The new Teacher Track initiative aims to address one element of our state’s critical shortage: the waning pipeline of qualified new teachers.

As we continue to face a growing shortage of qualified teachers in California. Above & Beyond Teaching’s Teacher Leadership Academy was designed to address that shortage, providing both meaningful support and active expertise to new teachers. These efforts are meant to measurably increase classroom teacher retention and have also been shown to promote new teachers’ self-confidence in their abilities to contribute as part of an ongoing professional learning community.

Teacher Track is specifically designed to increase the numbers of future educators by offering high school students a ‘learn-by-doing’ experience, giving them valuable insight into the skills, pathways, and personal fulfilment involved in a career in education. Many of California’s public schools used to have sufficient support for their own ‘future teacher’ clubs, but education budgets are being relentlessly slashed today. There are many bright students who could become incredible teachers; they just need reassurance and support to get started. 

The Carlston-award-winning Honorees of Above & Beyond are truly extraordinary professionals; they are supremely dedicated to education, and they exhibit a unique ability to genuinely connect with students. They have exhibited selflessness, open-mindedness, and tolerance; they are proof that great teachers make profound and lasting impacts in the lives of their students. Every excellent teacher was once a student, inspired to pursue a career in education because they were afforded an excellent role model.

This proposal seeks to highlight this student/teacher connection by supporting the establishment of high school clubs meant to inform, encourage, and ultimately recruit promising students to further explore a career in public education. These clubs will provide opportunities for students to gain hours of practical experience, earn concurrent college credit, and become eligible to receive scholarships for the books/materials required for their first year of college work. 

Above & Beyond Honorees and Teacher Leadership Academy Early Career Teachers (ECTs) are invited to serve as club sponsors on their respective high school campuses. Sponsors will serve as the lead person for all activities at that school site, scheduling and running all club meetings on a regular basis, according to each school and/or district procedures. They will also invite all teachers to specifically nominate at least two or three promising students as having the potential for becoming great teachers. These students will get a special invitation to join the new club, although these clubs will be inclusive and open to the school community at large.