Report of the Working Group on Professional Personnel Development

Access to a free, equitable education is a fundamental right of every American. Delivering on this promise consumes a significant portion of California’s State Budget annually, and large and small scale changes to the education system consume a significant portion of the State Legislature’s time and attention annually, as well. Public higher education in California has been governed by a Master Plan since 1960. Though it has been reviewed and revised three times since it was established by the Legislature, the Master Plan has set essential, but not immutable, parameters that have influenced legislation, policy and practice for almost half a century. Our new Master Plan will provide a blue print to guide the state’s K–university educational enterprise. As a blue print, it will describe the roles and functions of various players (state and local agencies and institutions) that support teaching, learning and student success throughout the systems of K–university education. The Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan established a Professional Personnel Development Working Group to inform one aspect of the blueprint, and we attempt, in this report, to map out a coherent plan to achieve the following broad goals:

• Every student will have the opportunity to learn from a fully qualified K–12 teacher or college and university faculty member.
• The state will ensure a sufficient supply of K–12 teachers, college and university faculty, and K–university administrators with the qualifications necessary to promote student learning.

Current conditions in California’s public schools drove the Joint Committee to request that the PPD workgroup focus, in addition, on ways in which the state, through its Master Plan, could ensure that (1) students and schools with the greatest challenges have access to the most talented teachers and administrators, and (2) teacher preparation programs prepare teachers who are well versed in the subject matter they intend to teach and capable of effectively delivering instruction to a diverse population of learners, consistent with the state-adopted academic content standards.

No area of education policy, with the possible exception of standards-based education, has received as much scrutiny as how to strengthen the quality of the K–12 teaching workforce during the last several years. Development of more effective recruitment, preparation, retention and professional development systems and programs has been the subject of scores of national as well as California-specific reports. Through all of these efforts, the case has been well made that the preparation and development of K–12 teachers and administrators has a strong, direct and important impact on the achievement of K–12 students, and the same can be said for university students. Current and future college and university faculty members also need professional development opportunities. The professional personnel development (PPD) working group met throughout the course of 2001 to review reports and studies and to hear from experts on a range of topics intended to inform recommendations responsive to the group’s charge. The recommendations in this report propose new (and restructured) systems or reinforce existing systems that are intended to enable the State of California to support a range of efforts to improve student learning. The report begins with definitions and a discussion of the current context for K–12 professional personnel development, which is followed by a description of current initiatives that focus in part or in whole on the recruitment, preparation or development of teachers, and concludes with a series of recommendations for K–12. The final section of the report focuses on five major issues in higher education and related recommendations.

The PPD workgroup focused exclusively on teaching and administrative staff in K–12 and postsecondary education. The working group did not address important issues relating to other K–12 school site professional personnel such as nurses, psychologists, counselors, librarians and social workers. These positions are critical to the success of the state’s schools, but our charge did not expressly encompass them. However, we believe the services provided by these other professionals to be essential to the overall quality of public education. We note that California ranks poorly on comparative objective data, which show that these positions, like teachers and administrators, suffer from severe shortages.^[1] If public education in California is to provide satisfactory services to its students, the PPD working group believes that adequate resources will be necessary across the spectrum of personnel services provided in schools.