A Big, Fat ‘F’ for Lots of Teachers : Study flays the unqualified and sets off a drive to find remedies

When teachers cannot teach well, students fail. Yet one in four U.S. public school teachers is poorly prepared or flatly unqualified for classroom instruction. Surely no other profession would accept such abysmal performance. Every state government, school board, superintendent, teachers union, principal and parent had better act to turn the situation around.

This indictment was delivered by the blue-ribbon National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, and its prescriptions are familiar. It calls for improved recruiting practices, higher academic standards, stronger teacher training programs, mandatory licensing and continued professional development for teachers. These goals won’t be achieved, however, until teachers get more respect, more help in the classroom and better pay. But where will the money come from to attract better teachers?

The commission, funded by the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations, also calls for greater accountability in the classroom. An enlightened leadership for teachers unions should know that getting rid of incompetent teachers need not take years.

Reacting to the commission’s recommendations, seven states already have agreed to tackle the problems in unison. Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Maine, Missouri and North Carolina will share strategies and perhaps ultimately provide models for national efforts.

In California, coincidentally, the State Board of Education called last week for a return to traditional skills in teaching math, a parallel to its previous decision to go back to phonics in reading instruction. In math this means memorizing multiplication tables and other basics.

A California reform now underway is encouraging class-size reduction in the primary grades, with the goal of improving fundamental student skills. But this will require nearly 20,000 additional teachers--quadruple the number of newly state-certified teachers. Under the state program, schools that reduce class size to 20 will be paid a per-pupil bonus. As a result of the teacher shortage and Gov. Pete Wilson’s February deadline for schools to qualify for the bonuses, districts are under pressure to accept almost any applicant, including those without a teaching credential. The inexperienced and untrained teachers will need support from veterans.

Other projects to remedy the sorts of problems outlined by the national commission are already in motion in California. In Southern California, select student teachers and classroom teachers will benefit from a $8.2-million grant by the Weingart Foundation. The pilot program, a joint effort by the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project and LEARN, also involves the California State University system, which trains one of every 10 new teachers in the nation. CSU professors will work with college students and veteran teachers assigned to about 30 reform-minded elementary, middle and senior high schools in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Overall, it’s a top-to-bottom effort, and that’s precisely what public schools need.