Meeting the Need

UC Santa Cruz responds to California's teacher shortage with a bold new program

Carol Krantz and some of her students at Main Street Elementary School in Soquel, California Photo: R. R. Jones

Carol Krantz was about to give up on her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher when she heard last year about a new program at UCSC that offered both a teaching credential and a master's degree in education in just 15 months.

Krantz, 58, had decided at the age of 12 to become a teacher, but marriage and children had sidetracked those plans. Having recently earned her bachelor's degree in American studies at UCSC, Krantz couldn't afford two more years of school.

UCSC's program, which combines preparation for classroom teaching with an emphasis on the theoretical basis of teaching and learning, was a perfect fit for her.

"I feel like this is what my destiny has always been," said Krantz, who is preparing to teach third grade. "I have always loved teaching. It's just a part of me."

Eighty-five students are enrolled in the inaugural class, and many cite the 15-month schedule as a major factor in their decision to choose UCSC. Yes, it's rigorous, they all agree, but the preparation is a valuable blend of hands-on training and scholarship.

If the 15-month program seems to have been tailor-made for students, its origins actually lie in meeting the needs of the state of California, which is experiencing an acute teacher shortage. It's hard to fathom the scope of the challenge: Between 250,000 and 300,000 new teachers will need to be hired in the next ten years, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. That rivals the size of the entire teacher workforce today, which numbers 284,000. The task is even more daunting given that California currently issues only 20,000 new credentials each year but will need to hire 36,000 teachers per year to meet the demand.

In 1999, when Governor Gray Davis tapped the University of California to beef up its teacher-preparation programs, UCSC was quick to respond. Santa Cruz, in fact, was the only campus that was able to launch an intensive program by summer 2000. "We plunged in," said Joyce Justus, chair of UCSC's Education Department. "I went to the UC Office of the President and said 'Help!,' and they gave our campus the resources we needed to condense our successful two-year program into 15 months."

UC campuses historically have prepared only about 4 percent of the teachers who are credentialed in California. Private colleges and universities credential another 30 percent or so, and the rest earn their credentials at California State University campuses. Davis asked UC to double its share, and he backed his directive with resources, including the Governor's Teacher Scholars Fellowships, which cover tuition for aspiring teachers who commit to work for four years in low-performing, hard-to-staff schools following graduation. Fifty of UCSC's current students are enrolled in the fellowship program.

The UCSC curriculum plays on the strengths of a teacher-preparation program that was developed to emphasize the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students. The program's breadth and depth have historically prepared its graduates to take strong leadership roles "right out of the starting gate," said Justus.

"We believe that better preparation leads to greater professional success," she said, noting that the UCSC program exceeds state requirements for the number of hours spent student teaching.

The program begins in summer with an intensive three-course load, including a classroom placement that offers opportunities for observation and integration of theoretical material with "real-world" scenarios (see sidebar). It wraps up the following summer with a condensed five-week quarter that ends mid-July to allow graduates to begin teaching in mid-August.

The pace is grueling, as is the workload. "We had to write 16 papers in the first class," recalled Krantz. "It was a killer, and it can be hard to assimilate it all. But education is the core of our future. Teachers have an amazing amount of responsibility. When I can use the tools from my classes to take children aside, and–boom!–they're learning, they're successful, they're not feeling hopeless, well, that gets to the heart of all the idealistic reasons I want to teach."

UCSC has also contributed significantly to a rethinking of teacher education and professional development. "We're moving away from saying that when you get your credential, you're ready to teach," said Justus. "It's a recognition that good teaching grows over a lifetime."

At UCSC, teacher preparation can begin at the undergraduate level with a minor in education. In addition to the credential/master's program, UCSC administers the very successful New Teacher Project, which provides professional development and mentorship opportunities for teachers during their first two years in the classroom. The model has been so successful that it is being expanded beyond the Monterey Bay Area into Silicon Valley, and it is being replicated in school districts across the state.

Next on the department's agenda: a new doctoral program in education that would prepare the next generation of faculty for UC and California State University schools of education. Currently in the proposal stage, the Ph.D. program is targeted to begin in fall 2003.

For Sarah Henne, 25, one of the most valuable aspects of the credential/master's program is the way she and her fellow students are encouraged to view each other as resources. "The curriculum manages to be honest about teaching conditions while also inspiring us to believe that we can face those challenges in well-prepared, effective ways," said Henne, a UCSC graduate who is earning her bilingual multiple-subject (elementary school) teaching credential.

Because English-language skills vary tremendously by region and even within a single classroom, teachers can't count on using language to reach their students. Being fluent in Spanish will help Henne, particularly if she lands a job in nearby Watsonville as she hopes, but it won't help her reach students who speak Vietnamese, Laotian, and Chinese.

"We're learning how to use everything at our disposal to reach students, including other children in the classroom. Everyone in the room is a resource," said Henne, whose upbeat confidence is shared by many. "Diversity creates so many opportunities for a teacher to bring world studies into the classroom. Most of our group see challenge as exciting."

For UCSC's faculty, preparing badly needed teachers offers several levels of gratification: There's no doubt their students will find jobs, and there is satisfaction in knowing that UCSC offers follow-up professional support after graduation. There is also comfort in knowing that former governor Pete Wilson's class-size reduction efforts have improved the classroom environment for everyone.

"As a taxpaying citizen, my fear was that if we didn't do something to speed up the credentialing process and get more teachers in schools, the state would be putting nontrained people in the classroom, and class-size reduction wouldn't accomplish what was hoped," said Justus. "Education has emerged at the top of everyone's agenda, and we have got to take advantage of that and move quickly. I think universities like ours have a special responsibility to work with our public-education partners to improve the quality of public schools."

–Jennifer McNulty

Teaching for a Better World

The Peace Corps slogan, "The toughest job you'll ever love," is an apt description of what's in store for new teachers. And like Peace Corps volunteers, many aspiring teachers are drawn to the work by a desire to build a better world.

Nowhere is that need as great as it is in low-income urban schools which typically lack the resources it takes to attract–and keep–top-notch teachers.

At UCSC, the credential/master's program emphasizes field placements in diverse settings, beginning with the students' first classroom assignment in a poor inner-city school district in San Jose.

"By working in urban schools, our students get a chance to see the issues that are keeping low-income children from succeeding in the educational context," said June Gordon, assistant professor of education at UCSC, who teaches Urban Education at the undergraduate level and coordinates the San Jose placements for master's students. "Our graduates may not choose to teach in urban settings, but the urban field placement exposes them to the challenges facing many school districts."

Franklin-McKinley is the lowest-income district in San Jose. The student body is made up predominantly of Vietnamese, Latino, Cambodian, and Laotian students, with smaller numbers of African Americans, whites, and immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. Eighty-seven percent of the students participate in the free-lunch program–a standard measure of the economic status of a school's population.

"There were eight or nine different languages in my classroom," said master's student Americo Castillo. "The teacher tacked a world map on the wall with pins marking where the students were from, and there were dots all over that map." Such robust diversity stood in stark contrast to the divisions Castillo saw between Latino and white students in Castroville, the small agricultural town south of Santa Cruz where he grew up. "The kids in San Jose were awesome," he said. "There were so many cultures that everybody seemed to just appreciate everybody else. If that's typical of urban schools, other schools have a lot to learn from these kids."

Gordon, whose not-so-hidden agenda is to inspire new teachers to take on the extraordinary job of urban teaching, said the experience of working in urban schools transforms many aspiring teachers. "So many issues are played out in urban schools–immigration, socioeconomic differences, language barriers, lack of school resources," said Gordon. "Unless our students get this hands-on exposure, many aspiring teachers won't consider urban schools. Nothing but experience can change that, and we provide a safe environment where they can discuss and critique what they have seen and felt."

Adding to the challenge facing urban school districts is the struggle to build a diverse teaching force, said Gordon, author of the new book The Color of Teaching, which explores the cultural and social forces that discourage people of color from becoming teachers. The reasons vary depending on the ethnic group, according to Gordon. Family discouragement is a common theme, as are the lack of respect afforded teaching by mainstream America, and the lasting effects of racism and the mislabeling of children's academic abilities. Contrary to public perception, teaching is a creative, challenging, and rewarding profession that requires risk-taking and commitment, said Gordon. "Understanding the complexity of teaching and portraying the reality of the profession would help correct misperceptions," she said.

Castillo, 25, sees teaching as a road to social change. "I'm an activist, and teaching to me is a form of activism," said Castillo, who was a union organizer with the United Farm Workers as a UCSC undergraduate. "My dad–we used to pick strawberries, and he said, 'Mico, if you really want to make a difference, you've got to be a teacher. Start with the little kids and try to be a role model.' "

After college, Castillo taught fourth grade with an emergency credential in his hometown. It was a difficult nine months, in part because of the chilly reception he got from the parents of his white students. But Castillo persevered and had a successful year. Now he looks forward to returning with additional skills to break down cultural barriers and encourage parental involvement.

Recalling the pride he felt in fourth grade when, for the first time, his teacher–a man of Mexican heritage–provided a role model for his own future, Castillo said he hopes to inspire some of his students, too. "There are kids from my com-munity who aren't being heard," he said. "There are a lot more voices out there that could be heard. I can provide a means for those voices to be heard, because I know what they sound like."

–Jennifer McNulty