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San Francisco Chronicle
Percentage of credentialed teachers rises in state
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 3, 2007
California teachers are better qualified to teach than at any time in the last decade, according to a report released today.
The number of teachers who lack a credential in the subject they teach has plunged dramatically - from 13 percent in 1997 to 5 percent this year, says the latest annual report released by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning.
Although individual teachers may be excellent without a credential, the report concluded that higher scores are associated with properly credentialed teachers.
Of 308,790 teachers in public classrooms today, 293,241 are fully credentialed.
Even schools with the neediest students - traditionally the repository for inexperienced teachers without proper credentials - have seen a vast improvement in credentialed instructors, the study says.
"The state has made strides in reducing the crisis of underprepared teachers - but we're not there yet," said Margaret Gaston, president of the center, a nonprofit think tank in Santa Cruz that has been studying the profession since the mid-1990s.
Fully credentialed teachers now comprise an average of 92 percent of the faculty at California's lowest-scoring schools, compared with 77 percent in 2000.
The study credits California's university system with significantly expanding teacher-preparation programs earlier this decade in response to alarming reports that underqualified teachers were flooding classrooms in record numbers.
No Child Left Behind, the 2001 federal education act, also emphasized the need for qualified instructors, pressuring schools and districts to hire better-educated teachers.
Despite the gains made at low-scoring schools, Gaston said the least qualified teachers are still found in far greater numbers at schools with the neediest students.
One way to address that persistent problem is to improve professional support for novice teachers at challenging schools, Gaston said.
"We want to surround these individuals with support," she said. "We want to see their skills and knowledge improve so that they go on to be really great teachers."
SRI International in Menlo Park conducted the research for the think tank using statewide surveys of school principals, interviews of teachers and administrators, and case studies of schools and districts.
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