California tackles meaningful professional development

California has done an impressive job filling schools with at least nominally qualified teachers. The next challenge—a tougher one—is to retain them by vastly changing the way they are trained, evaluated and rewarded.

In 2000, one in seven teachers (42,400 out of 310,000) in California lacked a teaching credential; by this year, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning found, that had dropped to one in 20—about 16,000. And the remaining 5% consists mainly of first– and second–year teachers who are working on credentials at night.

Despite that good news, gaps and inequities remain, and the turnover of young teachers remains high. One in five teachers quits the profession nationwide within four years; in low–income schools, it’s two out of five. Read more of what California is doing in terms of professional development in this editorial in The San Jose Mercury News.