LITTLE EFFECT FORESEEN IN L.A. FROM TEACHER-STATUS RULING.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

SACRAMENTO - A Superior Court judge on Wednesday ruled that the state erred when it created a new classification for thousands of teachers working on emergency credentials to meet a provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Deborah Hirsch, chief human resources officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the ruling was not likely to have much effect on the district.

State officials said the decision would not jeopardize the state's status under the law, which requires that all core classes - such as English, math and science - be taught by teachers who are ``highly qualified'' by the end of this school year. Schools that fail to meet the standard face sanctions, including loss of federal funding.

California intends to ask for an extension of the deadline.

In the lawsuit, Californians for Justice, an advocacy group for poor and minority students, said the state's Commission on Teacher Credentialing created a new internship credential in 2003 so that certain teachers working with only emergency credentials could be reclassified and considered ``highly qualified.''

Hirsch said the LAUSD has reduced its number of provisional or emergency teachers from 5,000 to 250 over the past three years. The district has a total of about 35,000 teachers.

The ruling might affect 467 teachers who had passed their subject-matter test and completed all of their training except for student teaching, Hirsch said. Most of these teachers will be fully qualified within the year.

``We were considering them highly qualified because all they had left to do was their student teaching,'' Hirsch said. ``That's a lot further along than your typical emergency credential.''

In his ruling, San Francisco Superior Court Judge James L. Warren did not address the teachers' qualifications but said the commission skirted a state law that requires new rules to be subjected to public review.