Shortage of 35,000 Feared by 1990 : Study Group Calls for More Pay for Teachers

A private commission today recommended raising California teachers’ salaries and improving working conditions in order to prevent a predicted shortage of 35,000 teachers by 1990.

There was no immediate estimated price tag for the commission’s 27 proposals, which were unveiled at news conferences in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento.

Dorman Commons, chairman of the 17-member California Commission on the Teaching Profession, said the report followed 15 months of testimony and research.

Formed in August, 1984, the commission was financed by a $400,000 grant from the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and was composed of appointees by state schools chief Bill Honig and leaders of the Legislature’s two education committees.

Major commission recommendations included:

--Raising the maximum beginning salary for California public school teachers from $22,000 to $25,000 and providing catch-up cost-of-living increases for current teachers.

--Comprehensive examinations to spur advanced work in teachers’ subject areas, with salary increases for passing them.

--Reducing class loads for first year “resident” teachers, while increasing their access to skilled educators who might help them improve their skills.

--Requiring new teachers to successfully complete a full year of paid “residency” during their initial year of teaching and to pass comprehensive examinations in their subject areas. (The state’s present teacher examinations test general skills.)

--Stepped-up efforts to recruit and train school administrators.

--Elimination of emergency teaching credentials, which currently account for more than 15% of all credentials in the state.

--Replacing the present Commission on Teacher Credentialing with a Teaching Standards Board, the majority of which would be classroom teachers.