SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today issued the following statement in response to a new study by Education Trust-West that highlighted the need for well-trained, experienced teachers in low-performing schools.

"I commend Education Trust-West for focusing on the important issue of providing well-paid, experienced teachers to instruct our students with the greatest challenges. This is a problem that needs to be addressed in the best interests of California's students, and one that will require good faith negotiations and compromise between school districts and bargaining units.

"The report illustrates the importance of additional state funding to provide a range of teacher recruitment and retention incentives. Before California's fiscal crisis led to a serious erosion in the promise of Proposition 98, we were able to provide a range of teacher recruitment and retention incentives specifically designed to attract the best and brightest teachers into our lowest-performing schools. These included: bonuses for nationally board certified teachers who agreed to teach in low-performing schools, fellowships to the most promising education school graduates who committed to working four years in low-performing schools, and district-designed incentives that could include better working conditions or higher salaries — whatever it would take to attract high quality teachers committed to teaching students with the greatest needs.

"We know such programs ultimately help California's students. It is time for us to find a way to fund them."

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Education Trust-West Report [http://www.hiddengap.org/resources/Report_FINAL.pdf] (Outside Source; PDF; 771KB; 20pp.)