It’s Tough in the Middle: A Statewide Analysis of New Secondary Core Subject Teachers
Tine Sloane, University of California, Santa Barbara
Tom Smith, Vanderbilt University
Christine Ong, University of California, Los Angeles, (CRESST)
Deborah La Torre University of California, Los Angeles, (CRESST)
Seth Leon, University of California, Los Angeles, (CRESST)
Tom Smith, Vanderbilt University
Christine Ong, University of California, Los Angeles, (CRESST)
Deborah La Torre University of California, Los Angeles, (CRESST)
Seth Leon, University of California, Los Angeles, (CRESST)
Using CTERIN's Statewide Data System in partnership with CRESST at UCLA, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the California Department of Education, this policy brief explores statewide trends in a statewide analysis of California’s new middle and high school teachers.
Key findings include:
- A first job for new secondary teachers entering California middle schools between 2012–2017 may have looked quite different from one in a high school. New middle school teachers were more likely to begin their careers in schools that serve large proportions of students from low-income households and have relatively lower levels of retention among experienced teachers.
- New secondary teachers of color were more likely than their white counterparts to teach math rather than other core subjects (English language arts, science, and social science) at both the middle and high school levels.
- In general, new teachers of color (Black, Hispanic, and Asian or Pacific Islander) were more likely than white teachers to begin teaching in high-poverty schools. However, there was no systematic relationship between attrition and employment in these schools.
- There were significantly more teachers of color than white teachers hired into schools that served a large proportion of students from low-income households.
- Teachers who entered the classroom underprepared or without a preliminary credential were more likely to begin their careers in schools with lower levels of retention among experienced teachers. Teachers who began their careers in these schools were more likely to leave the classroom by Year 3.
- New Black teachers were significantly more likely than their peers to enter the profession underprepared, teach in schools with lower experienced teacher retention and to leave the classroom by Year 3 of their teaching career.
- Hispanic teachers were among those most likely to be teaching two years after they first entered the classroom.
