Grand Jury Announces Nearly A Quarter Of SF Teachers Not Credentialed

SAN FRANCISCO — In a news released issued by a San Francisco civil grand jury Friday, June 16, it was announced that nearly a quarter of all San Francisco Unified School District's teacher positions are filled by people who are not fully credentialed to instruct students.

"The state and SFUSD both mandate credentialed teachers for our students, but the District falls short," Jury Foreperson Karen Kennard said in the release. "It's urgent to understand what's broken—and to remediate this crisis."

Some say the predicament highlights larger issues in the distrit's teacher shortage as well as for the quality of education students are receiving, according to the civil grand jury report "Not Making the Grade: San Francisco's Shortage of Credentialed Teachers" released Thursday, June 15.

The civil grand jury, a panel convened in each county around the state annually to investigate and report on local government operations, said that the district did not employ an "adequate number of credentialed teachers to afford a quality education to all San Francisco students."

According to a Bay City News article on the issue, California requires teachers to be credentialed, but it "allows for exceptions when those teachers aren't available."

Exceptions, however, are supposed to be temporary but the statewide teacher shortage, made worse by the pandemic, "resulted in many school districts relying upon those exceptions," the jury said.

"In the most recent reporting year, just 77% of SFUSD teaching roles were staffed by fully credentialed teachers and 9% of its staffing assignments were classified "ineffective" by the State Department of Education," the report said. "By comparison, the average for all Bay Area school districts is one fifth more credentialed teachers and one third fewer 'ineffective' assignments."

Statewide data was similar, the report said.

According to the news release, the grand jury's report details a yearlong investigation of SFUSD classroom, wage, and benefits data relative to Bay Area and California averages.

"The Jury also interviewed district leadership and staff, representatives of the San Francisco Board of Education, staff from SFUSD's teacher accreditation program, school principals, and teachers," the news release said.

According to the report, longstanding factors that affect recruiting and retention include low teacher pay relative to many other Bay Area school districts, SFUSD's poor marketing of benefits like its pension plan and housing subsidies and an ongoing payroll fiasco.

"The District also has had an annual teacher attrition rate of 9–10 percent for more than a decade," the report said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic only "worsened" the trend.

The investigation also uncovered that the district does not maintain tracking data about why applicants turn down job offers, and does not conduct exit interviews with teachers who leave.

Kennard said the jury was concerned that "SFUSD does not collect the kind of recruiting and HR data that is commonplace" in other organizations.

The civil grand jury also reported that district administrators were reluctant and non-responsive during the investigation, which led to delays and required repeated intervention from the office of the San Francisco city attorney.

"Our requests for interviews and information frequently went unacknowledged, and multiple interview subjects either did not make themselves available or refused to participate outright," reads the report.

"The District has room to improve in its willingness and ability to track, recognize and communicate the challenges it faces," Kennard said. "A more data-driven and forthright management culture would only help the district's efforts to recruit and retain credentialed teachers."

To read the full report, click here.