How Teachers, Minus Credits in Education, Prove a Plus

It’s a long way from the oil fields of Wyoming to a classroom at Van Nuys High School, but after oil exploration in the United States came to a near standstill in the winter of 1985, a teacher’s pay looked pretty good to geologist Richard Sheppy.

So, armed with an emergency teaching credential, which allows the holder to teach in California public schools while he or she works toward obtaining a standard credential, Sheppy embarked on a new career.

When advertising revenues slumped at Oklahoma-based True West magazine, Earl Perry lost his job as the publication’s production manager. Although he has a degree in graphic design, Perry decided to migrate to California and try teaching. Now, he is a sixth-grade teacher at Hillery T. Broadous Elementary School in Pacoima.

Sheppy and Perry are so-called emergency teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Because of a lack of recruits in recent years, their number is growing.

Los Angeles and other districts across the nation are recruiting college graduates without education backgrounds as teacher candidates.

At present, 10% of the Los Angeles district’s teaching force holds one of these provisional credentials. Not all of these “emergency” teachers lack classroom experience. Some are instructors who are teaching subjects outside their specialty. Others are teachers who are certified to teach in another state.

Last year, the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing granted 4,534 “long-term emergency credentials,” the certificates given to non-teachers. In the Los Angeles school district, the emergency credential is valid until the teacher can obtain a standard teaching credential. According to a school-district official, that could take anywhere from three to six years.

Since 1984, the number of these emergency certificates has steadily increased, commission officials said. Almost 40% of the state’s emergency teachers work in Los Angeles County schools. The typical first-year emergency teacher in Los Angeles earns $20,298--the same as a first-year teacher who has earned a standard credential.

Without emergency teachers such as Sheppy, school administrators say, hundreds of students would go without any teacher.

However, leaders of teachers unions and some educators argue that emergency teachers are ill-prepared to go into classrooms. Their acceptance by school administrators “is a denial that there is a knowledge base and something called pedagogy,” said David G. Imig, executive director of the American Assn. of Colleges for Teacher Education in Washington.

‘He Is So Determined’

“I know it is difficult for anyone to walk into a classroom and do a good job,” said Jane Godfrey, Van Nuys High principal. “That’s why we’re so pleased with the work of Richard Sheppy. He is so determined to teach those kids. He has a special kind of curiosity. He wants to know why we do something a certain way, he wants to do it the right way.

“He is very special,” said Godfrey. “If I could clone whatever makes him so special, I would.”

Sheppy, who teaches science, is one of six emergency teachers on the 104-member Van Nuys High faculty.

In a short time, he has become a recognizable figure, carrying a backpack filled with textbooks, roll sheets and homework papers and wearing running shoes with his dress slacks and a baseball cap emblazoned with an oil-company logo. From under the cap protrude shocks of wispy, salt-and-pepper hair.

During class, Sheppy can usually be found at the back of the room, encouraging students at the blackboard by saying, “Talk to us. Tell us what you are thinking.”

Sheppy, 41, has a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree in geology from the University of Houston. He spent eight years in the oil fields of Texas and six years in Wyoming working as a consultant for companies such as Mobil Oil Corp. and Marathon Oil Co.

As an exploration geologist, Sheppy located and drew maps of potential oil fields for drilling crews. During boom times, Sheppy said, an exploration geologist could earn $50,000 to $70,000 a year.

The good times started to sour in late 1985, when oil prices dropped from $31 to as low as $10 a barrel. Major oil companies announced drastic cutbacks in exploration and production. Staff reductions soon followed. According to the American Assn. of Petroleum Geologists, 25% of its 22,000 professional members are unemployed. With little exploration going on, Sheppy’s consulting business was in a shambles. As business grew worse, Sheppy’s wife, a Montana schoolteacher, encouraged him to think about going into teaching.

“She stayed on me for about three months,” he said. “She said I would be good at it, but I didn’t think so. She must have seen something in me that I didn’t.”

A friend told the Sheppys about a Los Angeles school-district program that offered emergency teaching credentials and immediate placement to college graduates.

Contract in a Hurry

Sheppy flew to Los Angeles. “I went to district headquarters for some interviews, and before the day was over, I had a contract in my hand,” he said.

Broadous Elementary teacher Perry said he learned about the district’s emergency-teacher program from friends in Oklahoma.

“Everybody in my family is a teacher, and I eventually wanted to move into teaching, but at the collegiate level,” Perry said. “When I was laid off from my job, I figured this would be a good time to get into teaching. I had some experience working with fifth-graders, so here I am.”

Before Sheppy and Perry could start teaching, they had to pass the California Basic Educational Skills Test, a standardized test for all applicants to receive a teaching credential.

Los Angeles District emergency teachers spend a month in an intensive orientation program taught by veteran teachers that introduces the newcomers to the basics of classroom life.

“We learned classroom-management techniques, what to do on the first day of classes, and what to do on the second day,” Sheppy said.

In September, Sheppy was assigned to teach six physical science classes at Van Nuys High. The yearlong course, he said, starts “in the center of the earth and ends in outer space.” It allows him to utilize his skills in geology and map making.

Periodically, a retired North Hollywood High School teacher, a Van Nuys High faculty member and school principal Godfrey sit in on Sheppy’s classes to watch him in action and to give him pointers. This is a common practice to guide emergency teachers.

With just six months under his belt, Sheppy handles his classes with assurance. He has introduced his students to a few concepts from the business world. For example, if students cannot figure out a problem during a class, they may hire a “consultant,” who is actually another student, to help them.

“In business if you don’t know the answer, you hire a consultant,” Sheppy explained. “Well, you can do the same in my classes. If the consultant does a good job and helps the student find the correct answer, the consultant gets extra credit, and the student who hired the consultant gets extra points for being smart enough to hire a good consultant.”

Same Complaints

Sheppy has a few complaints that are echoes of complaints of veteran teachers. Materials for lab work are scarce. Sheppy has taken to rummaging through trash cans to find the bottles, cardboard trays and other items needed for experiments. One of the science rooms he teaches in doesn’t have a faucet for students to wash their hands after lab work.

“But those things are minor irritations,” he said. “The kids make everything worth it. They’re bright, energetic and eager to learn.”

After school, Sheppy attends classes that will enable him to receive a regular teaching credential. He is also part of an emergency-teacher support group that meets occasionally. Members of the group give each other pep talks and discuss issues such as what to do with a student who talks incessantly or how to find materials for lab experiments.

Sheppy is still involved with exploration geology. But, he said, considering that an early upturn in oil prices is unlikely and that little oil exploration is under way--and in light of his own newly discovered talent--he believes he is in teaching for the long haul.

“As far as going back to the Rocky Mountains, I just don’t see it,” he said.