Cross-Agency Collaboration as a Lever for Strengthening the Teaching Workforce

Friday February 9, 2024
9:30 - 11:00 AM
E145-E146

As states across the country struggle to attract and prepare teachers to fill critical gaps in the educator workforce, the availability of one-time funds presents an unprecedented opportunity to provide affordable, high-quality pathways into the profession. Effectively leveraging one-time funds can require coordination and collaboration across multiple state and local entities – including state departments of education, credentialing authorities, higher education institutions, and school districts, among others. This session will showcase the work of a cross-agency state collaborative in California focused on bringing state leaders together to identify and overcome implementation barriers to ensuring that teachers have access to affordable high-quality, clinically rich pathways into the profession, with a particular focus on increasing the number of teachers serving early childhood and multi-language learners.

Presenters
Lupita Alcala

Lupita Alcalá is the Director of Education Policy and Outcomes and has over 25 years of experience in advocacy, policy, project development, and executive and administrative leadership, championing better educational outcomes for the children, youth and adults of California, and over a decade of experience in government affairs for preK-12 and higher education. Lupita leads work on alignment of state and local system structures, policies, processes and resources in mental health, early education, pre-K-12, college affordability and workforce. Lupita recently co-led the development and co-authored Supporting California’s Children Through a Whole Child Approach: A Field Guide for Creating Integrated, School-Based Systems of Care and co-led the development and co-authored the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care for Governor Newsom and his cabinet. Prior to joining WestEd she served as the first Latina Chief Deputy Superintendent, for the CDE. She has served in numerous leadership roles including as Executive Director of the California Student Aid Commission. Lupita holds a BA in Political Science from the UC, San Diego, and a Ed.M. from Harvard University School of Education.
Alyssa Perez

Alyssa Perez supports the Strategic Resource Planning and Implementation team in performing research and providing technical assistance to state, regional, and district-level agencies. She focused on leveraging systems of accountability, resource allocation, and policy to generate more equitable outcomes for students and their communities. Prior to joining WestEd, Alyssa worked as a Research Assistant for the Goldman School of Public Policy’s Berkeley Institute for Young Americans studying variations in generational values, voting behaviors, and experiences of socio-economic risk following federal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, she served as Research Assistant through an initiative between the Berkeley Opportunity Lab and the Energy Institute at Haas. Alyssa received a BA in both Political Economy and Gender Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
type:
In-person Workshop
theme:
policy
audience:
district leaders
tags:
, equity and excellence