Hurrah for Teacher Warranty

A warranty on new teachers announced by the Cal State Long Beach School of Education should challenge every teacher training program to do the same. The novel program provides that a professor will provide sustained individual assistance in the classroom for any graduate having trouble during the first year. The new teachers, their students and even the education professors will benefit from this direct link between theory and practice.

The first year of teaching is often the hardest, as the new graduates struggle with instruction and classroom management. Many need help, but assistance is rarely available beyond a hurried conversation with the principal or the teacher next door.

The warranty will take effect with the spring graduates of Cal State Long Beach and apply during their first year of teaching in Southern California school districts. The Long Beach education faculty does not anticipate intervention for most of their 700 graduates, but those who do flounder can count on their former professors for emergency assistance.

The one-year guarantee has been proposed statewide by Cal State Chancellor Charles B. Reed, who is mindful of concerns about the quality of teachers produced by some CSU programs. If proven in this test, the warranty program should be extended throughout California. Teacher quality is uneven and getting worse because of the nationwide shortage. Some school districts are forced to throw any available body in front of a classroom, close the door and hope for the best, says U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. Speaking Tuesday at the Cal State Long Beach campus, he praised the warranty program and noted that the federal government requires states to set performance standards for schools of education and to sanction colleges if too many graduates fail the state teacher licensing exam.

What about teachers who are not products of training programs? Riley would end emergency credentials for teachers, but that is too harsh. The only way many school districts can put a teacher in every classroom, especially in schools in tough neighborhoods, is to take some untrained applicants. Riley would make it easier for teachers to move from one state or school district to another.

To improve overall teacher quality, the secretary suggests that states implement a three-tier licensing system that would reward the most advanced and effective teachers by giving them the highest pay. Raising standards and rewarding excellence are both good ideas. So too is the new Cal State Long Beach teacher warranty.