Community Success - Graduates

Our CalTeach alumni are now teaching in K–12 classrooms across California and beyond, translating their undergraduate experiences into meaningful, long-term impact in education. As former STEM majors, our alumni bring strong content knowledge, real-world applications, and a commitment to equity into their teaching practice. Many credit CalTeach with shaping their decision to pursue teaching by providing early classroom experience, mentorship, and a deep understanding of how strong K–12 science and math instruction opens pathways to college and future careers. Today, CalTeach graduates continue to serve as role models for their students, inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers, and problem-solvers.

Our Alumni Teaching Footprint

Take a look below to see where our CalTeach Alumni are currently teaching:

Orange = High School | Yellow = Middle School | Blue = Elementary | Gray = Other

Bay Area Schools

The majority of our alumni teach in Bay Area secondary schools, with a strong regional footprint.

Los Angeles Schools

Los Angeles represents our second most concentrated region of alumni impact.

CalTeach alumni most commonly earn credentials in mathematics, followed by biological sciences, chemistry, and physics. This reflects CalTeach’s strong focus on preparing STEM teachers, while the “Other” category includes less common subject entries and records where the specific credential subject was not clearly listed.

Most CalTeach alumni with grade-level records teach at the high school level, with middle school representing the next largest group. This suggests that CalTeach is especially contributing to the secondary STEM teacher pipeline, while also supporting a smaller number of elementary, K–8, adult, and mixed-grade teaching placements.

CalTeach alumni with known current school locations are overwhelmingly teaching in California. Among currently teaching alumni with location records, 108 of 113 are teaching in California, showing that the program’s impact remains strongly concentrated within the state’s schools.

CalTeach Top 5 Teaching Hubs (Last Updated June 2026)

CountiesDistrictsPublic Schools
1Alameda1Oakland Unified School District1Berkeley High School
2Contra Costa2Berkeley Unified School District2Willard Middle School
3Los Angeles3West Contra Costa Unified School District3Westmoor High School
4Santa Clara / San Diego4Los Angeles Unified School District4El Cerrito High School
5San Francisco5Hayward Unified School District5Oakland High School / Albany Middle School / Impact Academy

What Types of Schools Do Our Alumni Teach At?

Among California Public Schools:
School TypePercentage of CalTeach Alumni Teaching
Title I recipient school60.6%
High-need school, 55%+ UPC68.5%
High-poverty school, 50%+ FRPM67.7%
Very high-poverty school, 75%+ FRPM38.7%
English learner-serving school, 20%+ EL30.6%
English learner-serving school, 30%+ EL16.9%
ESSA CSI/TSI/ATSI support status15.7%

Of our alumni, roughly two-thirds of their placements are in high-need and/or high-poverty schools, with nearly half in very high-poverty schools. 

Key:
Title I: Federal program serving schools with high concentrations of students from low-income families
UPC: Unduplicated Pupil Count; the share of students who are low-income, English learners, and/or foster youth
FRPM: Free or Reduced-Price Meals; commonly used as a school-level poverty indicator
EL: English Learner
ESSA: Every Student Succeeds Act
CSI: Comprehensive Support and Improvement
TSI: Targeted Support and Improvement
ATSI: Additional Targeted Support and Improvement

Data sourced from the California Department of Education 2024-2025 annual report.

CalTeach Alumni Teaching Retention

Overall eligible alumni retention — graduates from 2010 to 2024 cohorts

Across eligible cohorts, a large share of CalTeach graduates both enter teaching and remain in the classroom over time. Of 259 total graduates, 182 entered teaching, with 92.3% of eligible teaching alumni retained through Year 2 and 74.6% retained through Year 5, though retention varies by entry cohort.

The cohort-by-cohort retention rate varies with each year. Our 5-year retention rate is quite stable, generally hovering around 62-75%.

More than seven in ten CalTeach graduates have taught at some point after completing the program. Of 259 total graduates, 182 have entered teaching, while 77 are not currently teaching or have no recorded teaching employment. Click the non-teaching segment to explore the range of fields these alumni have entered, including technology, business, healthcare, public service, graduate study, and other pathways.

CalTeach benchmark rates use cohort-size-weighted pooled rates from the five most recent entry cohorts with data available at each milestone. Headline cards show all eligible immediate-entry alumni across the full tracking period. This is why the Year 5 benchmark rate, 75.0%, differs from the overall Year 5 headline rate, 74.6%.