The annual teacher supply report from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing showed a decrease in the number of new credentials issued in the 2022–23 school year, the most recent for which data is available. The decrease was reflected in all areas of credentialing: Multiple Subject, Single Subject and Education Specialist.
A total of 14,309 new credentials were issued, a 10.6 percent decrease from 2021–22, with a steady decrease in new credentials since 2018–19. Of these, 10,663 were prepared at a California institute of higher education (IHE), 645 were prepared in a local educational agency program and 3,328 were prepared out of state or country.
In 2022–23, there were 5,686 Multiple Subject, 5,910 Single Subject and 3,040 Education Specialist credentials issued in the state. There was a decline for all three teaching credentials issued by IHE preparation — by 15.5 percent in Multiple Subject, 3.2 percent in Single Subject and 19.9 percent in Education Specialist. For LEA-prepared credentials, there was a decrease in the number of Multiple Subject and Education Specialist (44.8 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively), but an increase of 49.1 percent in the number of Single Subject credentials issued. Out-of-state/out-of-country prepared credentials saw a decrease in Multiple Subject and Single Subject (10.7 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively) but a slight increase of 4.6 percent for Education Specialist.
More than 1,800 Career Technical Education (CTE) credentials were issued in fifteen different industry sectors in 2022–23. More than one-fifth (22.7 percent) were issued in the Arts, Media, and Entertainment sector, followed by 12.4 percent in the Education, Child Development, and Family Services sector and 11 percent in Health Science and Medical Technology.
In 2022–23, there was an 82.7 percent increase in Short-Term Staff Permits from the previous year and a 73.1 percent increase in Provisional Internship Permits. Additionally, the number of Limited Assignment Teaching Permits increased by 8.3 percent between 2021–22 and 2022–23 in all three credential areas. On a more positive note, there was a decrease by 31 percent in the number of waivers issued between 2021–22 and 2022–23.
Demographics
The gender breakdown of teacher candidates stayed steady in the past five years; just under three-fourths were female and a little more than one-quarter were male. The racial diversity of teacher candidates has increased in the past years. Overall, more than half of the teacher candidates identified themselves belonging to a non-white race/ethnicity category. The proportion of teacher candidates who
identified themselves as Hispanic/Latino of any race has increased by 8.3 percentage points from 31.4 percent in 2018–19 to 39.7 percent in 2022–23. This was followed by white candidates at 33.5 percent, a decrease of almost 10 percent from 2018–19. African American candidates represented 4.3 percent of candidates in 2022–23, the same percentage as in 2018–19; Asian candidates made up 8.5 percent of candidates; and those of two or more races made up 4.5 percent.
New teacher candidates
Tracking teacher preparation program enrollment can serve as one indicator of potential future
teacher supply in California. There was an increase in the total enrollment in 2022–23 from the prior year by 447 (1.1 percent) candidates. The increase stemmed from the increase of continuing candidates between 2021–22 and 2022–23 by about 13.3 percent. When looking at the total teacher preparation enrollment in the past five years, there was an increase of more than 4,000 candidates between 2018–19 and 2022–23; however, newly enrolled candidates decreased by 11.7 percent in 2022–23 from the previous year.