FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — California community colleges and the California State University system are trying to tackle the teacher shortage.

In California last year, there were 10,000 teacher vacancies across the state, according to the California Teachers Association.

Because of that, California Community Colleges collaborated with the California State University system to create the “Pathways for Advancing Visionary Educators” or “PAVE” Toolkit.

“The goal of the PAVE Toolkit is to ensure that students experience a clear, supported journey from California community colleges to the state to CSU,” California Community College Chancellor’s Office Dean of Workforce & Economic Development Chèri Fortin said.

Dozens of institutions and individuals throughout the state worked to create the free guide.

That includes Chèri Fortin and Hilary Seitz.

Through their work, they identified six recurring themes that consistently support student and educator success…

collaborationequity and accesstransfer pathways addressing teacher shortagesdata-informed decision-makingstudent supports

“So we looked at each of those themes, like, what does this look like? What is it? What would it look like in partnership? We really looked throughout what we already were doing,” Director of Educator & Leadership Programs in the California State University Chancellor’s Office, Hilary Seitz said.

Each theme was highlighted with real-life examples, such as a two-day meeting held between Fresno State and Cal State Long Beach.

The universities invited California Community College partners as they discussed their respective Liberal Studies and Education programs.

The result was a collaborative effort to ensure student success.

“The PAVE Toolkit is about creating the conditions for students to stay strong on their stay on track, their pathway, and ultimately meet the workforce demands and needs of California Schools and communities,” Fortin said.

The PAVE Toolkit also includes reports and resources, as well as checklists and tools that can be used for easy implementation.

For those who worked on the toolkit, they believe this is just the beginning of improving outcomes for aspiring teachers statewide.

“We want to grow strong teachers. We are producing more teachers than anyone else in our state right now, and we want to do more. We know we need to do more, and we can do more so, that’s our hope — is that it takes on a life of its own and we develop these really deep partnerships, and we can do some more great work together,” Seitz said.

The creators say this toolkit is not a tell-all but rather a guide to spark new ideas.

In the upcoming academic year, they will be looking at the impact of the toolkit at different institutions, in hopes of showing its effectiveness.

You can find the toolkit and more information by clicking here.

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