SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- California's new Center for Educator Workforce Development is bringing together leading education experts dedicated to improving how the state attracts, prepares, and keeps a strong teacher workforce.

The Center is housed in the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, supported in partnership with West Ed and Education First, to convene education agencies, data experts, and teacher preparation programs to work collaboratively on educator workforce development and retention across the state.

California has invested approximately $1.6 billion in the last decade to strengthen the teacher workforce with a focus on increasing teacher supply, improving affordability and access to teacher preparation programs, and incentivizing skilled teachers to work in high-need schools.

The 2025-26 state budget included $464 million allocated to teacher recruitment programs and grants, including the new Student Teacher Stipend Program that will provide a $10,000 stipend for the required student teaching to become a credentialed - fully licensed and trained - professional educator, for eligible candidates.

"While we have seen an increase in the number of teaching credentials issued in recent years, we know that there are still shortages particularly in key areas such as special education, STEM, and bilingual education, as well as an unequal distribution of credentialed teachers across the state," said Center Director Juliet Wahleithner.

"When schools cannot fill teaching positions with credentialed teachers, it most often affects students in underserved communities who end up with underqualified substitute teachers, widening an already significant opportunity gap," said Wahleithner.

Mary Vixie Sandy, executive director of the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, said that the Center for Educator Workforce Development is designed to address these issues and more, "by boosting equitable pathways into the teaching profession, improving teacher preparation quality, and keeping teachers in the classroom where they and their students can thrive."

The Center is organized around three interconnected priorities:

Program Incubator: Testing and Scaling What Works

• The Center creates and tests approaches that respond to local and statewide educator workforce needs.
  • This includes building a new Teacher Apprenticeship Pathway in partnership with the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards and supported by Education First. Registered Apprenticeship Programs are an "earn-and-learn" workforce development model in which participants are paid employees while completing structured on-the-job preparation and related coursework that leads to a credential.

Data Hub: Using Data to Drive Action

• The Center uses data to better understand and strengthen California's educator pipeline.
  • This includes creating a new dashboard that provides indicators of teacher preparation program performance, including satisfaction scores, enrollment and completion trends, and pass rates of teacher performance assessments which candidates must pass in order to be recommended for a credential. Additionally, the Center will convene state experts on teacher workforce issues to collaborate on data-driven initiatives focused on improvement.

State Educator Workforce Collaborative: Aligning Statewide Efforts

• The Center holds space for agencies to come together around shared educator workforce goals.
  • This includes quarterly meetings with the State Educator Workforce Collaborative, a similarly coordinated statewide approach to long-term teacher workforce planning on key issues including teacher retention, equity, and preparation pathways to develop long-term solutions that will benefit California's students for years to come.

For more information, visit the Center for Educator Workforce Development. For more information on how to become an educator in California, visit the Roadmap to Teaching.

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing serves as a state standards board for educator preparation, the licensing and credentialing of educators, the enforcement of professional practices, and the discipline of credential holders in California. The Commission is in the executive branch of California State Government and is the oldest of the autonomous state standards boards in the nation created in 1970 by the Ryan Act.

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SOURCE California Commission on Teacher Credentialing