Judging by the energy and enthusiasm Anjanett Perez demonstrates in front of her class, you'd never guess she stayed up until the wee hours of the morning studying for her competency exam.
"It's a challenge for me to be totally focused on my class," confides Perez. "I'm up every night studying until 1 a.m. I'm barely sleeping. Lots of coffee in the morning helps."
She's so stressed out, she says none of her friends want to be around her.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
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'The worst part is that passing this test isn't going to make me highly qualified,' says Anjanett Perez, an emergency permit teacher who's studying for her competency exam until the wee hours of the morning and then trying to function in front of sixth- and seventh-graders during school hours. |
Perez, who's working on an emergency permit as she teaches social studies and life skills to sixth- and seventh-graders at Mokler Elementary School in Paramount, took a "back door" into teaching. With a bachelor's degree in psychology, she worked as a teaching assistant in a juvenile hall facility before deciding to switch careers and become a teacher. She took enough classes to earn her multiple subjects credential, but couldn't complete her student teaching or receive her credential until she passed the competency exam. The last time she attempted the Multiple Subjects Assessment for Teachers (MSAT), which has since been replaced by the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET), she came within 9 points of passing.
Frustrated, she decided to get around the test by enrolling in a 10-course liberal arts "waiver" program at a private university a year ago, at a cost of $5,000.
At the time, the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), had been approved by Congress, but was not yet on the public's radar screen. Perez had no inkling what it would mean to her. Her academic advisor knew about the legislation but didn't mention it, assuming continuing students would be grandfathered in. Her advisor was wrong.
"I was in a science class when my teacher asked us, 'How many of you are going to drop this class now that the waiver program is no longer accepted?' Ten of us stood up and walked out. We went right into the academic advisor's office. I thought there would be a riot, we were so upset. That's when they told us.
"I felt cheated and lied to," says Perez.
Not only have the requirements changed, so has the test. Instead of retaking a test she had come so close to passing, she is having to contend with a brand new test. If she doesn't pass the entire test by June, she fears she'll lose her job.
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Anjanett Perez teaches social studies and life skills to Alessandra Garcia, Shane Mauinatu and Daniel Sigala at Mokler Elementary in Paramount. |
"The worst part is that passing this test isn't going to make me 'highly qualified,'" says Perez, a member of the Teachers Association of Paramount. "It's not like somebody coming into my classroom and seeing me teach and telling me I'm a good teacher or that I'm not. If somebody observed me and said I wasn't a good teacher, I could accept it. But being judged on a test? It's hard to accept. I think what really makes you a good teacher is experience. I'm a better teacher this year than I was last year, and that's the effect of time."
For emergency permit teachers and those who earned their credentials after July 1, 2002, the highly qualified teacher requirement has been especially traumatic, says CTA Instruction and Professional Development consultant Patricia Rucker.
"New teachers have been getting confusing messages from teacher preparation programs," she says. "They are told they won't have to take a test. Then when they graduate and try to get a job, districts tell them are not qualified - or not NCLB compliant - because they did not take a test. The new teachers are very upset. They say, 'I did everything I was told to do. Why didn't my university tell me about this?' Often the reason is that the university didn't think the law would be enforced."
Teachers who finish their credential program between July 1, 2002, and July 1, 2004, are in a "transition period," says Rucker. They are allowed to finish the program, graduate and receive a preliminary credential. "They are considered certified, but not NCLB compliant. To be NCLB compliant, they have to take - and pass - CSET."
Sheila Sanchez, a resource specialist for students with mild to moderate disabilities at Fowler High School in Fowler (Fresno County), has an emergency permit that will soon expire.
She tried to pass MSAT in order to get her multiple subjects credential, but missed by 7 points. Then the test was changed. She has completed two out of three CSET subtests and is waiting to hear if she has passed the last one. Just in case she didn't, she has signed up to take it again and is looking for a tutor. If she passes the last subtest, she can then student teach - without pay - and earn her credential.
"I know I'm not alone in this situation," says Sanchez, a member of Fowler CTA who's had to work her schedule around child-rearing. "They keep changing the requirements and changing the test. I am willing to do whatever it takes to help myself. I just need time to pass the test."
She has appealed the time she was out on maternity leave so she can extend her emergency permit. "To me, it's fair," she said. "If I were a man, I wouldn't have had to take time off."
"My fear is that I will lose my position and have to leave my students in the middle of the school year. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm very nervous and scared. I feel like I'm walking on eggshells."
Adding to the pressure are school administrators who threaten new teachers with termination if they don't pass CSET by a certain date. In Bakersfield, for example, a new teacher was called into the principal's office and told that if she did not pass CSET by March 15, she would not be asked to return the following year.
California districts can release probationary teachers without cause and without saying why, but using the law as a pretext is uncalled-for since probationary teachers do not have to be NCLB compliant by March of this year.
"The ESEA reauthorization requires that school districts use Title II money to do everything they can to support teachers with professional development, in order to help them become NCLB compliant," says Ryder. "Before a district fires a teacher for not being NCLB compliant, it must prove it did everything it could do."
In many cases, this hasn't happened. Not only are districts not informing teachers they are out of compliance, sometimes districts are saying they have no choice but to fire teachers who don't comply. Some districts are providing classes and professional development to help teachers comply, while others are just handing teachers a form letter telling them what they need to do.
Under the law, districts have to report the number of teachers who are receiving quality professional development and show they are making progress toward ensuring that all teachers meet the definition of highly qualified. "There is nothing in the law that says they have to fire teachers who don't yet comply," says Rucker.
Many districts fall back on two inappropriate responses to the highly qualified teacher issue, says Rucker. "The first is: Do nothing, know nothing, and wait and see. The other is to interpret the federal draft guidelines incorrectly."
If new teachers feel they are being threatened or that their district is not doing its share to help them comply with the federal requirements, Rucker urges them to contact their local association for help. She also encourages them not to give up if they don't pass CSET. "If you want to teach, you may have to take the test more than once or twice."
Perez in Paramount is not giving up. She's taking each of CSET's subtests one at a time, which makes the process slower, but less overwhelming. She has passed the math and science portion, as well as the language arts and history portion. Now she's studying for the physical education and human development portion.
Each subtest costs her $72, not to mention the hundreds of dollars she spent taking MSAT or the thousands she spent on the waiver program. Fortunately, friends have loaned her the expensive test preparation books and she has been able to download CSET study guides from the Internet. She loves teaching so much that she believes, some day, it will all be worth it.
She's angry, but she doesn't blame her district. "It's not about Paramount. It's about Bush. And what happens if a new president is elected? Will the whole NCLB thing dissipate? Will I have done all this for nothing?"
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What's the impact of NCLB?
There are no statistics on the numbers of emergency permit or probationary teachers whose jobs were terminated because their district wrongly interpreted NCLB requirements.
There is no way of knowing how many teachers who were not NCLB compliant were quickly inducted into intern programs to comply with the law.
And there is no way to know how many veteran teachers opted to retire rather than jump through hoops to prove they were "highly qualified" after years of teaching outside their credential area or major.
According to a study by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, the number of teachers without full credentials working in California schools has declined from 42,427 or 14 percent of all teachers in 2000-01 to 37,311, or 12 percent in 2002-03. However, many teachers on emergency permits were part of reductions in force that took place in response to budget cuts and had nothing to do with the new law.
NCLB does appear to be having an impact in hiring practices, though. Education Week reports that in Los Angeles, fewer than 6 percent of new teachers hired in the fall were on emergency permits or were not yet interns, compared with 59 percent in 2001. Two-thirds of the district's new hires this year were credentialed, compared with a third two years ago.
"As the proportion of new Los Angeles teachers holding emergency certification has gone down, the proportion who are interns - those who have completed most requirements for licensure except the exam (CSET) itself - has more than quadrupled, from 6 percent two years ago to 27 percent this year," reports the publication. Part of the change can be attributed to streamlining the application process: the district now offers early contracts to qualified candidates, and all candidates now apply online in a program that can quickly identify those with the highest qualifications. |
