TEACH California Website
Website Visits Unique Visitors Pages Viewed Year 1 2008-09 274,000 169,000 146,000 14,000 9,000 1,171,000 Year 2 2009-10 321,000 167,000 145,000 12,000 10,000 1,302,000 Year3 2010-11 316,000 172,000 148,000 13,000 12,000 1,502,000 Total 2,680,000 1,488,000 1,215,000 142,000 132,000 8,635,000TEACHCalifornia.org Activity Summary
Visitors who made one visit Visitors who made two vists Visitors who made 3+ visits
Prior to SPDG 776,000 103,000 101,000 5,660,000 1,769,000 980,000
The TEACH California website, www.teachcalifornia.org, was established in 2004 to help in addressing the continuing teacher shortage in California. The Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Leadership Project, funded by the California Department of Education (CDE), is focused on delivering information resources to potential teachers via the convenient interface of teachcalifornia.org.
TEACH California is part of California’s special education teacher recruitment effort, funded by the five-year State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG), offering additional information and materials to bolster teacher recruitment in all areas, particularly special education, math and science. It has been administrated by CalSTAT (California Services for Technical Assistance and Training) and operated by the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) since it was established in March, 2004. Starting in Year 4 of SPDG (July 2011 to June 2012), SCOE will take full control of the TEACH California website. After five years of operation, thewebsite has seen nearly 2.7 million visits, from nearly 1.5 million visitors, generating over 8.6 million page views, and continues to be a resource attracting an average of approximately 1,000 visits per day.
Visits, visitors making three or more visits in the same month, and page views have all increased during the SPDG, while the overall number of unique visitors has been more consistent, year to year.
Website Visits Unique Visitors
Visitors who made one visit Visitors who made two vists Visitors who made 3+ visits
N + 47,000 - 2,000 - 1,000 - 2,000 + 1,000 % 17% -1% -1% -14% 11% N + 42,000 + 3,000 + 2,000 - 1,000 + 3,000 % 15% 2% 1% -8% 29% Year 1 to Year 3 Year 1 to Year 2
Change in Activity from Baseline (Year 1)
The SPDG has a specific,explicit goal of a 10% increase in visitors from the baseline of Year 1. This target continues to not be met, even while other measures of traffic increase substantially. Strategies to find new
The number of visits and visitors are both more modest under the SPDG than they were when funded under the SPDG’s predecessor grants (State Improvement Grants SIG and SIG2).
A seasonal cycle when visits and visitors both swelled in the spring and declined in the winter (perhaps following the school cycle, with graduates contemplating post-graduate degrees and looking for jobs as the spring semester concluded) appears to have diminished.
While it appeared that the number of visits was trending upward in Year 2 from a all-time low in Year 1, they seem to have stabilized in Year 3.
The trendline for visits has remained relatively constant during the entire SPDG, hovering between 11,000 and 17,000 unique visitors per month.
Website Usage
A visit is a series of actions that begins when a visitor views the first page of the website, and ends when the visitors leaves the site. A single visit can be brief and cursory or extended and meaningful.
A visitor is someone who may visit the website one or many times. Unique visitors are tracked on a monthly basis, so an individual who visits several times over the course of the year may be counted as multiple “unique visitors.”
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 SPDG Year 1 274k visits 169k visitors SPDG Year 2 321k visits 167k visitors SPDG Year 3 316k visits 172k visitors
Visits and Unique Visitors to the TEACH California Website by Month
April 2004 (when the website was launched) to June 2011Visits
Visitors
SIG 2 SIG
The TEACH California website includes a number of pages offering different content. The following chart summarizes the most-accessed pages at teachcalifornia.org. The entry page of the website was the highest-traffic page with almost 352,253 visits so far since July 2008 (122,873 visits in Year 3), and is excluded from the chart.
The Understanding the Requirements pages are among the most popular
resources offered by the TEACH California website, describing what is needed to earn various teaching credentials. Single-subject credentials were most popular, followed by multiple-subject credentials (interest in this page is declining slightly), and special education credentials (in which interest is increasing).
The Find a Teaching Job was also very popular, and offers both advice and links to resources for teachers seeking a position.
Two new pages were introduced in Year 1 that were among the ten most-visited pages, both of which received more visits in Year 3 than in Year 2. These were the Distinguished Teachers page (which includes brief descriptions of real teachers and their messages to future or new teachers) and the High-Need Subject Areas page (which draws particular focus to special education, mathematics, and science). There has been declining interest in the Make and Follow Your Plan page, from
0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000 Understand the Requiements:
Index
Find a Teaching Job Understanding the Requirements:
For Secondary (Single Subject) Distinguished Teachers Understanding the Requirements: For Elementary (Multiple Subject) Understanding the Requirements:
For Special Education High-Need Subject Areas Make and Follow Your Plan Answers to Common Questions
Contact Us
Visits
Year 1 (2008-09)
Year 2 (2009-10)
Year 3 (2010-11)
Ten Most-visited Pages of the TEACH California Website
Make and Follow Your Plan
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Ja n Fe b M ar Apr M ay Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct N ov Dec Jan Feb M ar Apr M ay Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct N ov Dec Jan Feb M ar Apr M ay Jun Jul Aug Sep 2009 2010 2011 SPDG Year 1 365 new users SPDG Year 2 790 new users SPDG Year 3 1,682 new usersNewly Registered “Make And Follow Your Plan” Users by Month
January 2009 (when the feature was launched) to September 2011
SPDG Year 4 Best Month:
March 2011 257 new users
The “Make and Follow Your Plan” page helps potential teachers who may be “confused by all the different teaching requirements” by helping them create a “personal plan and checklist” to obtain the necessary education, credentials, and supports to become a teacher. It also allows visitors to register, creating an account that allows them to build and revisit a personalized checklist tailored around the potential teacher and his or her individual career goals.
While visits to the main “Make and Follow Your Plan” page have been declining since Year 1 (though still nearly 11,000 in Year 3), the number of users registering for the first time has increased considerably. This coincides with an increase in the mailing of outreach materials (such as recruitment pamphlets and bookmarks) starting in December 2010 and peaking with the distribution of 11,000 bookmarks in May 2011. As was noted on page one, the number of unique visitors accessing the TEACH California website has decreased, other measures of traffic have increased, especially the number of visitors making three or more visits in a month. New features like the “Make and Follow Your Plan” registration and checklist may be driving this trend.
Starting with January 2011, the number of registrations per month surged from a relatively steady trend of between 40 and 100 per month, peaking with 257 new users in March.
Education Specialist
473 users, 12%
Speech-Language Pathology Services
39 users, 1%
Adult Education and Career Technical Education (VocEd)
74 users, 2%
Pupil Personnel
157 users, 4%
Clinical Rehabilitative Services
18 users, < 1% Single Subject (Secondary) 1,792 users, 43% Multiple Subject (Elementary)
1,479 users, 36% Administrative Services90 users, 2%
Registered Users by Credential Goal
4,122 respondents, January 2009 to September 2011
46% registered users described themselves as college students, including 13% who were working on an undergraduate degree.
Career changers and paraeducators were another large block of registered users. Undergraduate Student 443 users, 13% Community College Student 472 users, 14% K-12 Student 31 users, 1% Graduate Student 578 users, 18% Administrator 15 users, < 1% Other 645 users, 20% Paraeducator 85 users, 3% Career Changer 1,009 users, 31%
Registered Users by Type
3,278 respondents, January 2009 to September 2011
Most users registered with a goal of seeking a teaching credential, either single subject (43%) or multiple subject (36%).
Because users create checklists tailored to their unique situation, data was available on the highly detailed “pathways” of users. Of the 35 unique pathways generated, the ones most common were:
College Graduate Planning an Elementary School Teaching Career (389 users) College Student Planning an Elementary School Teaching Career (301 users) Changing Careers, Single-subject (256 users)
Visitor Survey
A survey greets visitors to the TEACH California website in a “pop-up” window on the “Welcome” page. The survey asks visitors eight short questions to collect demographic information and about their interest in teaching. Because many web browsers are configured to disable pop-up windows, many visitors will not have an opportunity to respond to the survey; however, collected responses may be representative.
African American
1079 respondents, 8%
Alaskan Native/American Indian
116 respondents, 1% Asian 912 respondents, 7% Filipino/Pacific Islander 336 respondents, 3% Hispanic/Latino 2,039 respondents, 16% Middle Eastern 115 respondents, 1% Caucasian/White 7,464 respondents, 58% Other 841 respondents, 6%
TEACH California Visitors by Ethnicity
13,288 respondents, July 2008 to June 2011377 respondents didn’t indicate their ethnicity 25-35 Years Old 5,224 respondents, 40% 36-45 Years Old 2,522 respondents, 19%
Over 45 Years Old 1,930 respondents, 15%
Under 25 Years Old 3,436 respondents, 26%
TEACH California Visitors by Age
13,288* respondents, July 2008 to June 2011
*176 respondents didn’t indicate their age Male 3,593 respondents, 28% Female 9,313 respondents, 72%
TEACH California Visitors by Gender
13,288* respondents, July 2008 to June 2011
*382 respondents didn’t indicate
their gender
While 40% of survey respondents were between the ages of 25 and 35, over a third were older visitors, potentially representing career-changers rather than students. 72% of visitors described themselves as female, which is consistent with the gender
characteristic of teachers currently working. According to the DataQuest “staffing” report for 2009-10 (the most recent available), 73% of California teachers are female. Visitors to TEACH California website are slightly more diverse than teachers
currently working (visitors were 58% white compared with 69% of California teachers). All other groups were a bit more represented in the survey than in schools today.
N %
Career changer with a college degree 4,588 36% College student 2,236 17% Out-of state teacher 1,526 12% Credentialed teacher 881 7% Community college student 823 6%
Other 755 6%
Career changer without a college degree 571 4% Out-of country teacher 541 4% High school student 250 2% Paraeducator 244 2% Intern teacher 222 2% Out-of country 139 1% Counselor/Advisor 92 1% Middle school student 43 <1%
Who Are You
TEACH California visitors are overwhelmingly considering becoming teachers, with 82%. (N/A responses may indicate a respondent is already teaching). 53% are already taking steps to become a teacher, leaving 25% who have not yet started. 31% of visitors indicated
No 178 respondents 1% Not Applicable 2,192 respondents 17% Yes 10,918 respondents 82% No 3,311 respondents 25% Not Applicable 2,933 respondents 22% Yes 7,044 respondents 53%
Are you thinking of becoming a teacher?
13,288 respondents, July 2008 to June 2011
Are you taking steps to become a teacher?
13,288 respondents, July 2008 to June 2011Elementary Teacher 3,520 respondents, 28%
Middle School Teacher 792 respondents, 6%
High School Teacher 2,584 respondents, 21% Math Teacher 1,319 respondents, 10% Science Teacher 1,049 respondents, 8% Special Education 1,596 respondents, 13% Speech-Language Pathologist 96 respondents, 1% Undecided 1,689 respondents, 13%
What type of teacher are you thinking of becoming?
13,288* respondents, July 2008 to June 2011
*643 respondents didn’t respond to
this question
Visitors were also asked to describe their career background. Responses indicate that many TEACH California visitors are mature professionals interested in teaching.
Over a third of visitors were career changers, 36% with a college degree and 4% without.
Out-of-state (12%) and out-of-country (4%) teachers were another key block of visitors, perhaps contemplating a moving to California.
One in four visitors were currently students, led by college students 17%.
Brochure
317 respondents, 3%
California Teacher Preparation Program
287 respondents, 3% CalTeach Website 992 respondents, 8% CDE Website 770 respondents, 6% College or University 1,131 respondents, 9% Counselor 219 respondents, 2% CSU Website 958 respondents, 8% ctc.ca.gov 618 respondents, 5% EdJoin.org 519 respondents, 4%
Internet Search Engine
5,604 respondents, 46%
Teacher
677 respondents, 6%
Where did you hear about TEACH California?
13,288* respondents, July 2008 to June 2011
*1,196 respondents didn’t respond to
this question
As seeking new visitors to the TEACH California website is a goal, it is helpful to know how visitors are currently becoming aware of the website.
Internet search engines were cited by 46% of survey respondents. Comparing this with webtracking data summarized on page 10, these are liking to be overwhelmingly coming from Google.
Student-oriented responses totalled 28%, including College of University (9%), CSU Website (8%), Teacher (6%), California Teacher Preparedness Program (3%), and Counselor (2%).
Other partners in teacher recruitment totalled 23%, including CalTeach website (8%), CDE website (6%), Commission on Teacher Credentialling (ctc.ca.gov, 5%) and EdJoin.org (a project of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, 4%).
While nearly 100,000 brochures referencing TEACH California, brochures were cited by only 3% of respondents. It is possible, however, that other responses involved brochures, such as a teacher or counselor handing out brochures.
Become a Special Educator
TEACH California Web Site Tour (ppt) Total Mail 7,991 n/a 40,352 PDF 4,655 0 13,649 Mail 4,525 n/a 26,670 PDF 13,788 0 43,762 Mail 2,203 n/a 27,922 PDF 16,259 0 46,103 Year 2 Year 3 49,421
Financial Aid Program Chart (xls) n/a 0 n/a 0 n/a 821 821
Paraeducator 6,497 1,247 2,585 4,731 663 7,225 22,948
Service Learning 7,084 340 2,733 2,370 1,392 768 14,687
Steps to Become a Teacher Chart (xls) n/a 5,557 n/a 6,277 n/a 1,162 12,996
Teach Math 9,486 881 4,944 11,646 5,084 12,254 44,295
Teach Science 9,237 414 4,947 3,903 2,445 4,029 24,975
Bookmarks 0 0 5,524 0 15,765 1,498 22,787
CD Guide 8 0 290 0 113 1,141 1,552
One Child at a Time (CD) 16 n/a 293 n/a 174 n/a 483
Poster 33 555 829 1,047 83 946 3,493
0 198,458
Total
Outreach Materials Distributed by TEACH California
Year 1
TEACH California also offers a number of materials for educators and prospective teachers to order or download, with a distribution of nearly 200,000 over the first three years of the SPDG. Most of the materials are brochures, which are regularly revised to remain current, but other materials include a poster, video, and charts.
These materials are regularly shipped to college, junior college, and sometimes high school career centers. People seeking these materials, either in their capacity as an
educator or as a prospective teacher, can also order physical copies delivered in the mail through an interactive form on the website, as well as download them electronically as an Adobe PDF file. There is also a video CD which can only be ordered as a physical copy, and there are also two Excel spreadsheets (xls) and one PowerPoint file (ppt) which can only be downloaded. The table below presents the distribution totals in both formats.
Outreach Materials
The special educator (Become a Special Educator) and math teacher (Teach Math) recruitment brochures are the most-distributed materials offered by TEACH California, with each being shipped or downloaded roughly twice as much as other materials.
About half-as-many recruitment brochures for science teachers and paraeducators have been distributed as for special education and math teachers, as well as
bookmarks thanks to a large increase in the number mailed in SPDG Year 3. The TEACH California Web Site Tour PowerPoint showed no downloads in the
Web-tracking software also collected statistics on how visitors to the TEACH California website arrived, either directly or referred by another website. 60% of visits came directly to teachcalifornia.org, as when a visitors types in the url directly or accesses a bookmark. However, 126,179 visits started when a visitor clicked a link to
teachcalifornia.org on another website. Those referring websites’ addresses were recorded, as this information is sometimes used to inform marketing decisions.
Search engines were the source of 3 out of 4 referred visits, led by Google
(65% from Google alone, and another 10% from others, such as Yahoo and Bing). Search engines serving users in South Korea and China were also referrers. California government websites made the next most referrals, with 5%. Multiple
state-maintained websites share the ca.gov domain, including the CDE.
Other Education-related referrers were led by ecollege.com (1,412 referrals) and teachingtips.com (1,290 referrals). Other commercial websites were led by jobstar.org (795 referrals) and Facebook (198 referrals).
81,972 referrals, 65% 11,949 referrals, 10%Other Search Engines
College or University
6,297 referrals, 5%
California Gov Website (ca.gov)
6,780 referrals, 5%
Public School Domains
1,135 referrals, 1%
calstateteach.net
4,530 referrals, 4%
Other Education-related Org
4,337 referrals, 3%
Other Referrers
1,199 referrals, 1%
Domains Referring Fewer than 100 Visits
7,980 referrals, 6%
Visits to the TEACH California Website Originating at Other Domains
126,179 Referred Visits from July 2010 to June 2011
This document was developed for CalSTAT by the SPDG Evaluation Team of Cheryl “Li” Walter, PhD, and Alan Wood.
CalSTAT (California Services for Technical Assistance and Training), at Napa County Office of Education, is a special project of the California Department of Education, Special Education Division. Visit CalSTAT at http://www.calstat.org. “California Department of Education, Special Education Division’s special project, California Services for Technical Assistance and Training (CalSTAT) is funded through a contract with the Napa County Office of Education. CalSTAT is partially funded from federal funds, State Grants #H027A080116A. Additional federal funds are provided from a
federal competitively awarded State Personnel Development Grant to California (#H323A070011) provided from the U.S. Department of Education Part D of the Individuals with Disabilities Education act (IDEA).
