"Pittsburg Pride" in Action

Pittsburg USD's Commitment to Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Teacher Workforce

Overview

Nestled on the southern shore of the Suisun Bay in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the Pittsburg Unified School District (PUSD) is a mid-sized school district in Contra Costa County, home to about 11,000 TK-12 students, with Pre-k and Adult Education (EdData 2021-2022). Since 2015, the district has prioritized efforts to recruit, retain, and support a diverse staff, through a lens of ensuring equity, access, and success for all students and school community members. To recruit and retain a teacher workforce that better reflects their student population, Pittsburg Unified employed a multi-pronged set of strategies anchored around collecting input and feedback from the broader school community, grounded in data, and focused on creating an inviting culture that celebrates the community and the students they serve.

When Superintendent Schulze joined the Pittsburg community in July 2014, she recognized that the diversity of their teacher workforce didn’t match the diversity of the predominantly Brown and Black students they served. One major change was she conducted an analysis and found the District was in the bottom third of total compensation in the County. The Board was committed to changing that to the top third and the district continues to prioritize salary and benefits. The Board of Education was also committed to increasing the diversity of the workforce and created an Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity in Hiring in 2015 to explore more ways to increase the diversity of the teachers and staff. The Committee consisted of a Board member, a Human Resources liaison, community members appointed by the Board, and labor partners. The Committee shared ideas and recommendations that formed a recruitment plan.

This committee identified four key strategies in the plan presented to the Board to develop a staffing pool that better reflects the community they serve:

Collect data
Target recruitment activities
Create/update communications materials to reflect the diversity of the community
Develop “Pittsburg Pride” incentives to encourage PUSD graduates to teach or work at PUSD

A Data-Driven Recruitment Strategy

The committee and leadership team recognized that a critical first (and ongoing) step was the examination of data to better understand the issue. PUSD first started collecting and reporting the data on the diversity of the overall district. Starting to track data across school sites helped highlight disparities and trends. For example, the data indicated that there was a wide variance in the percentage of certificated staff of color across individual school sites. This not only allowed them to identify areas of need to develop goals for the coming year but also facilitated a process to measure and communicate progress internally and with their broader community as they moved towards their goals. By explicitly examining, sharing, and talking about data with their Board, principals, and site administrators each year, PUSD was able to build and sustain a culture of data-driven decision-making to support their scholars. The Board also added the yearly update to their Board policy and added language to their Board Goals to support systemic change.

Using data to create clear, objective goals has also allowed the district to monitor progress and identify opportunities for early celebrations. For example, there has been a 17% increase in teachers of color since 2013 and, as of 2022-23, PUSD has three times the state average percentage of certificated staff who are African American (12.0% vs. statewide average of 3.9% in 2018-19) (Data Quest -FTE Classified Staff 2018-19). In 2022, the school staff survey showed that 71% of staff identified district diversity as the number one reason that staff want to work in the district.

Hiring with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Mind

The district team made significant changes to their recruitment process to attract the right candidates while staying true to their district motto: "Every scholar, every day. They deserve nothing less than our best." They took a holistic approach by looking at the overall composition of their staff, aiming to have the best educators in every role and a diverse workforce that reflected the student body they served. PUSD began by investing time and effort in recruiting at job fairs held at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and universities in the area with a significant Latinx graduate population.

Superintendent Schulze shares the "why" behind PUSD's equity questions when interviewing candidates.

The high cost of living in the Bay Area was the number one reason out-of-state candidates did not accept positions, so the district deepened its efforts on local recruitment. In order to address variance across school sites, PUSD was also dedicated to establishing hiring panels that represented the diversity of the larger school community in terms of demographics, roles, and perspectives, collaborating with individual school sites to ensure a welcoming environment for educators of color during the interview process. They worked with their Human Resources (HR) team to develop "equity questions" for the interview process that communicated the district's priorities and emphasized their culture. One of the questions included in the interview protocol was “Thinking of the skin you are in, how do you approach teaching and learning with Black and Brown students?” This question aims to delve deeper into the candidates’ belief system and how they plan on applying an equity lens in their classrooms.

Transforming Recruitment With Pittsburg Pride

One of the earliest recommendations from the Board’s committee was to focus on local recruitment and hiring. This meant identifying and attracting candidates familiar with the community and the school district. Their recruitment strategy celebrated the assets they already had in their community and leaned into the pride that many people had for their larger Pittsburg community. This is how "Pittsburg Pride" began. In hopes of cultivating and investing in the success of Pittsburg Unified, the district began to offer a monetary incentive of $5,000 upon signing for Pittsburg graduates and community members. In doing so, PUSD has been able to create a culture that celebrates Pittsburg Unified, its teachers and staff, the students they serve, and their broader school community. The District regularly profiles staff in their “Pittsburg Pride” and “Celebrating Local Heroes” features on social media. A tradition of an in-house job fair was started, with tours of the schools and community given to prospective teachers so they could feel the warm welcome of the staff and see the pride the community takes in its schools.

Looking at data regularly has helped PUSD identify opportunities to acknowledge key milestones for teachers and staff. In last year’s pool of new staff, there were 17 new teachers who were graduates of Pittsburg USD schools — almost a threefold increase from the prior two years where there had been six to seven graduates each year. The district takes this as a sign of emerging success across its initiatives to make the district an employer of choice for community members.

Creating an Ecosystem of Support for Teachers

PUSD set out to develop an ecosystem of support for their teachers, understanding that retention really comes down to how supported and appreciated teachers feel. To better support the new teachers entering the district, the district reviewed and substantively revamped its new teacher support. Such supports include a Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) with the Teachers’ Association and an extensive mentor teacher program – both of which provide new teachers with coaching and ongoing support from expert teachers. PUSD’s culture of ongoing learning extends to experienced teachers as well. The extensive mentor-teacher program offers them an opportunity to grow as leaders within the district, addressing the feedback received from teachers wanting more options to advance in their careers.

Shelley Velasco, Coordinator of Elementary Instruction, describes what PUSD's "Week of Welcome" entails.

To further strengthen its ecosystem of support, PUSD established the “Week of Welcome”, which takes place a week before school starts to offer expansive professional development opportunities that are catered to both new and returning/veteran teachers. PUSD has been intentional in investing in professional development opportunities that are available year-round to help support culture-building, instructional practice, and targeted needs across all roles within the district.

Lessons Learned

Pittsburg USD has made great strides toward achieving its goal of cultivating a more inclusive learning environment for both its scholars and educators. Having a committed board that shares in PUSD’s vision, welcomes the valuable input of teachers and staff of color, and recognizes the importance of data-driven decision-making has been crucial in their work to recruit and retain a diverse teaching workforce. Looking toward the future, the district plans to continue exploring new opportunities to expand, enrich, and diversify its teaching workforce. This includes collaborating with the Alder Graduate School of Education to develop a Teacher Residency Program, looking into the possibility of partnering with the Black Teacher Project, to gain feedback for the retention and advancement of Black educators in PUSD, and exploring ideas to establish an administrator pipeline/pathway for current teachers, an idea from the recently re-formed Board Committee on Diversity in Hiring and Retention.

Learn More About Pittsburg USD's Partners

California Association of African-American Superintendents & Administrators (CAAASA) – Pittsburg USD participated as a partner in the 2017-2019 CAAASA-CCEE Professional Learning Network, which focused on identifying barriers and evidence-based solutions to improve the educational outcomes of African-American students. The district is continuing its partnership with CAAASA and CCEE in the African American Student Success learning network to examine the over-representation of African American students qualifying for disabilities under Other Health Impaired (OHI) and Emotional Disturbance (ED).

Alder Graduate School of Education (Alder GSE) – With grants from the CTC, Pittsburg USD partnered with Alder GSE to start their own internal teacher residency program. The district is currently in the planning phase but is on track to recruit 25 residents from their community in 2024.

Meet the Team

Janet Schulze

Superintendent

Debra Pettric

Coordinator of Secondary Instruction

Shelley Velasco

Coordinator of Elementary Instruction

Sandra Guardado

Coordinator of English Learners & Dual Language Instruction

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