City and County of SAN Francisco*

Insufficient Credentialed Teachers 20

Low Pay The San Francisco Unified School District's starting salary for credentialed teachers of $54,289 is both lower than the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's limit for affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and lower than the starting salary for credentialed teachers in many other Bay Area school districts, which can negatively affect SFUSD's recruitment and retention of credentialed teachers.

Insufficient Publicity of Competitive Benefits 22

Ineffective Payroll Administration 23

Lack of Employee Data 24

Non-Responsive Administrators 25 Required and Invited Responses 26 Appendices Appendix 4: Teacher Misassignments by School (CTC) Background "A student with even one ineffective teacher may not catch up to his peers for up to 3 years, and having one excellent teacher doesn't fully compensate for the ineffective one. . . . Students with 3 bad teachers in a row rarely catch up at all. Differences in student achievement of 50 percentile points were observed as a result of teacher sequence after only 3 years. . . . Ineffective teachers tend to be ineffective for all students regardless of their ability level." -William L. Sanders and June C. Rivers1 It is a legal requirement that all California teachers have a valid California teaching credential. All teachers are required to have a valid California credential administered by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to teach in the State.2 When fully credentialed teachers aren't available, school districts can take advantage of a multitude of available permits and waivers by which they may staff teaching positions with other types of education employees3—or individuals without credentials of any kind.4 However, these provisions have always been intended as temporary exceptions to a general policy preference for credentialed teachers. This policy aligns with research that links teacher credentialing to quality educational outcomes.5 Sanders and Rivers, "Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers." 2 Cal. Educ. Code § 44225 et seq. Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 5, § 80021–80033 4 Mays, "Many California Teachers." 5 Clotfelter, Ladd, and Vigdor, "Teacher Credentials and Student Achievement," 673-682. Not Making the Grade A statewide teacher staffing shortage, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in many school districts relying upon more of these permits and waivers. The San Francisco Civil Grand Jury sought to investigate how many San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) teaching positions the District staffed with fully credentialed teachers, and examined the District's challenges in recruiting and retaining credentialed teachers. A History of Teacher Credentialing The responsibility for certifying teacher qualifications and competence has not always been a state function in California. Early in state history, individual schools and districts held that responsibility. By the 1950s, however, dissatisfaction with public school curriculum and teacher preparation led State Senator Hugo Fisher to press for stronger subject matter preparation. The Fisher Act of 1961 delegated the task of improving teacher preparation to the State Board of Education. In the late 1960s, State Assembly Member Leo J. Ryan worked hard to educate himself and his legislative colleagues on the new educational thinking of the era. To ensure the professionalism of teachers and address demand for qualified teachers, the Ryan Act of 1970 created the nation's first independent standards board: the Commission on Teacher Preparation and Licensing (CTC).6 Under subsequent reforms, the CTC's role expanded to include the development of program standards, accreditation procedures, and credentialing practices. California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, "A History of Policies and Forces Shaping California Teacher Credentialing." In 1983, the California Legislature changed this body's name to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). Not Making the Grade In the late 20th Century, efforts to reduce class sizes increased demand for teachers, which drew increased attention to teacher accountability. In 1998, Senate Bill (SB) 2042 expanded the minimum requirements for teacher credentials.7 A 2000 class action, Eliezer Williams, et al., vs. State of California, et al., sought to challenge the unequal distribution of instructional materials, safe and decent school facilities, and qualified teachers across the State. After the case was settled in 2004, the State allocated additional funding for standards-aligned instructional materials and oversight activities. New state law required specified levels of service by Local Education Agencies (LEAs, i.e., school districts). Among Williams' impacts were enhancements to the School Accountability Report Card (SARC), a reporting tool discussed below.8 Credentialing Requirements To obtain teaching certification in California, a candidate must obtain a bachelor's degree from an accredited university or other college degree, pass the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) and an assessment of their teaching performance, and accrue teaching experience.9 On its hiring website, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) prominently displays its intended compliance with credentialing requirements: Credentials are required for employment in all certificated positions at SFUSD. It is necessary for educators to hold appropriate credentials for their assignments because in doing so, we ensure that students receive the quality education they deserve and the district fulfills our responsibility under 7 S. B. 2042 (Chapter 548, Stats. 1998). California Department of Education, "The Williams Case, An Explanation." 9 CTC, "Teaching Credentials Requirements." Not Making the Grade Education Code §44258.9 to have evidence of the legal basis for the assignment of each educator.10 Investigating the Data Each year, all California schools and school districts must update and publish SARC reports to report the condition of their facilities, the assignment of teachers and vacant teaching positions, and the availability of educational materials. SARC data makes it possible for watchdog bodies to determine whether districts comply with the Education Code's mandate of adequate education to all students. With SARC reports for San Francisco's 112 schools as our starting point, the Jury sought to investigate how many of San Francisco's students are taught by credentialed teachers. We supplemented this analysis with interviews with District administrators, members of the Board of Education, educators, and education advocates. Our goal was to understand the challenges in teacher retention and recruiting that can affect SFUSD's teacher shortage and recommend possible solutions. San Francisco Unified School District, "Credentialing." Not Making the Grade Methodology Quantitative Research To determine the extent to which SFUSD follows certification requirements, the Jury reviewed State data on educator assignments. Specifically, we consulted SARC reports, 11 the California Department of Education (CDE) DataQuest database, 12 and CTC's teacher assignment dashboard.13 At the time of our research—spring 2023—the most recent data available from all three sources was from the 2020-2021 school year. When the Jury discovered inconsistent data definitions and totals between the first two sources and the third, we elected to rely upon SARC data for our analysis. More information about the data challenges we encountered is available in Appendix 1. We reviewed SARC reports for the quantities of SFUSD teachers matching specific assignment definitions—described below—and calculated these as a percentage of all SFUSD teaching positions. We subsequently compared these percentages to statewide averages as well as the average for all San Francisco Bay Area school districts. CDE, "2022 School Accountability Report Card." 12 CDE Data Reporting Office, "DataQuest." 13 CTC, "All Reports and Data." Not Making the Grade SARC Definitions For SARC reporting, the California Department of Education (CDE) uses four definitions of assignments for classroom teachers.14 They are as follows: 1. Fully Preliminary or Clear Credentialed for Subject and Student Placement; 2. Intern Credential Holders; 3. Credentialed Teachers Assigned Out-of-Field; and 4. Ineffective Teachers. 1. Fully Preliminary or Clear Credentialed for Subject and Student Placement Also known as a "clear credentialed" teacher, this designates an educator who has met all teaching certification requirements. A clear credential "permits them to teach the subject and grade levels that they are assigned." 2. Intern Credential Holders An individual with this credential holds a temporary license that authorizes them to teach for two years. 3. Credentialed Teachers Assigned Out-of-Field This category encompasses a teacher who holds a credential—but not for the subject area or grade level to which he or she is assigned. These assignments are regulated by CTC permits and waivers.15 4. Ineffective Teachers This category encompasses four sub-groups: 14 CDE, "Updated Teacher Equity Definitions." 15 Permits and waivers include the General Education Limited Assignment Permit (GELAP), the Special Education Limited Assignment Permit (SELAP), short-term waivers, and emergency permits, as well as "Local Assignment Options" used by school districts when they cannot otherwise assign a certificated employee. A. Teachers without a full teaching license who are assigned under an emergency permit—including short-term and substitute teachers; B. Individuals who are not credentialed as teachers and do not have a temporary permit, but are credentialed as school administrators, librarians, nurses, or other personnel; C. "Individual[s] who hold no credential, permit, or authorization to teach in California;" and D. "Vacant teacher positions," i.e., positions to which no credentialed employee was assigned at the beginning of a school year (for a year-long role) or the beginning of a semester (for a semester-long course).16 Qualitative Research Interviews were an essential part of our investigation to supplement our data analysis. To clearly understand SFUSD's shortage of credentialed teachers, we interviewed all levels of personnel. The Jury conducted interviews with District leadership and staff, representatives of the San Francisco Board of Education, staff from SFUSD's teacher accreditation program, school principals, and teachers. In adherence to the California Penal Code's strict confidentiality standards for Civil Grand Jury investigations, this report does not disclose the interview subjects' identities, the specific questions we asked, nor the answers that each subject furnished.17 16 In addition to their use in the SARC, these definitions are used by the Teaching Assignment Monitoring Outcomes (TAMO) reports in CDE's DataQuest database. We determined that TAMO data and SARC data were the same. CA Penal Code § 929 (2021). Not Making the Grade Discussion Federal, state, and local laws require workers in many professions to demonstrate a standard knowledge and proficiency in their field through testing and proof of training. This includes physicians and nurses, barbers, accountants, bus drivers, and peace officers. Most require a standard body of knowledge and some form of certification or licensing. It is the Jury's belief, and the premise of this investigation, that teaching should be no exception. It is bedeviling to precisely correlate teacher certification with student outcomes. One reason for this is that credentialed teachers are not evenly distributed across schools and school districts. For example, lower rates of credentialed teachers frequently coincide with other confounding factors that affect educational outcomes, such as poor student nutrition,18 lead paint,19 and parental incarceration.20 Nevertheless, longitudinal research has isolated the effects of teacher credentialing on student outcomes.21 This is complemented by a wealth of scholarship that attributes student success to formal teacher training.22 Passing a certification exam is a reasonable proxy for formal training, since testing shows the mastery of a body of knowledge or subject matter acquired over a period of time through education and training. Whatnall, Patterson, Burrows, and Hutchesson, "Higher Diet Quality." 19 Zhang, Baker, Tufts, Raymond, Salihu, and Elliott, "Early Childhood Lead Exposure." 20 Nichols and Loper, "Incarceration in the Household," 1455. Clotfelter, et al., op. cit.; Goldhaber and Brewer, "Teacher Degree Level," 79. See, e.g., Harris and Sass, "Teacher Training," 798. If we expect credentialed teachers for our students, then what follows is bad news: SFUSD does not employ enough credentialed teachers to furnish a quality education to every student in the District. For more than a decade, the District's teacher attrition rate has averaged between 9% and 10%, and it cannot recruit sufficient new credentialed teachers to fill each teaching assignment.23 Our analysis uncovered that in the 2020-2021 school year, approximately 77% of SFUSD teaching positions were staffed by individuals with clear teaching credentials. Put another way, nearly one quarter of teaching positions were staffed by individuals without these credentials. A subset of this group—9% of all teaching positions—were so-called "Ineffective" teacher placements.24 In the same reporting year, in all Bay Area schools, 82% of teaching positions were filled by clear-credentialed teachers, a rate that is one fifth higher than SFUSD's, and 6.3% of placements were Ineffective—almost one third fewer than in San Francisco. Statewide, 83% of teaching positions were filled by clear-credentialed teachers, and just 4% were Ineffective. These figures are summarized in Table 1. Table 1: 2020–2021 Teacher Assignments25 Out of Field Clear Credentialed Ineffective Intern California 83.12% 1.53% 4.41% 4.08% San Francisco Bay Area 6.27% 81.72% 2.38% 3.27% 76.24% 8.92% SFUSD 2.25% 4.25% 23 SFUSD, "SFUSD Monitoring Teacher Attrition." 24 CDE, "Updated Teacher Definitions," op. cit. 25 2022 SARC. Not Making the Grade Figure 1 shows the percentage of clear credentialed teachers in several California counties. Figure 2 shows the percentage of Ineffective and Out-of-Field teachers in those counties. Figure 1: Clear Credentialed Teachers Ranked by County26 Napa Santa Clara Contra Costa Marin Sacramento Los Angeles Sonoma San Mateo Solano San Francisco Alameda 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% ^{26} 2022 SARC. Longer bars in this chart indicate a higher percentage of teaching positions filled by clear-credentialed teachers. Not Making the Grade Figure 2: Ineffective and Out-of-Field Assignments Ranked by County27 Napa Santa Clara Sonoma Marin Sacramento Los Angeles San Mateo Solano Contra Costa San Francisco Alameda 0% 5% 10% 15% The State has not yet published reports for the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 school years, but educators and District administrators told the Jury that the teacher shortage has only worsened in those years, a continued effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. 27 2022 SARC. Shorter bars in this chart indicate fewer Ineffective or Out of Field teaching assignments. Not Making the Grade Issues Affecting Teacher Recruitment and Retention To understand the data, the Jury turned to qualitative research, speaking with educators and administrators to identify the challenges in recruiting and retaining credentialed teachers that could account for SFUSD's teacher shortage. We learned that SFUSD's human resources department does not maintain a formal database of the reasons that prospective teachers decline job offers from the District. SFUSD also does not conduct exit interviews or otherwise track the reasons that teachers depart the District. Without these data sources, it is impossible for the Jury—or the District itself—to precisely determine why SFUSD does not recruit or retain an adequate quantity of credentialed teachers. Instead, we only can discuss the likely factors affecting recruitment and retention that were identified by the witnesses we interviewed. Low Pay In Jury interviews, both administrators and educators cited low teacher pay as a major factor affecting recruitment and retention. Certainly, the problem of low teacher pay is not unique to San Francisco. The topic has received attention in academic research,28 among economists,29 and in public opinion.30 However, in the Bay Area, the economic pressures on teachers are particularly acute. The gap between the region's median teacher salaries and its median rent is the largest in the state.31 28 Childs and Shakeshaft, "Meta-Analysis," 2493. Loeb Page, "Examining the Link," 393. Jackson Newall, "Most Americans." 31 Lambert and Willis, "Rising Rents." Not Making the Grade SFUSD's starting salary for a credentialed teacher is $54,289 per year.32 This amount is 40% less than the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s definition of "Very Low Income" for families in the region: $93,200.33 The amount also is lower than starting salaries in many other Bay Area school districts by as much as 38%, as seen in Figure 3. Starting salaries for all Bay Area school districts are available in Appendix 5. CDE Office of Financial Accountability and Information Services, "Certificated Salaries & Benefits." SFUSD's contract for full-time certificated teachers specifies that teachers are paid in twelve equal monthly installments. 33 $93,200 is the Very Low Income limit used to define eligibility for subsidized housing for a family of four in the San Francisco, CA Metropolitan Area. United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research, "Income Limits." Not Making the Grade Figure 3: Relative Starting Salaries by School District34 Mountain View-Los Altos Union High Fremont Union High Santa Clara Unified San Mateo Union High Fremont Unified Hayward Unified Palo Alto Unified Sunnyvale Dublin Unified Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High San Leandro Unified Pleasanton Unified Newark Unified Cupertino Union Alameda Unified South San Francisco Unified San Jose Unified Sausalito Marin City San Mateo-Foster City San Francisco Unified Oakland Unified Berkeley Unified 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% Starting salary as a percentage of SFUSD's starting salary Our interview subjects indicated that such low pay discouraged both new and experienced credentialed teachers from teaching in SFUSD. CDE Financial Accountability and Information Services, op. cit. Starting salaries for credentialed teachers in select San Francisco Bay Area school districts as a percentage of SFUSD's starting salary for credentialed teachers. Longer bars in this chart indicate higher starting salaries. For additional information about SARC's normalization of teacher salary data, see CDE, "School Accountability Report Card Data Layout." Not Making the Grade Pathway To Teaching One prominent effort to increase the number of credentialed teachers in SFUSD is the District's Pathway to Teaching, a fast track to applying for a full credential and SFUSD employment. Pathway to Teaching is a practice-based intern credential program by which a candidate can earn a salary while also completing requirements to earn a preliminary credential in 15–24 months. Candidates complete courses, receive mentorship and student teaching supervision, accrue field experience, and prepare to pass the credentialing examinations required by the CTC. Since 2019, the program has graduated 259 participants.35 The Jury believes programs such as Pathway to Teaching that boost teacher recruitment merit additional study to evaluate their efficacy. Insufficient Publicity of Competitive Benefits Despite SFUSD's comparatively low pay, there are competitive non-salary benefits that could make the District a desirable place in which to teach. Administrators called specific attention to SFUSD's contribution to teacher pensions, administered through the San Francisco Employees' Retirement System. SFUSD is among only 17 Bay Area school districts that provide lifetime benefits to retirees.36 These benefits are indeed noteworthy—however they are not featured in SFUSD's online recruiting materials,37 nor has SFUSD issued a press release promoting these benefits in at least five years.38 35 SFUSD, "About Pathway to Teaching." 36 CDE, "Certificated Salaries & Benefits," op. cit. SFUSD, "Join SFUSD." 38 SFUSD, "Press Releases." Not Making the Grade In addition, while not administered by SFUSD, two San Francisco programs exist to assist certified teachers in combating the City's unaffordable housing costs. The first is Teacher Next Door, a loan program from the Mayor's Office of Housing Community and Development (MOHCD).39 The second program, Educators Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (Educators-DALP), provides District employees down payment assistance to purchase their first market-rate home in San Francisco. The District promotes Teacher Next Door in many teachers' job postings, 41 but has publicized the program in only one press release in five years. Educators-DALP is not featured in the District's recruiting materials, and is mentioned only in the same February 2022 press release. The Jury recognizes that matters of job listings and promoting benefits programs are complex—for example, they may be subject to agreements with labor partners. However, if SFUSD's administrators believe that benefits are a differentiator in the competitive market for credentialed teachers, then an opportunity has been missed to leverage them as a recruiting tool. Teacher Next Door is a loan program from the Mayor's Office of Housing Community and Housing Development (MOHCD). The program affords forgivable loans of between $20,000 and $40,000 to District employees purchasing their first home. City and County of San Francisco, "About the Teacher Next Door Program." 40 The Educators' Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (Educators-DALP) provides District employees down payment assistance of up to $500,000 to purchase their first market-rate home in San Francisco, subject to loan pre-approval, participation in MOHCD education programs, and other eligibility requirements. CCSF, "Educators Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (Educators-DALP)." 41 See, e.g., SFUSD, "Early Childhood Education Teacher." 42 SFUSD, "SF Board of Education Approves Ground Lease Agreements." Not Making the Grade Payroll Fiasco Since January 2022, SFUSD has faced another impediment to effective recruiting and retention of credentialed teachers: a succession of missteps surrounding its payroll administration beginning with the unsuccessful purchase of a new payroll system, EMPowerSF. SFUSD employees have experienced inaccurate paychecks,43 canceled insurance benefits, 44 and improper deductions. Concurrently, District administrators have received waves of negative media coverage chronicling the mounting complexity and expense of fixing the system as it spiraled from an initially disclosed price tag of $2.8 million46 to $8 million today.47 Images of teachers' overnight sit-ins competed with District administrators' declaration of a "payroll state of emergency" 48 to sustain negative attention on SFUSD's failures—tarnishing its reputation as an employer of choice. In another case to receive wide media coverage, in March 2023, SFUSD administrators informed employees that their 2022 tax refunds may be affected by the District's failure to accurately report wages to the State.49 As the District works to address its recruiting and retention challenges, additional harmful publicity is ill-timed. Tucker, "S.F. Teacher Got Paid So in April." 44 Stoughtenborough, "S.F. Teachers Stage Overnight Sit-In." 45 Knight, "S.F. Teachers Are Resigning." 46 Tucker, "S.F. School District Paid $14 Million." 47 Vainshtein, "SFUSD Pours More Money into Fixing Troubled EMPower." 48 Tucker, "S.F. Teacher Payroll Fiasco." 49 Whiting, "SFUSD Admits to Major Payroll Problem." Not Making the Grade No Recruiting and Retention Data As previously discussed, the Jury learned that SFUSD does not presently track the reasons it fails to hire new credentialed teachers, nor the reasons that teachers leave the District. San Franciscans are deprived of the deeper insight and potential solutions that would be revealed by data from the types of candidate tracking and human resources management tools that are commonplace in the private sector. The Jury is concerned that the District does not centrally collect and analyze such data. Non-Responsive Administrators During this investigation, the Jury experienced reluctance on the part of SFUSD administrators to cooperate with our inquiries. Our requests for interviews and information frequently went unacknowledged, and multiple interview subjects either did not make themselves available or refused to participate outright. These delays required repeated interventions by the Office of the San Francisco City Attorney. This poor cooperation slowed our ability to examine the District's shortage of credentialed teachers. A quarter century ago, the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury of 1998–1999 sought to gather information and interviews from SFUSD in an investigation of the District's bilingual education programs. That Jury met with "an almost total lack of cooperation from the various District Administrators with whom it dealt," leading to a report that included formal findings of "delay of and interference with [the] Grand Jury's Investigation" and "manipulation of reported numbers."50 We draw a distinction between our predecessors' experience and our own. Eventually, we were able to conduct most of the interviews we sought, and we have no cause to 50 San Francisco Civil Grand Jury, “San Francisco Unified School District” (1999). In a follow up report the following year, the 1999–2000 Civil Grand Jury noted that a subsequent generation of SFUSD leadership furnished "a commendable degree of cooperation." Not Making the Grade doubt either the accuracy of the data we analyzed or the intentions of those who compiled it. The reluctance we encountered stemmed from administrators' unfamiliarity with the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury and their obligation to cooperate with our work. Nevertheless, SFUSD has room to improve in its willingness and ability to fully track, recognize, and communicate the challenges it faces. A more data-driven and forthright management culture would only help the District's efforts to recruit and retain credentialed teachers. Transparency is a vital component in addressing a problem as urgent as the shortage of credentialed teachers, with nothing less than the effective education of San Francisco's students on the line. Not Making the Grade Findings and Recommendations