BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1245
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 27, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
SB 1245 (Alquist) - As Amended: May 2, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 37-0
SUBJECT : Teacher credentialing: alternative certification
programs report.
SUMMARY : Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC)
to submit a report to the Governor and the chairs of the Senate
Committee on Education and the Assembly Committee on Education
and make recommendations about alternative teacher certification
programs. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires, on or before January 1, 2015, the Commission on
Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to submit a report to the Governor
and the chairs of the Senate Committee on Education and the
Assembly Committee on Education that includes all of the
following:
a) A study of alternative certification programs in other
states that use significantly different teacher preparation
methods from traditional teacher preparation programs and
provide a meaningful alternative model for individuals to
enter into the teaching profession.
b) Recommendations for the appropriate goals of alternative
certification programs within the state, including, but not
limited to, recommendations in regard to the purpose, role,
and target audiences of alternative certification programs;
and, an assessment of whether California's current
alternative certification programs meet these goals.
c) Recommendations as to whether the intern statutes should
be consolidated, including, but not limited to, all of the
following:
i) District intern statutes.
ii) The Teacher Education Internship Act of 1967.
iii) The New Careers Program.
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2)Specifies that the reporting requirement shall be repealed on
January 1, 2019.
EXISTING LAW:
1)District Intern Credential: Requires the Commission on
Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to issue District Intern (DI)
credentials authorizing individuals to provide classroom
instruction. A DI credential is issued for a period of two
years. A district intern is required to teach with the
assistance and guidance of certificated employees. The
requirements for the credential are as follows:
a) A bachelor's degree or higher from a regionally
accredited postsecondary education institution.
b) Passage of the state's basic skills examination, the
California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST).
c) Demonstrated knowledge of the subject to be taught,
either by passage of a subject-matter competency exam or by
completion of a subject-matter program that has been
approved by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
d) The oral language component of the assessment program
leading to the Bilingual-crosscultural language and
academic development (BCLAD) certificate for persons
seeking a DI credential to teach bilingual education
classes. (Education Code 44325 et seq.)
2)University Intern Credential : Establishes the Teacher
Education Internship Act of 1967 to encourage the development
and maintenance of preparation programs that are realistic and
practical in content and theory and are directly related to
the individual functions and responsibilities of educators.
Authorizes any school district to partner with an approved
college or university to establish an intern program.
Establishes the following minimum requirements for the
University Intern (UI) credential:
a) A bachelor's degree or higher from a regionally
accredited postsecondary education institution.
b) Passage of the state's basic skills examination, the
California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST).
c) Demonstrated knowledge of the subject to be taught,
either by passage of a subject-matter competency exam or by
completion of a subject-matter program that has been
approved by the CTC. (Education Code 44450 et seq.)
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1)Alternative Certification Program : Establishes a program
operated by a school district, county office of education,
college or university, or other public education entity,
individually or in collaboration with other public education
entities in the region, to provide a concentrated program
leading to a permanent teaching credential and provides that
school districts and county offices of education that propose
to operate an alternative certification program can apply to
the CTC for incentive grant funding. Individuals who
participate in an Alternative Certification program hold
either a DI or UI credential. (Education Code 44380 et seq.)
2)The New Careers Program : Establishes Legislative intent to
enact a New Careers Program to recruit and train persons who
have completed at least 60 units of college work in a
community college or a four-year institution of higher
education for teaching in low-income elementary schools.
Specifies the Legislature intends the program to provide a
means by which capable persons of low-income background may
enter the teaching profession. The New Careers Program is
designed to provide practical teaching experience in schools
with high concentrations of low-income families, as determined
by the Director of Compensatory Education, concurrently with
upper division academic and professional education. (Education
Code 44520 et seq.)
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, approximately $60,000 in CTC workload, over the
course of 2 years, to complete the required report.
COMMENTS : This bill requires the CTC to report to the
Legislature and make recommendations regarding the State's
current alternative teacher certification programs. The bill
requires the CTC to study the alternative certification programs
in other states, compare those to options in California, and
make recommendations about consolidating the State's existing
alternative certification programs.
According to the CTC, existing law establishes the District
Intern Credential, the University Intern Credential, and the
Alternative Certification Program. These statutes were created
as far back as 1967 as part of California's ongoing effort to
provide alternative routes into the teaching profession to
address statewide shortages of teachers in particular subject
areas including mathematics science and special education.
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Credential options were established for individuals who wish to
be the teacher of record while simultaneously completing a
program of professional preparation. Each of these programs
requires participants to hold, at minimum, a Bachelor's degree,
meet the California Basic Skills requirement, and demonstrate
subject matter competence. Additional requirements are in place
for those wishing to provide instruction to English language
learners.
While some voices have urged the State to ease the credentialing
pathway for industry professionals, particularly for those with
math or science training, it is widely accepted that a balance
must also be struck to ensure teachers are qualified to work
with all students, including English language learners and
students with special needs. As such, California requires
educator candidates to meet the same standards regardless of
their chosen preparation route. The argument can then be made
that what California labels as alternative certification is
merely an alternative route to a standard California credential.
CTC Workload : According to the CTC, the commission is currently
engaged in work on the Teacher Preparation Advisory Panel (TAP)
and the Educator Excellence Task Force (EETF). While this type
of work has, at times, been accomplished through a broad-based
stakeholder group, as the Commission continues to examine its
priorities and resource constraints, studies of this nature can
be taken up in an alternative manner. As such, it is
anticipated that the outcomes of the TAP panel and EETF will
provide substantial framework to support and inform the work of
this Alternative Certifications Program report. Coupled with a
generous deadline of January 1, 2015, staff's assessment is that
this work can be completed for $125,000.
According to the author, California faces a serious shortage in
math, science, and special education teachers. The traditional
pathway for bringing teachers into the classroom via
credentialing is not producing sufficient teachers to meet the
need in the high shortage areas of math, science, and special
education. The alternative pathways for bringing teachers into
the classroom via alternative certification also are not
producing sufficient math, science, and special education
teachers. There has been criticism that the "alternative
certification" pathways are not significantly different than the
traditional full credentialing pathway for becoming a teacher
because they impose nearly equivalent education and pre-service
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training requirements as a traditional credential.
The traditional credentialing process can take up to 18-24
months to complete. In response to the length of the traditional
credentialing process, the Legislature developed "alternative
certification pathways" to expedite the process for bringing
qualified new teachers into the classroom. However, as time has
passed, these alternative certification pathways now also take
up to 18-24 months to complete.
Some of the alternative certification programs are more than 40
years old. And the most recent one is now more than a decade
old. Studying "alternative certification" is timely given that
the state:
faces a serious teacher shortage;
has an unacceptable amount of under qualified math,
science, and special education teachers;
is transitioning to the new Common Core Curriculum
Standards; and,
continues to have unacceptable math and science test
scores.
There is no formal mechanism in existing law to require the CTC
to review and recommend alternatives to the existing alternative
certification pathways. By requiring CTC to study alternative
certification and report back to the Legislature by January 1,
2015, SB 1245 ensures that the Legislature's priorities are
acted on.
Funding Flexibility : There are approximately 60 categorical
programs that serve specific goals or specific programs. The
fiscal year (FY) 2009-10 budget had an important impact on
categorical programs. The budget agreement imposed a 20%
reduction on 39 programs and gave local education agencies
(LEAs) that received those funds in FY 2007-08 the flexibility
to use the funds for any educational purposes from FY 2008-09
through FY 2012-13. This flexibility was extended to FY 2014-15
by SB 70 (Committee on Budget), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011.
This reduction and flexibility provision is commonly known as
"Tier 3" flexibility, which essentially gives LEAs $4.5 billion
in additional unrestricted funds. Tier 1 protected four
categorical programs from cuts and flexibility while 11
categorical programs sustained reductions but were given no
flexibility under Tier 2. For Tier 3 funds, school districts
receive their allocations for five years based on the applicable
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percentage the programs received in FY 2007-08. As a result,
until 2015, LEAs are not required to justify or report average
daily attendance (ADA) in order to receive the specified
categorical funds. School districts, county offices of
education, colleges, universities, or other public education
entities have historically applied to the CTC for incentive
grant funding to operate these programs, however, funding for
Alternative Certification programs is included in this
categorical flexibility.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
StudentsFirst
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087