California issued fewer K-12 teaching credentials for a second year in a row and fewer students enrolled in teacher preparation programs during the 2022-23 school year, exacerbating the state’s ongoing teacher shortage.
The state bestowed 14,636 new teaching credentials during the 2022-23 school year, the most recent year data is available, nearly 2,000 fewer credentials than the previous year, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing’s “Teacher Supply Report.” The previous year, the number of credentials issued in California dropped by more than 3,000.
In 2022-23, enrollment in the state’s teacher preparation programs dropped to 17,337 — nearly a 12% decline from the year before, according to the report.
The two-year dip in certification follows five years of increases, although the number of credentials never rebounded from the Great Recession that began in 2007.
Although declining student enrollment has eased staffing problems in some districts, many schools still rely on interns and teachers working on emergency-style permits and waivers to staff classrooms because of a lack of fully credentialed teachers.
During the 2022-23 school year there were 4,449 intern credentials and 9,257 emergency-style permits issued in California, according to the “Annual Report Card on California Teacher Preparation Programs for 2022-23. This was a decrease in the number of intern credentials and an increase in emergency-style permits compared to the previous years.
The number of multiple-subject, single-subject and education specialist credentials all declined in 2022-23. That is the second year that multiple-subject credentials, required to teach elementary school, have gone down substantially. The number declined by 15%, or 1,000 credentials, in 2022-23 and by 25% in 2021-22.
This story was written by Diana Lambert and was originally published by EdSource.
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