Darleene Barrientos
For career teachers, teaching is like medicine -- and no one would
want to be treated by a doctor who didn't have a medical license.
Likewise, teachers believe students won't get the full benefit of
a lesson if a teacher wasn't fully credentialed. Fortunately, most
Glendale students don't have that problem, because 97% of the
teachers in Glendale Unified School District this year are fully
credentialed, up from last year, when 94.1% of Glendale's teachers
were fully credentialed.
"It's so important to give someone the opportunity to work with a
master teacher to learn the techniques of the job and get better
prepared to enter into the classrooms to teach. You have a better
experience. You have someone who guides you and gives you pointers
and is in a classroom with you," said Sandy Fink, a Mark Keppel
Elementary School teacher and president of the Glendale Teachers
Assn. "It's such an important part of the process. Teachers may miss
some of those skills and techniques if they don't work with a master
teacher first."
The numbers make Glendale officials proud. The remaining 3% are
mostly interns, while two are on emergency permits, according to a
district report.
"That's an incredibly high number. It results in a couple of
things -- you get principals who aren't willing to compromise when it
comes to selection of teachers. You get a district where people want
to go," Supt. Michael Escalante said.
Historically, Glendale has had a high percentage of fully
credentialed teachers. Last year, the state's average was about
90.8%, while Los Angeles County's percentage was about 82.2%.
Glendale's percentage was much higher than Burbank's, which was
87.5%, last year, but nipping at the heels of La Canada Unified,
whose percentage was 96.9%. This year's numbers for the state, the
county, Burbank or La Canada Unified were not available Thursday.
"We're always aiming at 100%, but you probably can't find a
district that's 100% for one peculiar reason or another," Escalante
said.
