Calif. Sees Flexibility as Key to Keeping Good Teachers from Leaving

The first time Rachel Spector taught in the Ravenswood City School District, she quit out of frustration.

Spector was hired at a K-8 school in 2007 as a Teach for America corps member. During her four years there, she said, she felt “squashed” by educational pressures to raise student performance on standardized tests, resulting from Ravenswood’s status as a failing district under the No Child Left Behind Act.