SMALLER CLASSES SPREAD IN STATE : REPORT CITES SHORTAGE OF QUALIFIED TEACHERS.

Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau

School districts have put 92 percent of California first-graders in 20-student classes in the past year, but they've done it by hiring teachers with less experience and fewer skills, according to a state report released Wednesday.

The report by the state Legislative Analyst's Office said the first phase of a state initiative to put children from kindergarten through third grade into smaller classes is working, and there are no more than 20 children in most first-grade and second-grade classes.

But authors of the report recommended against adding an additional grade to the program next school year, as the governor has recommended in his proposed budget. The report's conclusion: California has too few qualified teachers and too few classrooms to put many more children into smaller classes next year.

``The approximately 18,400 teachers hired for class-size reduction have less teaching experience, fewer qualifications and a lower skill level, on average, than teachers hired in previous years,'' the report found.

Analysts surveyed school districts statewide and found that one in four of the new teachers hired was issued an ``emergency credential'' for lack of a full teaching credential.

A Wilson spokesman said the governor wants more third-graders in the program.

``We've got a good thing going and we know it,'' said Dan Edwards of the Office of Child Development and Education. ``We don't want to see one of those grades lost in the process.''

The Legislature set aside almost $1 billion for the program in last year's budget to pay schools an extra $650 for every first- and second-grade pupil placed in a class with no more than 20 students. The program allows districts to include either kindergarten or third grade.

Of the 4,322 people hired to teach kindergarten through 12th grade this year by the Los Angeles Unified School District, 60 percent lack full credentials. That's up from just 38 percent the year before, district officials said.

While they lack formal credentials, many came from private schools or had experience as classroom aides, said assistant superintendent Irene Yamahara.

``It doesn't mean they're not qualified to teach,'' Yamahara said.

Classroom space is another problem. In Los Angeles, the district spent $60 million buying portable classrooms and converting other facilities into makeshift classrooms. But many schools are running short of space, pushing costs higher, analysts noted.

Los Angeles officials said they had to stretch to reduce class sizes for first- and second-grade students. Short of building new schools, adding kindergarten or third-graders to the mix would require busing students to less crowded campuses.