Posted on 12/08/2005 9:32:57 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO - California will face a shortage of up to 100,000 teachers in the next decade as retirements crest even while schools cope with tougher federal requirements for student learning, according to a report released Wednesday.
At the same time, enrollment has been dropping in teaching-preparation programs in the state - from 76,000 in 2002 to 67,500 in 2004, according to the report from the nonprofit Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, based in Santa Cruz.
Center director Margaret Gaston said the 2005-06 school year could be one of the last in a long time when the supply of teachers meets demand.
California schools have about 306,000 teachers and hire about 22,000 a year just to cover normal attrition, Gaston said. But the baby boomers, about one-third of the current teachers, are expected to retire within 10 years - meaning the state is going to have to step up recruitment.
"There is a very narrow window of opportunity," Gaston said. "So it really is incumbent upon the policy community to act now to mitigate this situation."
While struggling with short staffing, schools with the most students from minority and low-income families will also get unevenly large shares of the least-experienced teachers.
California sends 85 percent of intern teachers to these schools, Gaston said. Schools that rated lowest in the Academic Performance Index were five times more likely to have underprepared teachers than higher-performing schools, according to the report.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has faced sharp criticism this year over education funding, plans to focus on the issue next year, according to his education secretary, Alan Bersin.
"This is a huge and critical infrastructure need that the governor understands as we experience this generational shift," Bersin said.
The governor this year added $49 million in incentives for school districts to attract teachers into the lowest-performing schools, Bersin noted, and an agreement was made with the University of California system to train an additional 1,000 math and science teachers over the next five years.
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials said they have been working hard to recruit new teachers and to reduce the number working with only temporary or emergency credentials.
"We never stop recruiting. We are already two months into recruiting for next year," said Deborah Ignagni, the LAUSD's director of certificated recruitment.
Most of the recruiting is done within California, with some nationwide and in Canada, she said. In the past, the district has also recruited in the Philippines, Spain and Mexico, and it might do so again this year.
The district hired 2,376 teachers this year, bringing the total to 34,610, although the biggest need for new teachers is in math, science and special education.
The district has also reduced the number of emergency credentialed teachers from 3,749 in 2002 to the current 249.
The central administration does not assign teachers to specific schools but recruits them to the district and sets up interviews with principals and local school hiring committees.
But some educators feel a school's location makes a difference in the quality of its teachers.
Frank Wells, who has been principal of Locke High School in South Los Angeles for the past two years and was previously assistant principal at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, sees a difference in the quality of teachers at the two schools, mostly because of community involvement.
He feels that parents in affluent communities are more assertive, and so lower-performing teachers might be transferred to schools like Locke, where parents are less vocal.
"Parents (at Taft) wouldn't tolerate what we're subjected to here," Wells said. "That community doesn't tolerate it. The squeaky wheel gets addressed."
His school has about 3,400 students, with 128 classroom teachers. Of those, 32 have only emergency credentials or are interns - a number he feels is too high.
Some education officials feel the assignment of inexperienced teachers to lower-performing schools is a result of collective-bargaining agreements, in which teachers with seniority can transfer out of inner-city schools.
But A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said experience doesn't always equate to quality.
"It's true that a lot of inexperienced teachers are in the inner city and hard-to-staff schools, but that doesn't automatically mean that they're not good teachers or not able to do the job," Duffy said.
And, he said, if the district improves a school's resources such as staff development, safe campuses and higher salaries, "veteran teachers will be falling over themselves to get in there."
Well, the LAUSD has a real, serious problem when it comes to recruiting teachers.
New teachers, just out of school, get assigned almost universally to the most dangerous, crime-ridden, gang neighborhoods. The teachers with seniority get to teach in the schools that are less dangerous.
It's easy for someone with a teaching credential in California to get a job...as long as he/she doesn't mind risking his/her life.
Try getting a job in one of the school districts in affluent areas, though, and you're out of luck. Beginning teachers don't want to risk their lives anymore than anyone else.
This is the LAUSD's real problem, but they can't do anything about it, due to their contract with the teachers' union.
They need to push the social opportunities for 20 and 30 something women. Maybe that will help recruiting.
Your last sentence says it all.
The idiot liberals are demanding bi-lingual everything in the CA schools these days. MOst of the good english speaking teachers have probably had it and want the hell out of there. Soon to be replaced with any scumbag they can find that habla espanol.
We already are. In SC teachers from Romania are filling slots left vacant, especially in the "critical needs areas" which are math and special education.
There is something wrong when Howard Stern is payed $500,000 million over 5 years for spouting porn on hte radio and we pay teachers less than 40,000.
Not to mention the sports figures salaries.
Something seriously wrong.
I dont see the problem. We can just make Spanish California's first language and bring in teachers from Mexico for all those who dont want those jobs.
Anybody who teaches for the money is in it for the wrong reason. Nobody makes those teachers take $40,000 or whatever they make. They could go into a more profitable field if they wished. Personally, only a handful of my former teachers were worth 40K.
To compare entertainers' and teachers' salaries is comparing apples to oranges.
In no case have I seen any blatant propaganda, and the teachers are anything but inept. Most of them are experienced, and those that aren't can rely on others to help. They are indeed teaching *phonics* at LAUSD, and the kids -- even those whose folks don't speak English -- speak it themselves without an accent.
I even saw a six-foot by three-foot posting of the PREAMBLE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION and it was SIGNED BY ALL THE STUDENTS IN THE FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADE, at one school.
Religion isn't a taboo subject either, and Christmas trees are discussed without fear of reprisal.
Really, I've seen all this with my own eyes, and while many south-central neighborhoods are a little scary (posted about my wife's Friday school on another thread), most of them are well-kept, and the parents are mostly present and involved. One school's presentation (not a holiday program per se) was attended by nearly 200 moms and other friends and relatives -- a good turnout in most instances. The auditorium was full.
Vouchers could help so much. The kids could get a quality education, and the state could spend much LESS on education. But the teachers' union will fight it because they don't want competition, and so the Dems will never allow it to happen. Better to let the schools continue their downward trend and let the students get a bad education than to let the Dems lose the teachers' union contributions. The Dems have their own set of priorities. After all, they care about "the children." /sarcasm
No, it shows where our priorities as a society are. We value entertainers more than teachers. A sports star can make a million dollar salary while some scientist looking for a cancer cure has to go begging for cash.
In Japan, teachers are very highly paid.
Thanks for the positive side of the story. You and your wife are doing good things!
Happy to make the report! I was pleasantly surprised as well.
oh boy, do I absolutely agree that there are loads of teachers out there who are not even worth $5000!!!
But, do you think that if the pay was a bit better, then you'd get more qualified teachers?
Nope.
The best people who could teach kids will not do it for any money. The best teachers are those who instill discipline, adapt their methods based upon students abilities and learning behavior, and reward success in a pro-active way. All ways that teachers are no longer allowed to teach.
Now teachers must follow zero-tolerance policies while following the pre-set methodology and syllabus requirements while catering to the lowest common denominator in the classroom lest a student fail.
Good teachers are leaving the profession because parents and politicians want them to help raise bratty little know-nothings. More money will not keep good teachers.
Without the negative impact of NEA education perhaps the kids will come away with real values..the kinds that reduce the numbers of children born out of wedlock,abortions,homosexuality, gang violence, drug addiction, theft, rape, and murder...
-wishful thinking
LAUSD fired a bunch of teachers last year that they recruited from out of state!
As soon as their training was over, they were let go.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.