Many New Orange District Teachers Lack Credentials

As the number of teachers leaving the beleaguered Orange school system rises, many are replaced with new hires who lack full teaching credentials, according to figures supplied by the district. And a disproportionate number of those instructors have landed in schools with largely poor and Latino enrollments.

District officials acknowledge that rancor in their schools spurred many of the 241 resignations in the last school year, nearly a sixth of the teaching staff. That number does not include retirements. By contrast, 39 teachers resigned from the district five years ago.

The district has seen unusual turmoil in the last year, with contentious and still-unresolved contract negotiations, a one-day strike, sickouts by teachers, a recall attempt against three board members and a lawsuit over a proposal to start a gay students support group at El Modena High School. The figures released by the district, in response to a public records request from The Times, show for the first time the apparent effect all this is having in the classroom.

“The elementary schools have been gutted” by resignations, said Jack Burke, a 34-year teacher at El Modena High, who also said that half the math teachers at his school left last year.

During that time, the district hired more than 300 teachers. More than a third of them had only emergency credentials or waivers.

Within two years, the number of uncredentialed teachers in Orange schools jumped by nearly 50%, to 353, the district figures show. The schools now have the highest percentage of uncredentialed teachers in Orange County, at 25%. The statewide average is 11%.

And the trend is growing. In its latest round of hiring for the fall, more than half the contracts approved by the Orange board were for these generally less experienced and less well trained teachers.

Emergency credentials are bestowed on people with bachelor’s degrees in any field who have passed a basic skills test but lack the state’s mandated training in the craft of teaching. The number of these generally untrained teachers has been growing statewide as swelling enrollments and special programs, such as reduction in size of primary classes, have pumped up the need for teachers.

Administrators say uncredentialed teachers often make excellent, enthusiastic instructors.

Orange school board President Linda Davis is adamant in her contention that children in the district’s schools receive a top education. Stanford 9 scores have been steadily increasing, and four campuses were named California Distinguished Schools this year.

John Rossmann, president of the Orange Unified Education Assn., says it’s more complex than that.

“I think a lot of the teachers who are teaching on emergency permits will be excellent teachers, from what I’ve seen,” Rossmann said. “But it’s like asking someone who’s going to be medically treated whether they want to be treated by an intern or by a doctor who has 25 years of medical experience.”

Davis also accused the union of making it harder for the board to hire experienced teachers. Union members have picketed recruiting fairs, warning potential teachers to seek jobs elsewhere, she said.

In addition, Orange school administrators point to the shortage of teachers in California to explain the large numbers of uncredentialed staff members. Teaching programs aren’t graduating enough instructors to meet demand.

Of the 760 teachers Orange hired during the last three years, 46% lacked full credentials.

By contrast, Capistrano Unified hired 787 teachers during that time, fewer than 5% of whom were uncredentialed. Santa Ana, which has the fastest growing population in the county, opened four campuses and hired 1,295 teachers during that time. Of that district’s 3,000 teachers, about 12.5% hold emergency permits.

Figures show that the generally less experienced and less trained instructors in Orange have landed disproportionately in schools with largely poor and Latino enrollments and many students who have special needs.

On average, 36% of the teachers in mainly minority schools lack teaching credentials, compared with 9% in mostly white schools.