PEPPERDINE ACCELERATES ITS CREDENTIAL PROGRAM.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Aware of the sudden demand for elementary school teachers, Pepperdine University wants to give area school districts a helping hand.

The university's teacher training program is accelerating its credentialing process by allowing some teacher trainees to take a fast track, getting them fully prepared three months earlier than usual, said Don Kobabe, a teacher trainee supervisor in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

``Part of it is response to (the governor's program) and in response to the fact that there are going to be a lot of jobs, and we want to get our people ready for the job market,'' Kobabe said.

Under the governor's program, $771 million has been set aside for schools statewide to achieve a maximum 20-to-1 pupil-to-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grade. The money is available to reduce class sizes in up to three grades per district.

Local school districts have spent the past several weeks scrambling to hire new elementary school teachers and get programs in place in time to qualify for a piece of the money.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District in Thousand Oaks, for example, has hired 79 new teachers, while the Moorpark Unified School District expects to hire about 30 new elementary teachers for the class size reduction program.

Pepperdine's teacher training program still has the same requirements, Kobabe said. It's simply a fast track for trainees who have completed the first nine weeks of the 27 required in teacher training.

At the university, the year is divided into three trimesters lasting about 14 weeks, he said. Because students working toward their teaching credentials spend only nine weeks per session in student teaching, there is a five-week gap between assignments.

``What we're trying to do is give them back-to-back nine-week assignments so that maybe we'll have some graduates who will be ready to have a full-time job in February instead of in May,'' he said.

He expects about a half-dozen student teachers to sign up for the fast track, he said.