college of Education
Patricia Arlin, dean

Spring/Summer 2005

What are Your Odds?

The word has gone around that half of the students earning teaching credentials nationwide never find their own classroom. But a survey of CSU graduates says something very different.

With 95 percent of its credentialed graduates teaching full time a year after graduation, Cal State San Bernardino ranks as one of the major providers of effective teachers in the inland region and surrounding areas, according to a recent evaluation of teacher preparation programs.

The fourth annual California State University System Teacher Preparation Program evaluation surveys both graduates and their employers for the entire 23-campus university system. The survey is part of the CSU’s efforts to be accountable to the public about how well CSU campuses are doing in preparing their graduates to teach elementary, middle and high school students.

CSUSB, which is among the system-wide leaders in teacher preparation, often surpassed the CSU system numbers. The evaluation also showed that the supervisors of CSU graduates gave the new teachers high marks during their first year in many areas measuring teaching effectiveness. School district and school administrators indicated, for example, that 81 percent of CSUSB graduates with teaching credentials did very well or were adequately prepared to work with English language learners, five percent above the CSU average of 76 percent.

“We’re proud of graduates, whose resounding success in getting full-time work also shows the strength of the programs and dedication of the faculty in the College of Education,” said Patricia Arlin, dean of the college.

Despite news reports and national policy discussions suggesting that 50 percent of teaching graduates across the nation don’t ever become teachers, the majority — 93 percent — of CSU’s new teachers did, in fact, enter the teaching field, said David S. Spence, CSU executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer. The survey also showed that 90 percent of the Cal State San Bernardino students were successful at motivating their students, three points higher than the CSU average. CSUSB also had an 84 percent rating in the ability to monitor students’ progress using formal and informal assessment. The CSU average was 79 percent. Arlin said the success at monitoring and assessing students was especially important because that is a crucial component of the federal “No Child Left Behind” Law.

At the kindergarten through 8th grade levels, CSUSB graduates again ranked higher — 88 percent — in teacher preparation than the CSU at 87 percent. In single subject or high school level, Cal State San Bernardino graduates its students at a 93 percent-prepared rating, which was slightly below the CSU’s overall rating at 94 percent. The survey also indicated that 85 percent of CSUSB graduates were able to work with students from diverse cultural backgrounds while the CSU on the whole was 81 percent.

“The state of California and especially the region we serve, the San Bernardino-Riverside counties, have seen tremendous population growth and with that comes the need to have highly trained and prepared teachers for the growing number of students from kindergarten to high school,” Arlin said.

The CSU Chancellor’s Office surveyed K-12 classroom teachers who had completed their credential preparation at California State University campuses during the 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03 academic years. The CSU also surveyed the school supervisors of first-year teachers. The report sums up the key findings of the CSU Systemwide Evaluation of Teacher Preparation from 2001-2004.

Fans of Earth

Alma Avalos and Jennifer Coronado, both education paraprofessionals interested in becoming teachers, attended one of the once-quarterly Saturday workshops on teacher diversity at Cal State San Bernardino. Both have been participants in the paraprofessional program for the past two years. Coronado discovered in her sophomore year of college that she wanted to become a teacher, and Avalos had already been working as a translator and computer trainer in the Fontana Unified School District. They were recruited as paraprofessionals to study for the teaching profession.

The Paraprofessionals Project identifies and works with paraprofessionals and classified school district employees, such as aides, clerical staff, bus drivers, custodians and others who want to become multiple subject teachers, and recruits them for Cal State San Bernardino’s credential program.

The Paraprofessionals Project, now in its third year of a five-year federal grant for $200,000, was developed through CSUSB’s Center for Equity in Education. The center was founded in 1989 by CSUSB professors Esteban Diaz, Juan Gutierrez and Barbara Flores to focus on equal opportunities in education for everyone: disadvantaged, low socio-economic status, special education, minorities and English-as-a-second-language students.

Diaz believes that about 200 paraprofessionals and classified school district employees will participate in the project over the five-year period. This current school year has 75 students who are being supported with a $2,000 annual stipend that pays for their tuition, books and CBEST examinations. If a student receives an internship or other paid position, he or she no longer receives funds.

Participants are pre-credentialed juniors, seniors and/or credential students in liberal studies/single subject teacher education at CSUSB. The project creates a “pipeline with multiple entry points at the community college and university level,” said Diaz.

Gutierrez also is committed to the project because he believes it “just opens doors for people who never thought they could become teachers because they didn’t have the opportunity to do so.”

Diaz hopes more federal and state funding will become available to enable continued support of nontraditional students. “My concern is that the emphasis on standards and testing without needed resources to implement them may cut some districts and students out of the pie of money necessary to address needs of those in poverty and those with special education and ESL needs,” he said.

“This program,” Coronado said, “helped me socially in meeting other teachers who share their experiences and solutions to classroom problems, such as discipline.”

Avalos agreed, adding, “I will finish my student teaching in February, but would have had many more problems understanding the state requirements and the standards if I hadn’t had the guidance from this program.”

Quick Takes

Joe Scarcella, professor in science, math and technology, has been elected to a three-year term in the Association for Career and Technical Education. He serves on the board of directors and is president of the technology education division. The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) is the largest national education association dedicated to the advancement of education that prepares youth and adults for successful careers. Also appointed to a key board post is Ken Lane, director of CSUSB’s National Center for Excellence in Distance Learning. Lane was elected to a three-year term (2004-2006) on the board of directors of the Education Law Association, the premier source of information on education law in the United States.