Web site shows how many qualified teachers at schools

By JENNIFER COLEMAN
Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO (AP) More than a year after it was vetoed by Gov. Gray Davis, a university professor unveiled an online rating system for schools based on how many ``qualified'' teachers they hired.

The ranking, called the Teacher Quality Index, was first proposed by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, in a bill the Legislature approved in 2001. Davis, citing the $300,000 price tag, vetoed the bill.

But professor Ken Futernick finished the project using his own time and money, compiling the information from several California Department of Education databases.

``Parents really do have a right to know what's going on in their schools,'' he said.

Parents can search the Internet database to see how their children's schools compare to others in the state and in the district. All 8,700 public schools are included.

Futernick, an education professor at the California State University, Sacramento, used the definition of a ``highly qualified'' teacher from the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The definition includes California teachers who are credentialed or in an intern program working toward a credential. Teachers on emergency permits, or those at the pre-intern level, would be considered underqualified.

Statewide, about 12.1 percent of teachers are considered underqualified, according to the federal definition, he said. The index compares each school to the statewide average and to the district average.

Futernick's index also calculates teachers' experience.

``You could have a school entirely filled with interns and meet the federal standards,'' he said.

Schools are scored on a 1-10 scale. Schools who have more than 33 percent underqualified teachers are scored as a 1. If a school has no underqualified teachers and no more than 20 percent are beginning teachers, it gets a 10.

The index also scores districts on the spread of underqualified teachers among the schools. In districts where underqualified are concentrated in only some of the schools, the district may be scored as having an ``uneven'' or ``very uneven'' score.

``One of the reasons to do this measure is to shine a light on this particular problem,'' Futernick said.

The database includes data from 2000-01 and 2001-02 years. The index shows if districts' spread of underqualified teachers has improved or worsened.

Pointing out to parents that some schools have high percentages of teachers on emergency permits could discourage those teachers and ``make them believe they're not as good as somebody else,'' said Barbara Kerr, vice president of the California Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union.

But that's the point, Futernick said, citing research showing that teachers with emergency permits aren't ``as effective as credentialed teachers.''

Uncredentialed teachers would be better helped, Kerr said, with assistance that would let them attend school and have ``smaller classes so they don't have as many papers to grade'' while attending school.

Emergency permits are already being phased out, and teachers who have them must be working toward a credential, said Kerr. The federal act prohibits schools from using teachers on emergency permits after 2005.

A bill introduced Tuesday as part of the proposed master plan for education also focuses on teacher training. The bill aims to lure qualified teachers to low-performing schools with incentives, said Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-South Pasadena, the bill's author.

The bill proposes creating a uniform health care system for teachers similar to the California Public Employee Retirement System, boosting salaries for teachers and principals, and linking wages to professional development.

The master plan is a ``noble goal,'' said Kerr, but she complained that lawmakers hadn't fleshed out the details.

``All of us would absolutely be happy to have every teacher fully credentialed in the area they are teaching in,'' she said. ``But I can't see a thing that tells how to do it.''

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On the Net:

View the Teacher Quality Index at http://www.edfordemocracy.org/tqi

Read Liu's bill, AB242, at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)