Pathway to Teaching Program

With the support of SFUSD’s Pathway to Teaching program, Josefina Matus, a mom of 11, overcame multiple barriers to fulfilling her dream to become a teacher at SFUSD. For many aspiring teachers, the rigid schedule of credentialing programs and the prohibitive cost of tuition make it insurmountable. Josefina’s resolve, SFUSD’s commitment to developing multiple pathways to credentialing and Spark’s funders, are addressing these barriers.

Recognizing the need to develop a diverse and high-quality teacher pipeline, Spark* SF Public Schools and SFUSD have prioritized raising private support for SFUSD’s Educator Pipeline initiative.

With the support of Salesforce, the Pathway to Teaching program offers aspiring teachers an accessible way to enter the field, providing them with tuition support and an accelerated timeline to gaining a teacher credential.

Each year, approximately 60 Pathway to Teaching interns engage in an intensive program of coursework, practice-based summer training and then work as full-time teachers as they complete their credentialing requirements, helping our district address the severe teacher shortage that is evident nationwide.

Overall, Pathway teachers are staying longer —a longitudinal study conducted of school districts across the nation showed that 44% of new teachers usually leave within the first five years of teaching. Ninety three percent (93%) of teachers trained through SFUSD’s Pathway to Teaching program return for a second year of teaching and 85% for a third, and these numbers have increased with every cohort since the beginning of the program.

With a focus on increasing the diversity of SFUSD’s teaching force, 64% of graduates are teachers of color, compared to 34% of educators statewide.

As a full-time educator now at ER Taylor Elementary School, Ms. Matus is responsible for a full class of students and she eagerly brings not only her training but also her culture and personal lived experience to the classroom. Born in San Francisco and raised in Portola Valley, Ms. Matus has an acute sensitivity to students of color and those from other cultures. Additionally, her experience as a paraeducator in the 1990’s gives her a greater understanding for those with learning disabilities. She loves her job, especially during those times when she can help them gain confidence in their
own abilities.

As school districts across the country strive to attract diverse educators, Ms. Matus and Pathway to Teaching represent part of the solution and the future of education.