TEACHER STUDY REPORTS MANY UNCREDENTIALED; AREA DISTRICTS CITE HIGH DEMAND.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

A study recently presented to a state panel found that 10 percent of California public school teachers weren't fully credentialed, a figure that ranged from 4 percent to 15 percent at local schools.

But some Santa Clarita Valley school administrators cautioned that the 80-page report, compiled from data collected during the 1996-97 school year by the staff of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, is misleading and that the presence of so-called ``emergency permit'' teachers hasn't compromised the quality of classroom instruction.

The staff findings, presented to the 17-member commission Friday, showed a sharp rise in the number of teachers who lack the proper credentials, a jump attributed in part to state efforts that began in 1996 to cut class size. The problem has been greatest in the lower grades, where the rush to reduce the student-to-teacher ratio has created a shortage of qualified faculty members.

Credentialed teachers must have a bachelor's degree, complete a one-year, 30-unit program of teaching methodology, pass a test of basic skills and spend a semester as a student teacher. Teachers with emergency permits generally have some classroom experience and are working toward a credential.

Teachers on waivers may have no classroom experience, but must earn a teaching credential within five years of being hired. Since 1996, primary-level emergency credentials have increased 115 percent and secondary-level credentials 22 percent, the report shows.

During the 1996-97 school year, there were 244,700 teachers working in California public schools. Of them, 24,050 held emergency permits and 4,250 were on waiver status, said Dale Janssen, manager of the certification unit for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

The figures showed that, of the 215 teachers in the Sulphur Springs School District, 30 had emergency permits and 185 held full California teaching credentials, Janssen said.

The 1996-97 numbers were similar in the Newhall School District - 254 teachers, 31 of them holding emergency permits and one on waiver status, Janssen said.

In the Saugus Union School District that year, there were 316 teachers on staff, 27 of them holding emergency permits and one with a waiver.

Although the William S. Hart Union School District hasn't been reducing class sizes like the elementary schools, it has been just as affected by the statewide teacher shortage.

In the 1996-97 school year, the Hart district had 634 teachers,Janssen said, of whom 57 held emergency permits and six were on waivers.

Locally, the Castaic Union School District had the lowest percentage of emergency permit teachers - only three of its 83 faculty members, along with one waiver teacher, Janssen said.

The commission's study, he noted, was prompted in part by an earlier report conducted by the California State University system - which graduates the bulk of teachers of all colleges in the state.

The statistics on emergency permits can be misinterpreted because many teachers in that category were recruited from out of state and Canada, said Anne Hazlett, assistant superintendent of personnel and instruction for the Newhall School District.

For years, the district has been coping with its steady enrollment growth by seeking candidates from employment fairs in Utah, Iowa, Washington, New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Canada, Hazlett said. Although they are fully qualified, these hires lack a few courses required for California certification, such as a class in the state's history, she said.

``We recruit aggressively out of state, and that was the first year of class-size reduction,'' Hazlett said.

That year, the emergency permit teachers were placed in classrooms with fully credentialed teachers, and they had 40 students between them. The experienced instructor acted as a mentor to the newcomer, Hazlett said.

Since the 1996-97 school year, the Newhall district hasn't hired any candidates who hold only emergency permits, she noted. The district has been able to do that because the school board supports the practice of out-of-state recruiting.

To cover attrition, maternity leaves, enrollment growth and class-size reduction, the district has hired 46 teachers for the 1998-99 school year - and half of them are out-of-staters hired from recruiting trips, Hazlett said.

Over in the Sulphur Springs district, Superintendent Robert Nolet said that since the state survey was conducted, many of the teachers the district hired have completed the requirements for a California teaching certificate.

``For those people who don't have a complete credential . . . in this district, we put them on temporary contracts as an incentive for them to move ahead,'' Nolet said. ``They have to be enrolled in a program leading to a full credential.''