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Teachers are the most important "My Word" guest editorial, Oakland Tribune, Sep. 18, 2001 What will it take to fix our schools? Strong, effective, qualified teachers must be front and center. Unfortunately, though Oakland schools are making serious change a priority, the level of teacher experience continues to be an Achilles heel. Study after study has revealed that the most important factor in a child's education is his teacher. Preparation and experience are two critical factors affecting teacher quality. Five years ago, the state reduced elementary class sizes, creating an instant teacher shortage. Policy-makers took the easy way out, eliminating the requirement that one hold a credential before beginning to teach. The new system allows you to pass a skills test, promise to begin a training program and begin teaching without an iota of preparation. Districts like Oakland, which have the most challenging teaching situations, are losing credentialed teachers left and right, because other districts hire them away. As a result, while the state has 85% of its teachers with credentials, and a strong district like Albany has 98%, Oakland has only 75%.What is worse, at some of the District's middle schools fewer than 40% of the teachers hold credentials. And the numbers at some schools have actually gotten worse in the past three years, in spite of a substantial pay raise. Not surprisingly, test scores at these schools are some of the lowest in the district. Thus, a well-intentioned reform has had the effect of exaggerating inequity, putting these students even farther behind. There is a myth that anyone who knows how to read and multiply ought to be able to teach. But teaching is an art and a craft. New teachers benefit tremendously from having a master teacher to observe and emulate. When beginners are put in charge of a class without preparation or role models, they are in a pressure cooker that is damaging to their students and to their own development as professional educators. Many promising beginners bail before they have a chance to learn to be effective. We need a process that honors the choice beginning teachers are making, and gives them the tools they need to succeed. In the medical profession, an internship is a year of rigorous training under the direct supervision of experienced doctors. The supervision the interns in charge of these classrooms get consists of a few visits a semester from a university supervisor. We need a major change that will reverse this practice. · Stop giving people without credentials sole responsibility for teaching a class. · Place interns at the side of experienced teachers, to learn from them, and eventually take charge of the class under their supervision. · These interns should be in the classroom half-time, with their afternoons free to attend classes in content and methodology. · Interns should be paid half the salary of a beginning teacher. This will have the effect of raising the student/teacher ratio in these classrooms, and give these interns the induction into the profession they need. It will have the added consequence of helping end the inequitable distribution of credentialed teachers, allowing schools in Oakland to regain their balance and get back on the path to solid student achievement.