The Learning Curve: Even When Teachers Keep Their Jobs, They May Not Keep Their School

Fresh from winter break, San Diego Unified teacher Ryan Bradford received some unwelcome news: he was being excessed. It was just his third year teaching, if you count his yearlong student-teacher stint, and his second at City Heights’ Hoover High. 

“Every teacher you talk to says, ‘you don’t really know what you’re doing until you’re at least five years in,’ which, in any other profession just seems insane,” Bradford joked. 

Now that he was a couple of years in, it made sense. He said he was just now finding his groove. Being excessed felt a bit like having the rug pulled out from underneath him. 

Excessing is one of an infinite glossary of school related jargon. It’s when teachers are removed from their schools due to low enrollment or funding shortages. But unlike the dreaded layoff, excessed teachers keep their jobs, but are shuffled to a different school that needs an educator with their particular credentials. 

Bradford said that’s likely to be his case. He has been teaching in an English Language Development class, more school jargon for teaching English to students who don’t already know it. He’s loved that experience and cherished the support and experience of Hoover’s ELD team, which he described as an “incubator of knowledge.” With the excess, Bradford suspects he’ll be transferred to a more standard English class elsewhere in the district, which is what he’s credentialed for. He’s preparing himself for that transition, but he’s fallen in love with his ELD students.  

“The kids are so great,” Bradford said. “The kids that I teach are newcomers and I think most of them have been in the United States for less than six months,” he said. Many of his students have little to no English proficiency. Some don’t even know their ABC’s. 

“So, I’m kind of building this foundation with them, and it’s been really humbling to work with these students, because they’re just so eager to learn,” he said. 

He also lives in the neighborhood and walked to school. Sometimes he’d even see his students out and about, something he really valued. 

“Moving from a different country and coming to a new place … I’m sure everything is new, and everything is scary. To be able to see a familiar face walking around, I’m sure that has some positive effects on transitioning into the United States,” Bradford said. 

Receiving an excess notice doesn’t mean teachers have to pack their bags right away. Teachers can only be transferred twice a year, either in between school years, or in the fall, by October 31. District officials wrote in an email that they don’t yet have any information on where teachers who received excess notices will end up next year. 

Keeping their jobs is likely a relief, especially as San Diego Unified is facing down massive – and still growing – budget deficits in coming years. Though some district officials have thus far denied that they may turn to the teacher layoffs they’ve resorted to in past years, central staff reductions are already on the table. 

Still, that doesn’t mean everything’s peachy for excessed teachers. Adjusting to a new school is hard and getting moved is almost like a rite of passage. Bradford said every teacher he’s spoken to has been excessed at some point. 

The process is based on seniority, meaning new teachers are most likely to get bumped, but that doesn’t mean more experienced teachers are safe.  In March, NBC 7 featured the story of a teacher with 20 years of experience who received an excess notice. Social studies teacher Jeniffer Harden told NBC 7 at the time that she was dismayed because of how long it takes to build trust with students, especially in the shadow of the pandemic. Fellow San Diego High School teacher Rahel Gottlieb told the outlet: “What upsets me the most is that we are treated like pegs on a gameboard. We are not treated as human beings.” 

Experienced teachers, however, do have some levers to pull. According to the union that represents San Diego Unified teachers, if a teacher has taught a different subject than the one they’re currently teaching in the recent past and are more senior than teachers currently teaching that subject, they can exercise what are called “seniority rights.” In other words, they may be able to shift the excessing to a less senior teacher. 

Even after receiving the excess notice, Bradford is still all-in on teaching. Nearly half of teachers quit before they’ve worked for five years, but he hasn’t felt that urge. On the contrary, he said he’s felt “more professional satisfaction than I ever had in any of my other jobs.” He also feels like it’s made him “weirdly introspective,” and forced him to consider his capacity for compassion and patience. 

Still, he’s going to miss working with the kinds of students he’s had at Hoover. He even designed activities for his ELD students that he hoped would make learning more engaging and fun. He would use karaoke to practice English and had students create zines about something they were interested in. 

“When you’re working with these kids, or when you’re in professional development, you’re always encouraged to think with an asset-based mindset, because so many people think of refugees or immigrants (in terms of what) they lack,” Bradford said. 

“These kinds of creative projects (like zines) really show what they’re bringing to the table. Like, the kind of beauty and artistic merit and just interesting, cool shit that they’re bringing to the United States. It’s amazing.” 

Content Bouncing Around My Mind Palace 

• While the pandemic threw schools into disarray, the chaos also led to a flood of cash. From state to federal recovery funds, schools were flush with funding ever since, but the expiration of those funding sources has many districts, San Diego Unified included, projecting steep budget deficits. The bad news doesn’t stop there: California has projected a massive budget deficit of tens of billions. Gov. Gavin Newsom sought to spare schools from what looked to be significant budget cuts by piping in $8 billion from the state’s rainy day fund, much to the delight of educators and administrators. But a recent report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office casts doubts on the feasibility of that plan. Expectations that revenue will remain flat in future years, while costs will increase, could also spell trouble for initiatives Newsom has championed like community schools and expanded after-school programs. 

What We’re Writing 

• Educational performance drops were expected after the deep disruption of the pandemic, but for Lincoln High, the reality has been startling. Yet even as scores dropped to startling levels, the school’s graduation rate has ticked up. In the 2021-22 school year, only 3 percent of Lincoln’s students met state math standards. That amounts to 11 students. The next year, 85 percent of seniors graduated.