With a vast teacher shortage looming, Student CTA President Vielka Elvebak expected more students to enroll in teacher preparation programs and take advantage of a hot job market on the horizon.
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| Student CTA President Vielka Elvebak attends the University of California, Berkeley. |
Such a surge would have brought many new members into Student CTA, figured the UC Berkeley student. Instead, membership took a dip last year.
“It was kind of shocking,” she says.
After looking at the demographics, she found it shouldn’t have been such a surprise. In 2001, nearly 78,000 students were enrolled in teacher preparation programs statewide, according to a 2007 report by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). In 2004-05, fewer than 65,000 enrolled.
Even with the desperate need to increase the number of teachers, regulations have made it increasingly difficult for those who aspire to teach. College students must pass new hurdles before they can graduate from — or even enter — teacher preparation programs in California.
Under No Child Left Behind, prospective teachers must demonstrate competence in either multiple subjects (grades K-6 or special education) or a single subject (grades 7-12). This is accomplished by passing the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET), which is offered six times a year and consists of three different sections (reading, writing and math) at fifth- through 10th-grade difficulty levels.
In the past, students could take CSET while enrolled in a teacher preparation program. But now, at most universities, they must pass all relevant sections of CSET before entering teacher preparation programs. This has greatly clogged the pipeline of prospective teachers.
“Before, we had some flexibility in terms of how we admitted students into the credential program. But now we have minimal flexibility, and this has caused decreasing enrollment,” says Jacqueline Hughes, a teacher education professor at California State University, Bakersfield. “We are not graduating as many teachers as we used to. And, in turn, we cannot fill the jobs left by high numbers of retiring teachers.”
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Jacqueline Hughes |
The requirements are too restrictive, says Hughes, president of the CSU-Bakersfield California Faculty Association. She believes that students have a better chance of passing CSET if they’re already enrolled in a credential program. “We are talking about delayed admissions,” says Hughes. “And it’s easy for them to get discouraged and maybe find something else. When we have shortages, we don’t want to delay potential candidates from entering the program.
Nena Torrez, a teacher in CSU-San Bernardino’s credential program, has seen the same impact. “Many have had to put their education plans and careers on hold. I have had so many students call me in tears because they were not successful in passing maybe just one section of CSET.”
Each time students take the test, it costs more than $200, and students must save up money and wait for it to be offered again. And then they must reapply to a teacher credential program. It puts them in limbo.
Soon there will be another hoop for prospective teachers to jump through. Starting next school year, all candidates will have to pass a performance assessment before they can receive their credential.
In October, the CTC approved the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) developed by a consortium of 30 teacher education programs in the state. Teacher programs can choose PACT or a state-generated assessment, the California Teaching Performance Assessment (CalTPA). Some schools have already piloted these tests.
Elvebak worries that an exit test may decrease the number of teacher candidates even further.
“They already have so much to deal with. Most of our students are working-class. They have to work and go to school.” Many new teachers will have to repay thousands of dollars in loans once they graduate.
Tamara Harris, a CSU-Fullerton student who chairs Student CTA’s credentialing committee, calls the ever-changing requirements a “big problem” for college students.
“They make it so hard to get into the profession that many people are giving up,” she says. “Financial concerns are definitely an issue. Because of these new conditions, fewer minorities may opt to navigate the system.”
The fifth year of college as a student teacher can be especially grueling — financially as well as emotionally. Students work full time without pay and are often ineligible for scholarships or financial aid, since the fifth year falls into a gray area: They are in neither a bachelor’s nor a master’s program. Many work nights and weekends to support themselves.
“Those trying to become teachers need both financial support and community support,” says Elvebak. “We should be making it easier for them rather than harder.”
