The University of California, Davis School of Education's reputation is rigorous and preeminent as an institution for training teachers. At the heart of the program's success are the clinical faculty who are best suited to bridge university research with classroom practice.

The school's proposed suspension of the teacher credentialing program is distressing for alumni and for the communities in which the school partners and serves. Any suspension will destroy a vital lifeline of preservice teacher preparation that supports the wellbeing of California's schools. Solano, Yolo, and Sacramento counties will suffer this loss most heavily as the School of Education chooses to renege on its responsibilities as a land-grant university serving Californians. 

These losses will be devastating as our schools reel from a pandemic-induced recession. A multi-year drought of new teachers will irreparably damage the relationships between UC Davis and Northern California communities.

Teacher Education Supervisors and Lecturers are indispensable to the preparation of preservice teachers at the university level. Their expertise in the classroom affords students necessary skillsets to implement theory into practice. We are distressed and hurt that our mentors and clinical colleagues will be furloughed without the consultation of the UC Davis community and the school's alumni: with whom these lecturers and supervisors have built community relationships vital to the preparation of teachers.

The inexplicable timing and opaque communication inspires no confidence that this decision is rooted in supporting teacher-researchers alone.

We agree that the values of research-informed practice, technology-infused classrooms, and social justice are vital to the wellbeing of strong classrooms; dismissing lecturers is socially unjust and undermines the instruction of best classroom practice.

To ensure the health of our learning communities, and our alumni relationships that have been built on mentorship and trust, we the undersigned alumni, school site partners, and concerned community members collectively affirm and insist the following:

1) that any curriculum review and design should happen while the School of Education continues its land-grant mission of educating California's next teachers, so as to not willfully contribute to our communities' teacher shortages and to protect the livelihoods of supervisors and lecturers who have built these community relationships.

2) that systemic and active curriculum efforts to review or develop new curriculum must be informed by the values of Lecturer/Supervisors and the field of Teacher Education.

3) that the SOE and UCD actively engage its partner school sites and districts to ensure smooth progress throughout the redesign efforts and future implementation.

We stress that in order for an institution to be worthy of the distinction of being a school, it must serve students and support its teachers.

Signed,