One-Subject Teachers Fear Job Loss, Seek More Credentials : Education: In time of budget constraints and layoffs, those who are bilingual and certified in a variety of fields are most likely to get and keep positions.

When Cyndie Carlton was studying music at Cal State Long Beach in the late 1960s, her primary concern was to earn the necessary credentials to teach children in elementary schools.

Carlton reached her goal of becoming a music instructor, but she may be headed back to the classroom as a student in order to earn enough credits so that she can keep a teaching job. Any teaching job.

In May, Carlton, 42, was handed a pink slip by the Saddleback Valley Unified School District in Orange County, which had dismantled its elementary music program to help balance its budget. After the state promised more money for education, the district reinstated the music program for one more year.

Although she still has a job, Carlton, like a growing number of teachers around the state, does not feel safe.

Essentially, educators say, budget constraints mean that the era of the one-subject teacher is ending. The most recruitable teachers are not only knowledgeable about the three Rs, they also are bilingual, up to date on the latest high-tech sciences and qualified to teach a variety of subjects.

With 200,000 new students entering public schools every year in California, unemployment for teachers would seem highly unlikely. While many school districts could use more teachers to handle the children of the mini-baby boom of the 1980s and the continuing influx of non-English-speaking immigrants, the state budget crisis has led to layoffs and bigger classes.

In the past, school employees were specialists. School nurses cared for sick students. School psychologists counseled disturbed children. Art and music specialists visited classrooms to give lessons. But as local school districts trimmed budgets and personnel, teachers became full-time substitutes in other areas.

“Teachers nowadays not only have to teach, they have to be counselors, nurses, art and music specialists and psychologists,” said Carol Barnes, chairwoman of elementary and bilingual education at Cal State Fullerton. “Besides walking on water, teachers have to be flexible and adaptable.”

To protect themselves, many teachers are attempting to qualify for as many credentials as possible, said James Guthrie, executive director of Policy Analysis in California Education, an educational think tank at UC Berkeley.

“The long-run result is to get rid of specialists and (get) generalists,” Guthrie said.

In California, public school instructors must be certified by the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing. In order to get a credential, which must be renewed every five years, a candidate must have at least 30 hours of college credits beyond his or her bachelor’s degree and pass a test in the subject he wants to teach. To have his certification renewed, a teacher must take 150 hours of professional-growth classes or workshops that help him learn new skills or improve his method of instruction.

Elementary teachers are issued multisubject credentials, while high school instructors usually are credentialed in a single subject, such as history, science or math.

School districts need instructors in some subjects more than others. For example, science teachers are always in demand, while there is often an overabundance of history instructors. Critical shortages of teachers are growing in subjects such as math, science and special education, especially in higher grades. Job security is also a problem in some elementary schools, although teachers in lower grades tend to have less to worry about.

But even teachers trained in critical subjects could find themselves unemployed if they do not have credentials in more than one subject, said Hal Vick, staff consultant for the California Teachers Assn. chapter in Ventura County.

“We’re asking our people to diversify,” Vick said.

Carlton, who is certified to teach elementary and high school music and secondary English, said she realizes that the odds of keeping her $22,000-a-year job at Montevideo Elementary School in Mission Viejo will increasingly diminish if she doesn’t earn credentials to teach other subjects.

Carlton said she could stay in the district, which could decide to drop its music program next year if the economy is still bad, or she could become a substitute English teacher. But she said she will most likely return to college and pursue another credential.

In recent negotiations with school districts, CTA has insisted on more teacher workshops to upgrade current skills or teach new ones, said President Ed Foglia.

But Guthrie warned that diversification can have its drawbacks.

A teacher may be “legally allowed to teach in the class, but that doesn’t mean you want your children in there to learn,” he said.

Another disadvantage, Vick said, is that while districts usually offer higher salaries to teachers with more credentials and college credits, they are more apt to recruit affordable teachers. Those who are “overqualified” may find themselves priced out of the market.

Unless the teacher happens to be bilingual, that is.

Because there is a state mandate requiring that public schools must provide students with limited English proficiency with equal education, school districts cannot afford to let their bilingual teachers go, said S. Ana Garza, Cal State Fullerton coordinator of admissions at the department of elementary and bilingual education.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, where budget cuts have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, teachers with multiple language skills stand a better chance of keeping their jobs, said Michael G. Wilson, assistant regional administrator.

Take David Tokofsky, a teacher at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. Tokofsky, recently named one of 72 national winners of the prestigious Christa McAuliffe fellowship for teaching government, wants to teach history full time. But his ability to speak Spanish may take precedence.

Tokofsky said he was hired straight out of UC Berkeley in 1983, when school officials studied his college transcript and found that he was bilingual and could coach soccer. Through the years, Tokofsky has earned credentials in history, social science and Spanish. Now, he teaches U.S. government and math to students to whom English is a second language.

Although Tokofsky was honored for teaching history, he is worried because he has received a notice from the school district saying he may be reassigned. “If I end up teaching Spanish all day long I don’t know whether I can do it,” he said. “I wouldn’t have the same intensity and purpose as when I teach about the social sciences.”

Another factor in the increased competition for dwindling teaching jobs is that interest in education is on the rise, Foglia said.

“It’s a myth that teaching is the area you go into if you can’t make it anywhere else,” Foglia said. “We’re busting at the seams with people who are in the upper half of their classes and who are in good standings. Teaching is attractive and that’s where people want to go.”