Education director in California says unqualified teachers need assistance

Problems associated with underqualified teachers in public schools cannot be utterly wished away but they can be alleviated by giving these teachers proper assistance, according to a university official in California.

Dennis L. Evans, director of credential programs at the University of California’s department of education, said “rookie” teachers must be linked on a daily basis with successful experienced teachers.

“We know that excellence in teaching is a development process, and that even the best prepared of our beginning teachers benefit from the direct daily support of experiences and successful teachers,” Evans wrote in the weekly journal Education Week.

US Education Secretary Richard Riley earlier deplored the so-called “sink-or-swim” practice in public schools wherein new teachers are left alone in a classroom without proper guidance and assistance.

“Indeed teaching is often (and accurately) portrayed as a ‘lonely’ profession, ” Evans said.

“The first year teacher, whether trained or not, is stationed alone in his or her classroom, totally responsible for the myriad educational decision that must be made on a daily basis,” Evans added.

Compounding the sink-or-swim mentality, Evans added, is the practice of giving the rookie teachers the most demanding and difficult assignments.

Evans cited California, for example, where a majority of about 25,000 emergency permit teachers in 1997 were assigned to 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders, who are still in the early stages of learning to read.

“Given those circumstances, it is no wonder that 30 percent or more of beginning teachers leave the profession during their first three years. That figure is even higher for emergency-permit teachers and in urban school districts,” Evans said.

He recommended a setup that would allow class groups to come together on a regular or periodic basis, and the involved teachers function as a team.

“The experienced teacher would take the lead in instructional planning, lesson design and implementation and other areas of substantive decision-making,” Evans said.

Through this setup, volunteer or paid classroom aides could provide the teachers the opportunity to observe one another in action.

“The beginning teacher would follow the lead of the experienced, successful teachers,” Evans said.

“What is important is that education must eliminate the nonsensical but common practice promulgated by union philosophy and supported by district policy that treats all teachers as absolute equals regardless of experience and demonstrated competency,” Evans added.