As Orange Teachers Walk, the Inexperienced Step In

As the number of teachers leaving the beleaguered Orange school system rises, many are replaced by 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 populations.

District officials acknowledge that rancor in their schools spurred many of the 241 resignations this last school year. That number--nearly a sixth of the teaching staff--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-straight student club 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 effect this is having in the classroom.

“The elementary schools have been gutted” by resignations, said Jack Burke, a 34-year teacher at El Modena, 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 an emergency credential or waiver.

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

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

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

Administrators say uncredentialed teachers often make excellent instructors, show enthusiasm and communicate well with children.

Orange school board President Linda Davis is adamant in her assessment 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.

“With the support programs we have, whether they are fully qualified teachers or not, our children do not go without help and they receive an excellent education,” Davis said.

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

“I think a lot of the teachers who are teaching on emergency permits will be excellent teachers, from what I’ve seen,” the union leader 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 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.

Orange schools administrators also point to the shortage of teachers in California to explain the large numbers of uncredentialed staff. Teaching programs aren’t graduating enough instructors to meet demand.

Officials in nearby districts agree that it’s a teacher’s market--but at the same time, they have managed to hire more trained teachers.

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

By contrast, Capistrano Unified hired 787 teachers during that time, less 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.

Santa Ana school board President John Palacio expressed sympathy for Orange’s situation--and his own.

“With the market being the way it is, a teacher now is like an engineer in the ‘70s,” Palacio said. “There is not a district in the county that has enough teachers.”

But Orange has the added problem of large numbers of resignations, he said. “We’ve hired literally hundreds of teachers from Orange Unified.”

History teacher Burke said many Orange teachers leave because they feel caught between a board with values more conservative than theirs and union leadership they believe works against their financial interests.

Four math teachers--half of his high school’s math department--resigned last year, Burke said.

“My problem is I’m 58 and I can’t go somewhere and make up the difference in pay,” he said. “The tragic thing is ‘El Mo’ is a great school.”

Figures also show that the uncredentialed instructors in Orange have landed disproportionately in schools with largely poor and Latino populations that have particular academic needs.

On average, 36% of the teachers in the district’s predominantly minority schools lack a teaching credential, compared with 9% in the district’s predominantly white schools.

In some schools, the numbers are even more stark.

At Portola Middle School, where 85% of the students are minorities, more than half the school’s teachers have emergency permits; by contrast, the student population at Linda Vista Elementary is 21% minority and 9% of teachers are uncredentialed.

Orange school officials say they follow the same hiring procedures practiced by other districts, and that if more inexperienced teachers end up in minority schools it is not by design.

“We try to match teachers and principals in schools where there is a good fit,” Robert Howell, the former director of human resources, said earlier this month. Howell resigned a week ago.

“Teachers submit an application with their experiences and references and if they meet the requirements, then the principals interview them and select who they like,” he said.

Some studies have shown that when disadvantaged students are coupled with inexperienced instructors over a period of years, they tend to achieve less than their peers who had veteran teachers.

The March 1999 edition of the Education Policy Analysis Archives, an electronic educational journal, includes findings that poorly prepared teachers “have trouble anticipating and overcoming barriers to student learning, and are likely to hold low expectations for low-income children.”

Reducing certification requirements worsens the quality of education of low-income children, says the study, compiled by the state Department of Education.

As a result, Rossmann accuses the Orange school board of bigotry against its poor minority students.

“OUSD’s bigoted board has abused the emergency permit process to do this,” Rossmann said.

But board President Davis said that if the union wants more experienced teachers at schools with high minority populations, then the union should encourage its veteran instructors to teach there.

“No one is stopping them,” Davis said. “Teachers have a choice. Some years back the district requested a teacher rotation between the schools but the union said no way. So if anyone is guilty of racism, it’s the union leadership.”

A group of parents, former teachers and former trustee James Fearns, who lost his seat to Davis in 1997, has launched a recall campaign against Davis and two other board members, asserting that low pay has caused an exodus of experienced teachers from the district over the last few years. The teachers union supports the recall effort.