Bless them for being there! But are students hampered by getting one rookie after another?
Two weeks after she left her job as a waitress and restaurant manager, Mona Ryan found herself back in school. She wasn't a student - she was a teacher in charge of 20 first-graders at Alexandria Avenue School in Los Angeles.
With a confident manner and a bachelor's degree in marketing, she had convinced those on the hiring end that she would make a good teacher, despite a total lack of experience and training.
Mona Ryan works with her first-graders at Alexandria Avenue School in Los Angeles.
"Like most new teachers, I had no experience," says Ryan. "I had 14 days between my last job and the first day of school. This was not nearly enough time for adequate preparation, and I received no inservice on any of the material. Thus, my first day in the classroom was based on everything I had learned from reading Harry Wong," she says, referring to the popular author on classroom teaching.
To compound the problem, she had no textbooks and no supplies. "I simply did not know what to do with 20 students, ages 5 to 6, who were not properly supplied with the necessary materials to perform," she recalls. "I later learned this time is generally given for assessment and structuring in the classroom. However, I did not know how to assess or what I was assessing. Instead, I created lessons that I wasn't sure the students were getting. I did not know how to change the material so that it was a better fit."
When the textbooks arrived three weeks later, she didn't know how to use them. "Yes, I can read, and therefore began at page one in language arts, mathematics and social sciences," she recalls. "I fumbled through science kits and art projects. There were pages and pages of materials, and I wasn't sure if I should pick and choose, or teach everything. I was told that I knew the students and I knew what they needed. Did I? Is that even possible for anyone in their first teaching experience?"
While many new teachers would have quit under such circumstances, Ryan stuck it out. Now, in her third year on an emergency permit, the United Teachers Los Angeles member has taken online education courses and expects to earn her credential within a year. But, looking back, she wishes things could have been different.
"I wish I had had a chance to observe a veteran teacher for several weeks before going into the classroom," she says. "I wish someone had walked me through our textbooks. I wish someone had explained the ins and outs of assessments. I would have done much better if I had been prepared. My students would have done better, and I would have been a better teacher. I learned a great deal, but it was at the expense of the students."
Like most schools with large numbers of emergency permit teachers, the students of Alexandria Avenue Elementary are poor and mostly minorities. All of the 952 students are classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged. The school's Academic Performance Index (API) ranking is in the second decile.
Ryan, still at the school, has moved on to a more professional style of teaching. Many of her students have, unfortunately, moved on to classrooms with new emergency permit teachers.
"I see that some of my students are with another emergency permit teacher this year," she observes. "I ask, 'Are they the training ground for us, or we for them? Is this why the students leave ill-educated?'
"The present system is functioning at the learner's expense and must be changed," she says.
"I understand the dilemma - that we need more teachers and will take anyone who's qualified. But the lack of training means that the students lose. And there are no safeguards in place to make sure these students do not get placed in a room with unqualified teachers year after year."
A.J. Whitfield and his classmates listen attentively to their math teacher at Del Vallejo Middle School in San Bernardino
Because of a severe teacher shortage, one in every seven California classrooms is taught by someone who does not hold preliminary or professional clear credentials, according to The Status of the Teaching Profession, Update 2000, a report from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, based in Santa Cruz.
In 1998-99, there were 32,700 teachers working under emergency permits or waivers. That number climbed to approximately 40,000 in 1999-2000, representing about 14 percent of the workforce. The growing ranks of new teachers working on emergency permits - a result of class size reduction, rising student enrollment and teacher retirements - have caused some education experts to wonder if schools in California are facing a state of emergency.
The number of underqualified or uncredentialed teachers is expected to grow even higher as baby boomers reach retirement age. According to the State Teachers' Retirement System, 54 percent of all members are more than 42 years old and a third are 50 or older (1999-2000 numbers). Colleges are not graduating enough qualified teachers to keep up.
At the same time, K-12 student enrollment, which was just under 6 million in 1998-99, is expected to reach 6.2 million in 2007-08.
To receive an emergency permit, applicants must have at least a bachelor's degree and pass the California Basic Education Skills Test (CBEST). Applicants must enroll in a college program that will lead to a full credential and complete six semester units of coursework each year.
A few years ago, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) imposed a five-year limit for annual renewal of emergency permits. Before that, teachers could renew emergency permits endlessly. Some in the Los Angeles Unified School District even retired on emergency permits after 30 years. A small percentage of uncredentialed teachers work on waivers, usually when they don't have the required number of units in their subject matter or have not yet passed CBEST. They, too, must be enrolled in a credentialing program.
According to the report from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, underqualified teachers are not evenly distributed in subject matter or geographic areas. They are concentrated in certain "hard to fill" subjects, such as special education, math and science. In 1998-99, approximately 5,200 emergency permits were issued in special education alone, compared with 2,500 credentials.
Danielle Smith helps Jesus Garcia score in a makeshift game of bowling in her special education class at Hayden Elementary School in Westminster.
Schools in affluent areas tend to have few or no underqualified teachers. "Students in low-performing schools with high percentages of poor and minority students continue to be the most likely to have underqualified teachers," states the report. Schools with high numbers of uncredentialed teachers tend to have high turnover, with many leaving the profession in frustration or fleeing to less challenging school environments.
Overall, urban schools are affected more than suburban and rural areas. In 1999-2000, the number of underqualified teachers averaged about 20 percent in urban schools compared with about 9 percent in suburban and rural schools. Individual schools may have as many as 50 to 90 percent of teachers working on emergency permits or waivers. Nearly half of the state's teachers on emergency permits are concentrated in Los Angeles County alone.
Teachers with the least experience are being thrust into the most difficult and challenging teaching environments. And poor and minority students - who need experienced teachers the most - aren't getting them. This scenario can't help but create wider disparities between advantaged and disadvantaged schools. It also, undoubtedly, affects test scores.
A new study commissioned by CTA predicts that the gap will continue to widen if the present trend continues. The report compared the lowest decile schools to the highest decile schools under the API, showing a high correlation between the lower-ranking schools and the number of teachers with emergency permits. In schools with the lowest test scores, a third or more of the teachers are not fully credentialed, while in the highest-performing schools only around 5 percent are not credentialed.
Many disadvantaged children are already two to three years behind suburban peers, Aida Walqui, director of teacher professional development at WestEd, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "If you place them with three consecutive poor teachers, they never recover."
The newspaper quotes a paper by Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, as showing that students assigned three ineffective teachers in consecutive order fell from 60th percentile in fourth grade to 42nd percentile by the end of sixth grade. Those assigned effective teachers rose from the 59th percentile to the 76th percentile during the same time span.
Having a qualified teacher in the classroom is the single most important factor in improving student achievement, according to Harvard researcher Ronald Ferguson. His research has shown that teacher experience accounts for 40 percent of the variance in student achievement. A recent poll by Lou Harris shows 87 percent of Californians agree that children, especially those who are economically disadvantaged, should have teachers who are fully qualified even if it requires spending more money.
"Obviously, if 40 percent of teachers in a district are on training wheels, it has to affect student achievement - and not in a positive way," says Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. "That's not to say that many of them are not good teachers, or trying very hard. But when we (experienced teachers) look back on our first couple of years in the profession, there are many things we would not want to visit upon children again if we didn't have to. Most of us weren't all that sharp in the beginning. And if you have 40 percent of teachers in that situation, it's not the best news for students."
With 9,597 out of 27,181 teachers on emergency permits or waivers, the Los Angeles Unified School District has the largest district-operated intern program in the state. It enrolls 600 teachers a year. Nearby universities - CSU-Northridge, CSU-Dominguez Hills and UCLA - also have intern programs. However, fewer than half of LAUSD's teachers on emergency permits are enrolled in internship programs, says Higuchi.
"How can you take someone who hasn't been in a third-grade classroom since he or she was in third grade and expect them to teach third grade?" asks Higuchi. "You can't just give someone a school register and a pat on the back. We would never allow anybody to be a doctor just because they like to cut. Why are we letting people mold the minds and spirits of children because they like to be with kids? Even teamsters get to train truck drivers. You don't just put them in a big rig and say 'Good luck.' It's ridiculous."
"We aren't here to beat up on emergency permit teachers," asserts CTA President Wayne Johnson. "Emergency permit teachers should be supported rather than blamed. They are filling a serious gap - just like shock troops sent into a desperate situation with little or no training and little or no support. They are thrust into unbelievable situations. They are paid a minimum wage to do an impossible job. They teach school and also go to school. And they can be fired at a moment's notice by administrators - and often are."
"I appreciate them for doing what they do, and hope they get the support they need so they can get their credentials and stay in teaching," says Johnson, noting that 30 percent of all new teachers quit within three years, and 50 percent quit within five years. "So many of them are being driven out of the profession, because of overcrowded, run-down classrooms, miserable working conditions, a lack of adequate school supplies, disruptive students and a lack of support from often hostile administrators.
"But they are not disposable teachers. It's a terrible irony; we need these people desperately to fill empty classrooms, yet we treat them as badly as possible and blame them for everything."
"We shouldn't think of unprepared teachers as the pariah of California's education system," says Margaret Gaston, co-director for the Center of Teaching and Learning. "They are typically dedicated and willing to take on the toughest challenges in the system. We need to think of ways to support and sustain them to make sure they become fully qualified and effective teachers. We need them."
While much has been said in the media about the problems of large numbers of untrained teachers in public schools, many of the positive things they bring to the classroom have gone unnoticed. Many veteran teachers praise their colleagues on emergency permits as being hard-working, enthusiastic and idealistic. At many sites, they volunteer for after-school duties such as coaching or staffing homework centers - often to pay off student loans. They have been credited with infusing the profession with new energy and ideas.
Those teaching on emergency permits are part of a statewide education system that complains about underqualified teachers, yet encourages teachers to work on emergency permits rather than go through traditional credential programs.
The CCTC report notes, "The great majority of credential candidates who enter accredited programs of professional preparation either work as emergency teachers before they begin their preparation, or obtain emergency permits during their training. Much smaller numbers of new teachers complete their initial supervised preparation before serving as certificated teachers in schools."
It boils down to dollars and sense. It makes no sense to work for free as a fifth-year student teacher when you can get paid for doing the same thing.
"As more individuals begin to teach without proper credentials, traditional preparation programs find themselves serving greater numbers of students who are already the teacher of record in local classrooms," notes the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning report. "In some parts of the state, prospective teachers have little incentive to enroll in traditional preparation programs because they can earn a salary as a classroom teacher and receive training at the same time."
"When I got my bachelor's degree, there was no way I could take another year and not get paid," says Sandy Gerber, a member of the Teachers Association of Paramount. She will receive her credential in June after three years on an emergency permit.
"Why do it for free when you can get paid?" asks Marianne Reynolds, vice president of the Bellflower Education Association, who works in a support program for teachers working on emergency permits. "It's hard to work for free when you have to eat, and the market is hungry for teachers - with or without credentials."
Some districts may actually choose to hire uncredentialed teachers so they can save money and pay less in salaries. Besides the cost savings, districts may opt to hire teachers on emergency permits because they can be dismissed without just cause. Without job security, teachers may agree to take difficult assignments that no one else wants. They are afraid to complain or become politically active, which makes them desirable employees in some administrators' minds. In other words, teachers on emergency permits may be easier to exploit.
"Having lots of emergency permit teachers can cause problems in negotiations," says Larry Terrill, president of the Lassen Teachers Association. A teacher at Lassen High School, where a quarter of the staff is working on emergency permits, he says, "When teachers have no rights, it's harder for them to become involved in the association. It may take them seven years before they reach permanent status."
CTA's Teacher Evaluation and Academic Freedom Committee recently became concerned about the status of emergency permit teachers. In its report, the committee states, "Temporary contract teachers must have due process rights/just cause protection."
The Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) has successfully negotiated with the district a provision that emergency permit teachers cannot be dismissed without the district showing just cause. "It's only fair," says TALB President Cliff Kusaba. "It has worked beautifully for us, and other school districts are asking us about it. The district knows that TALB won't go to bat for someone who doesn't belong in the classroom. Now, the district must evaluate and observe them to find real problems before showing them the door." A third of Long Beach's teachers, or more than 2,000, have emergency permits.
Even more important than due process, says Kusaba, is strong support programs for new, untrained teachers. "The goal is to give them all the support they need so they will get their credentials quickly and stay in the district."
"CTA encourages each local association to be actively involved in the implementation of a support system that will encourage temporary contract teachers to pursue full credential status," states a recommendation from CTA's Teacher Evaluation and Academic Freedom Committee. In many areas of California - Long Beach and Oakland, for example - that is already happening.
Emergency permit teachers are a mixed blessing for California's school system. As individuals, they fill a need and bring enthusiasm, idealism and energy to the job. As a group - concentrated in poor, urban schools - their inexperience and lack of training potentially widens the achievement gap between disadvantaged and affluent students.
Even with on-the-job training and support from districts, having large numbers of novices working with poor, urban children - often year after year - creates inequity at best and possible long-term damage at worst.
Some possible solutions involve radical changes. One solution would be for student teachers to be paid at least a stipend. Many emergency teachers say they would have opted for a fifth year in a credential program - doing student teaching under the supervision of a veteran teacher - if they had been paid something for their time.
Another solution might be to give large, urban school districts enough money to attract qualified teachers. This would likely result in a more even dispersal of uncredentialed teachers rather than the highest concentrations in the lowest socioeconomic school districts.
That idea worked in Oakland, reports Oakland Education Association President Sheila Quintana. Last year, 800 out of 3,200 teachers were working on emergency permits in the Oakland Unified School District. This year there are only 300.
"When we got a 23 percent salary raise (spread out over three years), we were able to attract credentialed teachers," explains Quintana. "Out of the 800 emergency permit teachers last year, 400 left and 400 joined pre-internship or internship programs and stayed on as staff. We pushed them to join these programs to improve quality. We wanted every emergency permit teacher to move into such a program if they were not already in one, to prepare them to become credentialed teachers."
The result of better pay is less teacher turnover in Oakland, a district formerly known as having a revolving door. "Now, we have fewer teachers leaving, and more coming in who see teaching as a lifelong career," says Quintana. "We found that if you pay teachers more, they want to work here. What a concept!"
