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Promoting Equitable Access to Teachers

Resources to assist LEAs with gathering data and reporting disproportionate access to effective, experienced, and appropriately assigned teachers by low-income and minority students as required under ESSA.

Program Overview

Access to a fully-prepared and stable teacher workforce is essential to educational opportunity. Research has shown higher levels of teacher preparedness has positive impacts on student achievement.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Section 1112(b)(2) External link opens in new window or tab. requires each local educational agency (LEA) receiving ESSA funds to submit a plan to the state educational agency that describes how it will identify and address any disparities that result in low-income and minority students being taught at higher rates than other students by ineffective, inexperienced, or out-of-field teachers; also referred to as equity gaps.

The California Department of Education (CDE) has developed the Promoting Equitable Access to Teachers (PEAT) Program to assist LEAs to identify and address local disparities, or equity gaps. A key element of the PEAT Program is a suite of equity tools designed to guide LEAs as they collect and analyze the appropriate data, conduct data analyses to identify potential equity gaps, conduct a root cause analysis and consider various strategies to address disparities, while engaging stakeholders throughout the process. For an overview of the PEAT Program, see Video 1 of this seven-part series. Current guidance regarding requirements for educator assignment monitoring under ESSA is available in this January 2021 letter.

Questions:   Teacher and Leader Policy Office | TLPO@cde.ca.gov | 916-445-7331
Last Reviewed: Friday, March 21, 2025
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