San Mateo County Grand Jury
• 2020-2021
Building a Racially & Ethnically Diverse Teaching Workforce: a Challenge for Our Schools Each student deserves a
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 11 findings
F1
In San Mateo County, the ethnic diversity of teachers does not closely mirror that of the students they teach. A Countywide demographic report, generated by the San Mateo County Office of Education, including teacher/student ethnicity, would be of value to all school districts in their recruiting efforts.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The San Mateo County Office of Education should expand its outreach to school districts and publicly share the demographic data of all learners and educators in the County when its planned report is completed, but no later than the end of the 2021-22 school year. 2020-21
F2
Teachers frequently leave schools in San Mateo County for higher pay in other districts, to the detriment of the students being taught.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
School districts in San Mateo County compete nationally for a limited pool of teacher candidates; those diminishing candidate pools result in limited-teacher diversity. 2020-21
No recommendations for this finding
F4
Cost of living and housing affordability in San Mateo County are two major barriers which continue to impede our school districts’ ability to attract, recruit, and retain a diverse teacher workforce.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
Public-school districts in the County are not permitted by State law to consider race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in hiring. It is common practice for districts to interview all candidates who meet the qualifications for an open teaching position, further complicating hiring to meet diversity goals.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
The San Mateo County Office of Education has an opportunity to articulate and guide an educational vision for the entire County to the benefit of school districts and without direct involvement in individual school district staffing and policy decisions.
No recommendations for this finding
F7
Teacher residency and internship programs take time to produce results but school districts could benefit by increased participation in these programs.
No recommendations for this finding
F8
School districts invest varying degrees of effort into the process of recruiting a diverse teaching pool. While some rely on traditional strategies, others have found creative solutions to increase diversity in the teaching workforce.
No recommendations for this finding
F9
The San Mateo County School Boards Association Equity Network, created in 2019-20, has been, for much of its existence, restricted to meeting online due to the pandemic. As a result, the group has had limited opportunities to work collaboratively to help build capacity for thoughtful, equity-driven decisions. Consequently, as of January 2021, their ability to both identify and deliver on stated outcomes has been limited.
No recommendations for this finding
F10
School district superintendents and human resource personnel in San Mateo County agree that students of color benefit from having educators who look like them but are not always certain how to recruit or retain teachers of color.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The San Mateo County Office of Education should regularly sponsor teacher diversity forums, and invite superintendents, district human resource managers, principals, and school board members to participate. The forums should address current challenges districts face with regard to recruiting teaching staff in general, and teachers of color, and share best practices and strategic solutions. This should begin in advance of next year’s recruiting cycle, no later than April 30, 2022.
F11
A majority of school district strategic plans and other aspirational documents do not address teacher diversity nor are those plans easily accessible by the community.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
By June 30, 2022, school districts should include a commitment to teacher diversity in their strategic plans, goals, and/or objectives, using the Strategic Plan developed by the San Mateo County Office of Education as an example. These aspirational documents should be prominently and publicly displayed on their website.
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.