The district went from 68 emergency credentialed teachers to two
in just four years
Gilroy – There is one scenario in the education world where decrease doesn’t spell disaster: when that reduction refers to emergency credentials.
Back in 2002, the Gilroy Unified School District emergency credential tally was 63 and that number shrunk to 24 in 2003. This fall the number of emergency teachers dropped once again, all the way down to eight.
Assistant Superintendent Linda Piceno attributed the significant decline to the hard work of the human resources department and the principals at each school. Increasing the number of fully credentialed teachers, thus reducing the number of educators teaching on so-called emergency permits, is one of the goals the district set when drafting its strategic plan.
Teachers on emergency permits, which the state now refers to as teaching permits, may only have a bachelor’s degree and/or passed the California Basic Educational Skills Test, the same requirement needed to work as a substitute.
Once individuals have passed the California Subject Examinations for Teachers they’re considered to have an intern credential. And once they’ve passed the CSET and fulfilled all required coursework, they’re fully credentialed or have a clear credential.
When kindergarten through third grade class size reduction was instituted in 1996, California school districts began hiring more emergency credentialed teachers out of desperation. More classrooms were void of a teacher because of the move to a student to teacher ratio of 20 to 1.
But when budgets got tight in spring of 2003 and GUSD was forced to make cuts, the district laid off a large number of emergency credentialed teachers. When new teachers were hired district officials made it their goal to fill the vacant spots with credentialed educators.
“Since then we have tightened up our hiring procedures so that the interview pool, the application pool we look at first and foremost are credentialed teachers,” Piceno said.
Narrowing the candidate pool is quite a change. In the past recruitment fairs were open to all but now the district invites individuals with credentials for the first interviews.
If a position cannot be filled then the district will look at candidates without full credentials. Currently, math position at both Brownell Middle and Gilroy High schools are being taught by substitute teachers without credentials.
A new teacher is in the process of being hired for the Brownell position and the district is still searching for someone to fill the GHS spot. Having fewer teachers on permits also means the district is closer to becoming aligned with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires that all educators have teaching credentials by this spring.
Although an educator teaching on a permit may be exemplary in the classroom the lack of experience does translate to the need for more support. All new teachers who have been in the classroom fewer than three years need some help from peers but an educator with a credential is one step ahead because he or she spent time student teaching, Piceno said.
The number of GUSD teachers who have obtained their Crosscultural, Language and Academic Development certificates has also increased substantially. In the fall of 2005 only 43 percent of teachers were CLAD certified and this fall that number jumped to 79 percent.
All California teachers who work with English learners – virtually every teacher in Gilroy – must be CLAD certified. The certification is now embedded in most credentialing programs.
