristics of schools that are hard-to-staff and those that had fewer than 20 percent not-fully-credentialed teachers. Central to this was development of an instrument to survey all Kern County teachers teaching with an emergency permit, intern credential, pre-intern certificate, or waiver.

Initiative members are also designing an action plan for the county, developing a supply and demand model for projecting Kern County staffing needs, and surveying all teachers who leave. They held a colloquium with partners and a 160-member blue ribbon committee of community and education participants.

The partnership is making significant progress toward its goal of having a fully credentialed and effective teacher in every classroom in Kern County. Although this is one of the newest of the seven partnerships, it has already helped greatly reduce the number of emergency permit holders over a two-year period.

Notable Result:

• Kern County dramatically reduced the number of emergency teacher permit holders from 1,058 in 2000 to 386 in 2002.

Lessons:

• Leadership from the top is important.
• Effective communication promotes effective collaboration.
• Data must drive effective reform.