Sacramento Bee

Editorial: A teachable moment?
Teaching force needs urgent assistance

Monday, December 27, 2004

Whatever else people believe about what makes a quality education, most can agree that good teachers make a big difference in student learning.

Now, it's time for lawmakers and state education leaders to make a big difference for teachers and, in turn, for the students. Quick action is needed in 2005 to overcome serious teaching challenges that await in 2006.

Among those challenges:

• By 2006, under federal requirements, 20,000 California teachers with emergency teaching permits or pre-intern certificates no longer will be able to teach.
• In 2006, the number of teachers will start declining, largely because of retirements. Fewer college students, meanwhile, are majoring in education.
• Beginning with the class of 2006, students will be required to pass a high school exit exam in order to graduate. At the same time, a huge student demographic bulge will be moving through high school.

California in the late 1990s invested in an elaborate teacher recruitment pipeline and in centers for training teachers in specific subject areas. But as the report "California's Teaching Force 2004" points out, that system has been disrupted by cuts.

To meet the challenges of 2006, lawmakers and education leaders should learn from the experiences of the late 1990s.

The most pressing issue then as now: Students most in need of the best teachers are the most likely to face underprepared teachers at hard-to-staff, lower-performing schools. That cycle has to be broken.

How?

• Make sure the words in last summer's Williams settlement result in action. The settlement requires the state to address poor conditions at schools, including decrepit facilities and lack of instructional materials that contribute to high teacher turnover in lower-performing schools. It also requires county offices of education to review assignment patterns of new, underprepared and out-of-field teachers at these schools. This is an area where county offices of education should exercise leadership.
• Make sure the Higher Education Compact between the University of California and California State University systems and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which promised more math and science teachers, actually results in production of new teachers.
• Invest in training for middle and high school teachers. The state spent $222 million for professional development programs in 2000-2001 but only $62 million in 2003-2004. That money has gone primarily toward reading and math teaching in the early grades, an effort that has paid off in results. But investment in higher grades has been minimal. The need now is to extend similar effort to middle and high schools. For example, Algebra I is now required for graduation from high school, yet 40 percent of teachers teaching algebra do not have training in math.
• Revive Professional Development Institutes and California Subject Matter Projects, administered by the University of California. Funding for the institutes was eliminated; subject matter projects have been drastically cut. Both programs offered long and intense professional development with follow-up, rather than disconnected workshops.

The teaching force report concludes: "We believe there is a small window now for the state to act to avoid a crisis of the magnitude we saw in the late 1990s. Now, unlike then, the warning signs are clear; the crisis is avoidable."

It's clear what needs to happen.

Focus like a laser on the teacher recruitment pipeline and high-quality professional development.

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