TITLE Creating Crisis: How California's Teaching Policies Aggravate Racial Inequalities in Public Schools.

This report outlines problems in California's public school teaching force, from training to recruitment to retention. It describes who currently teaches, notes the lack of minority teachers in an increasingly diverse student population, and examines pathways to teaching and barriers to certification. It details the teaching crisis in the state's seven largest districts, and it adds extended accounts from a teacher recruiter, a teacher candidate taking the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST), and an experienced teacher of color watching newcomers being disempowered and unsupported by the system. Finally, the report makes recommendations about how to correct some of the problems that it describes, including: fully invest in the development of teaching talent and resources at high-need schools by creating local education action projects; develop a fully prepared, highly skilled teaching force better suited to California's changing demographics; eliminate barriers that prevent qualified people fro