The K–3 Class Size Reduction Initiative in California, inaugurated in the summer of 1996, called for a student-to-teacher ratio of 20 to 1. Passage of the initiative released a flood of state funding for education, created an unexpected teacher shortage, and presented teacher education faculties in California with several dilemmas that have long-term implications for the future of preservice preparation.
As school districts scrambled to hire enough teachers in time for the opening of the school year, they looked to several sources of potential teachers, including pre-service students who were ready to do their student teaching in the fall. These preservice students had completed their foundations and methods courses and had only one semester of student teaching remaining before they could receive credentials. Districts saw these teachers-in-training as prime candidates for the new emergency permit positions, even though they did not yet possess a valid teaching credential.
Need to Respond Quickly
The Department of Teacher Education at California State University, Long Beach, like many preservice programs throughout the state, faced the dilemma of how to accommodate students who took emergency permit teaching positions before completing their student teaching. The faculty needed to find a way that would be consistent with its standards for the professional preparation of teachers, standards that were deeply embedded in the department's program.
Faced with an extraordinary set of circumstances, and pushed to act quickly, the faculty altered its program and offered emergency permit teaching, along with traditional student teaching, as an option for the pre-service student's culminating field experience. Faculty members found themselves working with students who were suddenly teachers of record, as well as with those who chose to follow the traditional route of working in the classroom of a cooperating teacher. For many of us who viewed the completion of coursework and supervised clinical fieldwork as fundamental to preservice preparation, abandoning traditional student teaching for even a portion of our students was a major step.
We found that we needed to accommodate several types of student teachers. One group, which we called traditional student teachers, chose to complete the traditional program. A second group of emergency permit teachers accepted paid positions with local school districts at the beginning of the semester and sought to have their work accepted as student teaching. Among them were students who had com-pleted half of their student teaching in the traditional way during the summer and who wanted to use their newly acquired jobs to complete their credential requirement. A third group began the semester as traditional student teachers but became emergency permit teachers by accepting offers for paid positions during the term. All students had weekly observations and follow-up conferences with their university supervisor and participated in the supervisor's weekly seminars.
To help the emergency permit teachers, each school was asked to assign a site-support teacher in lieu of a cooperating classroom teacher. The site-support teachers observed and met with the students, who in turn observed the site-support teachers; gave the students assessment feedback; and in general, performed as many of the functions of a cooperating teacher as possible, short of sharing a classroom.
Support from schools varied greatly. Some gave only minimal support. In one case, the emergency permit teacher had no classroom supplies, virtually no contact with the principal, and no support from fellow teachers. At other schools, educators were acutely aware of the need to nurture, support, and assist these novice teachers in as many ways as possible. Most districts provided workshops for beginning teachers and included them in regular inservice offerings. Although some veteran teachers seemed to resent the fact that the emergency permit teachers had obtained their jobs easily, without completing their training, many more saw the students as new colleagues to be welcomed into the profession.
Survey Feedback from the Students
To learn their perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks to the two ways of completing their preparation, we surveyed our students at the conclusion of each semester. The results here are a combination of the two surveys, with a total of 138 respondents.
The majority (95 percent) indicated that they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their culminating field experience. Of the traditional student teachers, 73 percent were "very satisfied," whereas only 57 percent of the emergency permit teachers felt the same way.
On the other hand, approximately 5 percent of the respondents said they were "unsatisfied" or "very unsatisfied." This dissatisfaction was usually linked to a poor student-teaching placement or an emergency permit position where there was little support for the beginning teacher. These incidences underscored the need to create nurturing professional environments for novice teachers regardless of how they enter the field.
Most students (87 percent of the traditional student teachers and 70 percent of the emergency permit teachers) said that if they had to do it over again, they would do their culminating field experience the same way. Interestingly, none of the traditional student teachers said that they would opt to do only emergency permit teaching, whereas 6 percent of the emergency permit teachers would do a traditional student-teaching assignment instead. Thirteen percent of the traditional student teachers would do a combination of student teaching and emergency permit teaching. Nearly 25 percent of the emergency permit teachers indicated that they would prefer an initial eight-week traditional student-teaching assignment before assuming teacher-of-record responsibilities. Thus, a significant number of respondents (18 percent) would do a combination assignment in retrospect.
Reasons for Foregoing or Remaining in Student Teaching
As a group, the emergency permit teachers gave several reasons for foregoing traditional student teaching. For most, the financial benefit of full-time employment was the primary motivation. Other important reasons included a desire to be independent in the classroom, a sense of being ready to teach, and an attraction for the hands-on, real-life experience that emergency permit teaching offers. The disadvantages for emergency permit teachers included the stress of full-time teaching, the lack of opportunity to observe other teachers, a sense of being "thrown into" the classroom, the heavy workload, a feeling of being overwhelmed, and the lack of mentoring by a veteran teacher.
Among the reasons that traditional student teachers gave for preferring to follow the traditional route were a sense of unpreparedness for full classroom responsibilities, the chance to practice their teaching in a sheltered environment, a desire to have a veteran master teacher as a mentor, reduced stress, time to observe teachers, help with specific areas of teaching, a lack of confidence, and a concern that they would be short-changing students if they took a job prematurely. A large number of traditional student teachers opted for this method reluctantly because they would have liked the income their peers received. They chose a path they perceived to offer better training even though it meant passing up a paid position.
Students understood the difference between the two ways of completing their preparation, as comments from a traditional student teacher and an emergency permit teacher demonstrate. The traditional student teacher felt that "the extra help and advisement that a student teacher receives in traditional student teaching is beneficial. You get the extra practice and support that you don't quite get in emergency permit teaching." On the other hand, the emergency permit teacher wrote that traditional student teaching "would have been a waste of my time. With all the training we have received, there was no reason to do a semester of student teaching."
A few emergency permit teachers clearly regretted the decision to forego traditional student teaching. One student lost her position at the end of the semester. Though her classroom performance was satisfactory from the university faculty's point of view, school district administrators concluded that she was not strong enough to be retained. Realizing that she had missed a valuable preparation experience, she received permission to take traditional student teaching during the second semester on an audit basis. Another student who took an emergency permit position said that "the student-teaching semester is a unique experience that cannot be recaptured if missed. I realize now that I missed the opportunity for observation of many classroom techniques. I definitely would not recommend this."
Aspiring Teachers Consider the Emergency Permit Option
As a student teacher, you gradually phase into taking over teaching the entire day. you continually get feedback, constructive criticism, and positive reinforcement, which aid in your improvement and success.
—Traditional student teacher
I believed that there was a great deal to learn from a good master teacher. I wanted to observe how to start a class at the beginning of the year, and I wanted the feedback and suport from a master teacher and supervisor as I learned to teach.
—Traditional student teacher
I had no idea after my methods courses how involved teaching is. I would have been seriously unprepared as a teacher had I gone in without methods courses or student teaching.
—Traditional student teacher
Studying under an experienced teacher is an invaluable experience. Traditional student teaching provided me an opportunity to become comfortable in the classroom rather than be rushed, pressured, and pusged into the classroom.
—Traditional student teacher
Even thought this first year has been difficult, I do not believe it would have been much different if I had done traditional student teaching first.
—Emergency permit teacher
Knowing now how much work teaching is and how much money one puts into one's classroom, I would go on emergency (again). There is too much work to do and (it's) worse if you're not getting paid.
—Emergency permit teacher
The Continuing Dilemma
The experiences of our students have raised a number of questions. In the wake of class size reduction, what are the implications for teacher education of the new pathways to certification? How will they affect the future of teacher education?
When teachers-in-training can enter the classroom as teachers of record at any time during their preparation, what should be the place of clinical student teaching as the "culminating field experience"? Should teacher educators cling to traditional notions of preparation, or should they modify programs to meet emerging conditions? There are some who fear that alternative routes, such as that offered by emergency permit teaching, may lead to the elimination of university-based professional preparation altogether (Roth 1986).
The perceptions of students, as shown in the survey results, support arguments for both traditional student teaching and early entry into the classroom. Key questions remain. For example, how can school districts, individual schools, and the university collaborate to support those who choose early entry into the classroom? What is the responsibility of each institution? What overlapping responsibilities need to be coordinated?
Other questions center on the feasibility of early entry. For example, what level of preparation do teachers need, and what competencies should they possess if they are to begin classroom teaching while they are still finishing their preservice training? What happens when there is a conflict between the school district and the university in their assessments of a student's readiness to be a teacher of record?
We are faced with a fait accompli when a student comes to us just before the student-teaching semester begins with the news that he or she has just accepted an emergency permit position. If we believe that the student is not ready, should we withhold approval, delaying the student's completion date and subsequent recommendation for state licensure? So far, rather than force students to choose between paid employment and unpaid student teaching, we have worked with them even when we have believed that they would have been better off in a traditional student-teaching setting.
Our department has not yet incorporated emergency permit teaching as a permanent student-teaching option. The current interim policy, now in its second year, requires faculty approval for renewal each year.
Judging by their responses, our approach appears to be working for our students. How it is affecting the children they are teaching is a larger issue that still needs to be addressed. Whether one method of culminating field experience better prepares them as beginning teachers than the other remains to be seen.
As teacher educators, we face the dilemma of whether to institutionalize emergency permit teaching as an option for the culminating field experience. To do so would mean giving up cherished notions of the value of traditional student teaching. On the other hand, to eliminate the option would be to ignore the fact that the state is willing to put noncredentialed teachers in classrooms and to shirk our responsibility to ensure that these teachers receive a full and appropriate professional preparation.
