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Subscribe to RSSCalifornia is facing a shortage of qualified teachers and principals for its public schools, according to a long-anticipated report released this week.
Fewer aspiring teachers are enrolling in credentialing programs, and jobs in key subject areas -- including special education and mathematics -- are already going unfilled for lack of applicants, the state Task Force on Educator Excellence said.
Those who seek to teach face a working life that is underpaid, unstable and, in the case of would-be administrators, highly political. Working conditions, the group said, are "highly inequitable," with the least experienced and lowest paid teachers generally sent to work in the most difficult conditions.
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“Ours is a profession under siege,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson wrote in a letter introducing the report. “At the very moment the need for outstanding educators seems most urgent, talented teachers are being displaced by budget cuts and discouraged by trying working conditions.”
During the school year of 2009-2010, California issued just 16,151 credentials to new teachers – a 40 percent drop over 2003-2004. During the ten years ending in 2010, the number of students enrolled in teacher preparation programs dropped by half, the report said.
While it is true that teachers have been laid off in the state, many are not choosing to seek new jobs in the profession, the report said.
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Shortages persist, the task force said, in educational fields including special education, mathematics, physical sciences and in the instruction of students who are still learning English.
These shortages are looming even as the state is trying to improve education for California children.
To that end, the task force recommended stepping up mentoring and training programs for new and experienced teachers, and reinstating long-abandoned funding that provided paid time for teachers to prepare lessons and curriculum.
The group also encouraged increased requirements – as well as more mentoring and support – for those who wish to become principals.
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Recent efforts to install accountability measures for teachers and low-performing schools also came under fire in the report.
Such measures – which include efforts to tie teacher performance evaluations to student test scores – may help to measure performance, but cannot provide teachers with the tools they actually need to improve instruction, the task force said.
“High-stakes testing without investments in school capacity cannot improve education,” the report said. “In fact, this dangerous combination has driven many accomplished educators out of the profession and, in some cases, caused more harm than good.”
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Here's yet another fine example that cutting education will cut into our future as well. As a nation, we keep heading in the wrong direction, what with Romney/Ryan essentially insisting we cannot afford to feed America's hungry children because we have to feed our private defense contractors and basically calling our true American every day heroes, police, teachers, librarians, and firefighters--leeches on society!
Wake up, America, PLEASE! Do we really want a government bought and paid for by a few billionaires--as is our current Supreme Court? Do we want billionaires to determine who the next three Supreme Court justices will be?
We are already no longer the America we were; we are already Corporate America. But Corporate America has also been dumbed down to incredible short-sightedness. If we don't prepare the next generation to be leaders, who will run the corporations? Only the lazy folk who never worked a day and inherited all their wealth will be left--like the richest woman in the world who inherited daddy's Australian platinum mine and said this week people should be happy to work for $2 a day.
So long as they keep us snarking at each other, this nation will continue to be dragged down to extinction by the military/industrial complex Eisenhower, Jefferson, and Lincoln all warned us about..
Wouldn't we all rather have a government of the people, for the people, and by the people--as our founders believed it should be?
Dee, the made up criticisms about Romney/Ryan tell me that you don't value the truth, only your nonsensical agenda.
Do your feelings tell you that your statements are true or do you just read the facts and reject them out of hand?
Reality check... The Unions are the ones who determine where new hires go. The tenured loser's get the cushy jobs. Usually it is one bad apple spoils the bunch. With California especially LASUD it's a bunch of losers that spoil the one good apple.
Don't worry, California will be the first State in the Union to declare bankruptcy.
I live in California...the liberals are bankrupting it and most likely already have... to the point of beyond repair.
The school systems, let alone health care, in California are seriously strained with illegal alien children and/or anchor babies. Business's just do not want to come here due to the high taxes AND fees.
I have lived here 6 years, I cannot wait to leave... 1 more year and I am out of this state and I will NEVER come back.
Dee, you hit it on the head, but the uniformed like Herald, Liitle and Shosyn will support their corporate overlords until they, themselves wind up unemployed or in the streets. Herald has not heard the facts, only thinks s/he has, Liitle wants to blame the unions, as ordered, because clearly teachers are the problems, never the system, the parents or the party that holds education in such disdain that it brags about not being intellectual, and Shosyn is under the impressions that Former CA Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis were liberals.
People like them don't want to support the party that supports them, just blame those with the least amount of power and money for every problem. It's a refrain that has been played over and over in the US, with Chinese, Italians, Irish, African-Americans, and now Hispanics being the "cause of all the problems".
That's just what Romney, Ryan, and the rest of the right want them to do. Good little pawns!
Make that uninformed. Hate when I make a typo!
Yes, Yes, the teacher shortage in California is because of Romney/Ryan. This is clearly the time for a campaign speech from the voice of liberal thought and reason.
As a California public school teacher I can't imagine why anyone would be drawn into a profession that at this point in time is being demonized by public officials and citizens alike, as filled with over-paid, incompetant, lazy people taking up tax dollars. For those of us currently teaching it is a demoralizing time in our lives. What keeps us going, with all the financial sacrifices and lack of basic materials in the classroom, is knowing we really do make a difference in children's lives. That is a part that most of the public doesn't recognize and neither do many potential teachers.
It's incompetent, sorry.
My union has no problem with incompetent teachers being fired, we just ask for due process. No one wants to inherit students who haven't been taught what they needed to learn the previous year. It makes the job much harder. We have seen administrators drive perfectly good teachers out of their particular school because of personality conflicts or because the teachers are older or teach in a way that is different from that of the administrator, not inability or incomptence. If those who run schools and businesses could be relied on to act in an ethical manner unions would be not be necessary.
Due process yes, but union rules have made due process a joke. It takes years for any bad govt employee to be removed. (I say this as a retired govt employee and union member.) Govt employee unions need to stop complaining about criticism and take a hard look at the work rules that have been put in place. Taking this simple step would do more to win the good will of the general public than all the yelling and screaming trying to argue their points.
It only takes years when incompetent, inexperienced or lazy adminstrators fail to document and record. Then it comes down to he said/she said with little real evidence, and that is what takes so long.
Absolutely wrong - I was a boss also, I knew how to investigate and document. It still took way to long. Unless disciplinary actions are handled in an expeditious manner they lose any meaning.
90% of teachers are competent and able. It's the 10% that are totally incompetent and shielded from termination by the teachers' unions that I have trouble with. These incompetent teachers can't even pass 8th grade math and english exams! Termimnate teachers based on poor performance rather than tenure. Or just get rid of the union run public schools and fund only charter schools. Then watch the kids excel!
Public schools are doing better than charter schools in test scores
Site your source please.
Mr. Joe,
If you really want the kids to excel, bring back the "F". Bring the kids back into the learning equation. Right now the kids bear no responsibility for their learning nor do they have any consequences if they do not learn. Turn in or do homework? Forget it. If they don't learn it is very easy to blame the "incompetent" teacher. I'm so sick and tired of having 11th and 12th graders in my class that can not put a sentence together or read anywhere close to grade level that I just want to scream. Forget Math and even fractions and deicmals are beyond some of them. The "social pass" has done more harm to these kids than you can imagine. They never get the help they require to master their school subjects. I wish they did.
There is no teacher shortage. I know of plenty of teacher out of work. What there is is a hiring shortage of teachers. They simply do not care to pay them for their educations or work. WEhat schools want to do is replace paid teachers with Volunteer Teacher's Aids. Volunteering is nice but not if you take away jobs and income for those deserving of it.
And Joe Calbear. I think the number of competent teachers much higher. 99+% The problem is that the school boards are incompetent and make teachers follow their procedures rather that use their own incentive. The result is that much of what is taught is wrong and untrue.
Agreed. You see that everywhere in multiple fields. Engineering, software developers, nursing, etc.... They don't want to pay a fair wage and rather pay the bare minimum for a college educated workforce. I wouldn't be surprised if they start importing foreign workers to do the job for 1/3 of the salary while American qualified workers stay unemployed.
I also agree that part of the problem is at the top. You see this with politicians pushing for some agenda or another, and school boards and administrators telling teachers how to do their job, even if they don't have a clue. Yes there are some bad teachers, but they are not the problem, just caught in the whirlpool.
There is also the problems with parents not holding their kids accountable, and blaming teachers when the kids don't perform. Meanwhile, the TV, computer and X-Box are on all night, while the homework is rushed through or ignored. How many stories have we heard about the parent screaming bloody murder that their child is not going to be allowed to graduate, and how often does admin stand behind the teacher?
Get rid of all the Socialists.
America is screwed. Forget the idealistic hyperbole and admit that the experiment of rampant capitalism has failed.
Or vote in Romney at the next election and you will soon see what living in a third world country feels like.
Thanks to the Supreme Court case Plyler vs. Doe in 1982, California and everyone else in the U.S. can not take any measures to manage the demand on public education by requiring students to be legal U.S. citizens.
Coupled with the liberal rejection of American Immigration law enforcement, California appears to be the proverbial roost where the chickens have made a home.
Go, California, Go! You are the greatest objective lesson on failed liberal leadership, along with N.Y.
Lets educate more illegal kids in public schools paid for by taxpayers in a ever smaller educational budget that keeps getting cut every year.
"but cannot provide teachers with the tools they actually need to improve instruction", that says it ALL
Because the Districts buy from their buddies. No blind bids. Don't worry California will be the first State in the Union to go bankrupt. See what happens when the cops and firefighters realize the Unions and the State has been in cahoots forever. CalPers is a house of wet cards. Sometime in 2012 somebody is going to tell the Nation, California can no longer meet ANY of it's obligations. Funny money only works as long as all the players agree to use it.
California! Times up!!!
We can always tax the super rich, in fact, it's time to return to the tax rate of 91% on the wealthiest Americans, like before.
Never fear about teacher shortages in California. We have thousands of out of work teachers. There is heavy competition for every job.
As far as all this illegal immigrant stuff is concerned:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Welcome.
I think you missed the part where teachers who are laid off are going into other fields. More than half of new teachers, even if he or she isn't laid off, will leave teaching within five years.
I'm not missing that part. I am a teacher in California. Teachers in California are going into other fields, because they can't be teachers. It is appropriate for people who cannot handle it to leave to explore other career opportunities.
I suggest that before anyone offers comments on the quality of our teachers, they spend a day with them to see what they really face.
The report is part of California's teacher labor union propaganda. Its agenda is to justify higher teacher and administrator salary and benefit when they are already among the highest paid in the Union. With state constitutionally guaranteed school funding plus state lottery money, California's school budget is loaded with cash. The report is to justify looting the education 'cookie jar.'
Teacher's labor unions have created the 'credential program' that has little to do with ascertaining the competence of a teacher to teach a certain subject. Once credentialized, a teacher may teach math,english, social science, life science, and physical science even though the teacher is completely ignorant of the subject. Essentially, the 'credentialization' regulations is merely a barricade by which the labor unions use to restrict the number of teachers. It has nothing to do with competence or expertise of teacher teaching the subject.
Despite record funding for California's public school, California has one of the highest drop-out rate and the highest number of HS graduates who are illiterate. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's largest school district with the largest education budget, nearly half of all HS student never graduate for various reasons. Those who do manage to graduate are as illiterate in math and science as their teachers.
LAUSD is top-heavy with administrators who earn more than $100k/year and who have no idea as to improving the quality of education or increasing the literacy of students. In many cases, both inept and lousy administrators and teachers, protected by labor unions, don't care so long as they collect their salary.
Before the advent of the mega school district in the 20th century, a small school house with modestly paid teachers produced highly educated students with little fanfare. Today, big school district with corresponding bigger budget, massive labor unions, and throngs of 'credentialized' teachers produce several generations of illiteracy.
It is no wonder Americans are among the most stupid people in the world.
My wife is a Special Ed Teaching Assistant: changing diapers of 6-8 yr olds,dealing with defensive parents(who now damn well they sent their kids to school unprepared to be there), fellow workers who either shun the kids or hide as much as possible, all kinds of out of pocket expenses & collecting odds & ends just to be able to teach them by engaging them, administrators who are overpaid & never around & a union who collects dues but refuse to represent her because she not a 'teacher'. She's back in college for another field. The schools are running away talent over 'credentials' & 'budgets'(ie. adminstrators trying to justify their salaries: 100K for them, 20K for her) Total travesy. The only ones that lose a the kids & teachers that truly want to help them. That 'Dr.' whoever could give a rats a**-FUPM is their motto. Thus.. Dummy Factories
Why is it that every article about teaching now seems to elicit comments from a majority of people that feel it's perfectly okay to insult and disrespect teachers even further? From a completely apolitical view (so please skip the constant diatribe of union and immigrant bashing), we all understand the state of the economy and we all are well aware the every state has slashed their education budgets accordingly. Whether you feel this is justified or not, the fact remains that the quality of education as a whole has been seriously hampered for all. Including the teachers!
Before you all jump so quickly to judge a profession that most of you have never experienced (except as a student or as a parent, which is no where near the same view point), please take a moment to realize that your ability to form complete sentences here in this opinion forum (or in the case of some of you, semi-complete sentences) is thanks to MORE THAN A FEW teachers in your lifetime that did their job correctly. How about we honor their memory by refusing to make nearly all modern teachers out to be lazy, over-paid, whiny bureaucrats?
Respectfully Yours,
I don't believe every comment is a personal attack on teachers, but many do question the role of Unions and as of recently the decision on the Chicago Teacher's Union to strike. Please explain how the 1/3 largest school district in the country has a very high student cost ($13,078 (FY2010), and a low graduation rate (60%) amongst high school students? And why do Chicago Parochial schools perform so much better and at a lower cost per student? I believe the cost for success is what a lot of tax payers look at when paying their escalating property taxes. Where are the results?
Spo de o de,
In hind sight, you were right about not every comment cited above being a "personal" attack on teachers. But the level of ignorant comments that continue to re-hash the same arguments against their way of life (unions, teaching every child--including immigrant children, work hours, etc.) is an attack on teachers as a profession. To think otherwise is equally insulting.
Now to your own comments...
So teaching is just a business and high school graduation rates are what you use as its measure of success? And if the 3rd largest school district in the nation only has a 60% high school graduation rate, then it is not worth your tax dollars? AND since parochial schools are able to have a higher graduation rate at a lower cost to your tax bill, then it must clearly be due to their non-union status?
The sheer ignorance of these statements makes it clear that you have never spent time in a public school teacher's classroom to understand all that they have to accomplish with the very limited resources they are given. I'm assuming, since you mentioned them, that any experience you may have in witnessing the education process as an adult is with parochial schools, and trying to compare these schools to urban, public schools more akin to the apples vs. oranges discussion.
The California Commission On Teacher Credentialing can't handle anymore! I just needed to submit two documents(a transcript from a California University) and a Subject matter test administered by the CCTC! 13 weeks and I don't have the credential which should have been automated(oh yes, they did cash the check within days!). It is widely considered by those inside and outside of education as the most bumbling parts of the Government.
My mother was an elementary school teacher in Southern California for 39 years. She was overworked and underpaid. When she started teaching, it was a livable profession. Now she regrets having become a teacher. It's really sad to see her unfulfilled by her career. She worked so hard and taught hundreds of children to read, but she was woefully under-compensated. She said she would have gladly received a lower salary for more reasonable hours. She brought work home with her and did it every night, and all throughout the weekend. DO NOT become an elementary school teacher in California. Seriously.