Interns Can Play a Key Role in Scramble to Hire Teachers

Wanted: More classroom teachers. California school districts need nearly 20,000 additional teachers to reduce class sizes in the primary grades. Veterans who know how to teach reading and control a classroom of 20 active first-graders are the top candidates, but they are in short supply. To compensate, a few districts are taking advantage of a new state law that makes it easier to hire intern teachers.

The law, sponsored by Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico), a former teacher, eliminates the requirement that districts first prove they cannot fill an opening with a fully qualified teacher. That’s a given; the state licensed 5,000 new teachers last year, but districts will need nearly four times as many to take advantage of Gov. Pete Wilson’s ambitious effort to reduce class sizes. Schools that reduce class size to 20 students in the first and second grades by mid-February and in kindergarten or the third grade by spring can count on a state bonus of $650 per pupil, a huge incentive.

Meeting the challenge won’t be easy in crowded urban areas like Los Angeles. Accommodating the more than 650,000 students of the L.A. Unified School District requires year-round calendars on some campuses, a bevy of bungalows encroaching on playgrounds and busing from dense neighborhoods to less crowded suburban schools. To make more room for smaller classes, the district has ordered 500 portable classrooms. To find 3,000 additional elementary teachers, it is competing for the state’s newly certified teachers and recruiting in out-of-state districts that have laid off teachers. Districts also want to lure back retirees, an obvious choice. But retired teachers can only earn $17,000 a year without losing their pension. Sacramento should change that law during the classroom crisis. That means this month.

The Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, a charter school in Pacoima, has already risen to the challenge. Yvonne Chin, the school’s executive director, turned the school’s multipurpose room and a special education classroom into first-grade classes and ordered portable classrooms to solve the space crunch, a major obstacle for many campuses.

The school also needed additional teachers and hired a certified instructor and a former teacher’s assistant who had never run her own classroom. To help new teachers learn how to manage their classrooms, Vaughn offers its own two-week training program, plus support from veteran teachers and administrators. Ongoing support is crucial.

Intern teachers really shouldn’t be in charge of the first grade because they haven’t had the preparation for the demands of teaching reading. But novice instructors--interns or those with emergency credentials--can provide enthusiasm, computer skills and perhaps more up-to-date science and math skills to older students.

The L.A. district’s highly competitive intern program requires college-educated applicants to pass teaching tests that also measure mastery of a variety of subjects. Interns have two years to obtain a teaching credential and are trained by the district. They are guided in the classroom by experienced mentor teachers.

The need for new teachers is not as daunting in smaller districts, although everybody is scrambling in this competitive atmosphere. In Orange County, the Irvine district needs 33 additional first-grade teachers, and it plans to spend about $1.6 million for new teachers and additional supplies to reduce student numbers in all first-grade classes.

With proper support, intern teachers can relieve pressure on districts racing to reduce class sizes. The result should be less harried teachers, and students finally getting the attention they deserve.