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Nothing has a greater impact on student learning
than the quality of the teacher in the classroom.
This past December, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning released a report showing that California has made considerable progress in reducing the number of underprepared teachers in our schools. The report proved the state's concentrated effort of providing teacher support and professional development has made a difference. Since 2001-02, the state has reduced the number of underprepared teachers in the classroom by 25,000. California, the Center reported, "…seemed to be on the right track toward building a teacher development system with the capacity to produce an adequate supply of teachers and deliver them to schools where they were needed most."
So while we're improving the quality of the teachers in the field, what about the supply of future teachers: those students in college today who are considering teaching as a profession? Unfortunately, the picture isn't so bright.
In the next 10 years, California will need to replace 100,000 teachers due to retirement alone. As our need for new, well-trained teachers is on the rise, the number of students in our colleges considering teaching as a profession is on the decline. While there may be many reasons for this decline, some researchers believe they can show a cause and effect reflected in our state budget crises.
For example, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning recently looked at the number of enrollees in teacher preparation programs since the state's last fiscal crisis in 2003. The Center reports the following: "During the 2002-03 school year, colleges enrolled 74,203 candidates in preparation programs. The next year, that number dropped to 67,595 and the following year (2004-05) the numbers declined further to 64,753, a loss of 10,000 teacher candidates in two years. Similarly, the numbers of teaching credentials awarded dropped from 27,000 in 2004 to 22,400 in 2006."
This year California once again faces a budget crisis with potential cuts to education of $4.8 billion dollars. Undergraduates or those students already in teacher credential programs are thinking twice about their career choice. They are aware of the 14,000 pink slips just sent to teachers to prepare them for potential layoffs. They are well aware of the "last-hired, first-fired" rule and they ask themselves, "Do I want to pursue a career that is so unstable that I will face potential layoffs year after year?"
If we don't find a way to stabilize our funding to schools, California may soon be facing another crisis: classrooms full of students with no teachers at the head of the class.
