University Offers Warranty on Teachers It Graduates

Joining car manufacturers, dishwasher makers and others who stand behind their products, the School of Education at Cal State Long Beach has become the first in California--and one of only a handful in the country--to offer a warranty on teachers.

Faculty members this week approved issuing a one-year guarantee to Los Angeles-area school districts, which hire the bulk of the graduates of the university’s teacher education program. The policy commits the university to sending a professor out to classrooms to provide one-on-one assistance to any graduates having trouble during what is often a very challenging first year on the job.

The idea of guarantees is increasingly being discussed at education schools and is being proposed statewide by Cal State Chancellor Charles B. Reed. Supporters see the idea as a way of boosting confidence in their programs and attracting top students.

“They do it for cars, we ought to be willing to do it for people,” said Colleen Bentley-Adler, Reed’s spokeswoman.

So far, however, the practice remains rare, even as education schools are being blamed for some of the perceived problems with the quality of teaching in public education. Schools that offer warranties find that few graduates actually need emergency help. But the practice creates good will and encourages the education schools themselves to set high standards for their graduates, officials say.

Cal State Long Beach President Robert Maxson said the warranty is a sign of confidence, not doubt. “If you don’t have supreme confidence in the program, you could ill afford to do it,” he said. “If they do all their certification work here, I think we have to take the responsibility for it.”

If teachers fail to improve as a result of the help the college will provide, districts will still have the right to dismiss them during the first two years of their classroom work. School districts are reluctant to terminate teachers, however, because of the shortage of teachers and the investment of time that each one represents.

David G. Imig, chief executive of the 735-member American Assn. of Colleges of Education, has been urging colleges around the country to take such an action. He also is telling colleges to provide remedial courses to graduates who do not pass state teacher licensing exams.

“If we’re not willing to do this, we only compound the problems that we’ve already got,” he said.

Congress last year passed a law requiring states to set performance standards for schools of education. The law requires the states to sanction colleges if too many graduates do not pass each state’s teacher licensing exam.

But Imig warned that such policies are not a panacea. In order to avoid sanctions, universities could begin turning away less qualified students who want to become teachers. Although that might raise overall quality, it would reduce the supply of teachers at a time when the nation anticipates having to hire 2 million new teachers over the next decade.

Imig said schools of education first offered warranties about 20 years ago. Since then, a few universities in Arkansas, Virginia and elsewhere have gotten on board. Typically, few teachers have to be retooled by the universities.

Last year, Georgia ordered all of its public universities to guarantee the skills of the teachers it graduates. Officials there projected that only a small number, fewer than 1%, of the teachers might need such assistance, Imig said.

Kathy Coen, associate dean of the education school at Long Beach, said the guarantee will apply only to the 700 or so teachers who complete their requirements there each year and get jobs in the Los Angeles area.

Even before going into effect for this spring’s graduates, the policy is generating enthusiasm, Coen said. “There’s very strong support for it and a lot of good will just from telling people that we’re considering it,” she said.

The Long Beach Unified School District last year hired 60 graduates of the Cal State Long Beach teacher education program. Supt. Carl Cohn said the warranty strengthens the relationship of the university and the district.

“It lets everybody know we’re in this together,” he said.

The district already works closely with the university to make sure the teachers it hires are well-prepared, he said.

With school districts in the midst of a historic boom in hiring, graduates of teacher preparation programs have no problem finding jobs. Even so, the warranty could give teachers from Cal State Long Beach an edge in getting the positions they want.

“The warranty piece, hands down, very definitely” would make a difference in hiring decisions, said Robert Diaz, assistant superintendent for human resources in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District.

But, he said, the district needs to hire about 100 teachers annually and usually doesn’t have the luxury of being too selective. “The first priority for us is to fill our needs, and sometimes we’re forced to look at numbers.”

The decision to issue the warranty comes on the eve of a turn for Cal State Long Beach in the national spotlight. U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley on Tuesday will give his annual State of American Education speech on the campus. He plans to focus the speech on ways to improve the quality and supply of teachers.