Study Questions Teachers’ Training

More than a quarter of core classes taught at California’s public middle and high schools are led by teachers with little academic training in those subjects, according to a new study released Wednesday.

The report by the Education Trust, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group, found that 27% of math, English, science and social studies classes in California’s secondary schools are taught by people who had neither a college major nor a minor in the fields they are teaching.

Nationwide, the number is 24%. California ranks 19th worst in the country; Louisiana, with 40%, tops the chart. Minnesota had the best record--7% of secondary classes are taught by teachers without a major or a minor in the fields.

“If you don’t know the subject, it is really hard to teach the subject,” said Kati Haycock, Education Trust’s director. “The numbers are scary, worrisome to say the least.”

The report was released at a time when California is in a quarrel with the federal government over what constitutes a “highly qualified” teacher.

At stake are millions of dollars in federal aid, contingent on states’ meeting standards set by the “No Child Left Behind Act,” passed last year by Congress and a key component of President Bush’s education agenda.

The new federal law defines a “highly qualified” middle or high school teacher as having a college degree in the subject being taught, among other qualifications.

California education officials contended that the Education Trust report presents a misleading picture of teacher qualifications. They argue that some teachers without such college degrees in those subjects have gained expertise through credentialing and other training. Teachers are required to take additional college courses in the subjects they teach to receive their credentials.

“It is better to have someone at least trying to teach science than to have absolutely no science,” said Kerry Mazzoni, California’s education secretary. “We have some misassignments, but we are addressing the problem.”

The Education Trust report is based on a recently released survey by the U.S. Department of Education of about 56,000 public school teachers nationwide in the 1999-2000 school year. The trust examined responses from 16,000 secondary school teachers.

The group also found the problem is more pronounced in schools with high percentages of minorities and poor students in the country as a whole, but not in California.

Nationwide, compared to low poverty schools, classes in high poverty schools were 77% more likely to be assigned to out-of-field teachers. Classes in nonwhite majority schools were 40% more likely to have such teachers compared to mostly white schools.

There were no significant race or income gaps among California schools, the study found. Mazzoni said that shows that the state is on the right track.

She also pointed to the steady rise of test scores around the state as evidence of teachers’ abilities.