Would-Be Teachers Go to the Head of the Class

A first-time teacher fumbled with an overhead projector in front of the ninth-grade geometry class. Soon after, another inexperienced instructor became annoyed because some students had forgotten their books. The next rookie nervously lectured about longitude and latitude, her eyes locked on her pink note cards.

Then student David Lee, 14, raised his hand and said bluntly: “You all are confusing us.”

The lessons ended and the would-be teachers -- all 14-year-olds -- returned to their seats looking defeated.

Then the real teacher spoke.

“This is preparation; it’s training,” said Cheryl Christopher, who had been observing in back of the class. “It’s not going to be perfect.”

The teenage instructors will have years to get it right. They are among the first freshmen at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s new Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy, which experts say is one of the nation’s first high schools aimed at grooming young people for possible careers in education. Located on the campus of Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington, the school opened last month with 80 students and is expected to grow to 400 within four years.

Of course, it is not a sure thing that every pupil will go on to become a teacher, said Los Angeles Unified school board member Mike Lansing, who pushed for the new campus as one way to ease the district’s teaching shortage. Before students finish college and earn their teaching credentials, some may be lured away by higher paying jobs or changing interests.

But since the federal “No Child Left Behind” law requires that all public school teachers be fully credentialed by the end of the 2005-06 school year, Lansing said the new academy is sorely needed. “This could be a step in that direction,” he said.

Kasey Martin, 14, a student from Carson, said he likes “the seriousness” in his classes so far. He feels more in touch with his classmates, because they all share a common goal and they are focused on their education.

Martin said his dream is to teach middle school. He said he wants to affect the lives of students the way his favorite eighth-grade algebra teacher Michelle Bradley at Glenn Hammond Curtiss Middle School in Carson did.

“She was really a friend to many students,” he said. “That is something I want to do. I learned from her.”

Students enrolled at the new academy take regular high school classes but also can simultaneously take community college courses, which count toward their high school diploma and an associate of arts degree.

They will be coached on how to conduct lessons in front of their peers, as well as in front of elementary school classes. They will grade each other’s papers, learn lesson planning and classroom management techniques and take college education courses such as child psychology, said Richard Vladovic, local superintendent for District K, who oversees the school.

If they graduate with at least a 3.0 grade-point average, they will be guaranteed admittance to Cal State Dominguez Hills, along with a teaching aide position in L.A. Unified, he said. If they complete their bachelor’s degree and required credentials, Vladovic is promising them a teaching position with the district.

‘You Touch the Future’

“It is the greatest profession in the world because you touch the future,” said Vladovic who has worked for the district for 33 years and brought the idea to Lansing nearly two years ago.

Pam Grossman, a professor of teacher education at Stanford University, applauded the district’s effort to grab future teachers early.

“You can’t start trying to recruit in college; it is just too late,” she said. “You have to develop their interest earlier, you have to reach back to middle schools and high schools.”

The idea has caught on across the nation over the last 10 years because of teacher shortages in many cities, high turnover and the need to recruit a diverse teaching force, she said.

Although L.A. Unified’s high school may be among the first of its kind, many other high schools have recently instituted programs to interest youngsters in teaching, mostly in collaboration with local colleges, she said. A teacher-training charter high school is scheduled to open in Phoenix next fall.

A similar 1,300-student teacher preparation campus for Los Angeles high school students is slated to open next to Cal State Northridge in 2004, an ambitious plan that has been underway for eight years, said school board member Julie Korenstein, who is spearheading it. The program will allow students to enroll in university classes and receive mentoring from college students.

“It will be a model program, and it will catch on,” Korenstein said.

Tom Carroll, executive director for the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, said teacher high schools are a good idea because they will strengthen the pool of qualified applicants, but he added that they are not a solution to the teacher shortage. Higher pay and better campus environments are the only remedy, he said.

“We have a shortage because too many teachers are leaving schools. Chasing this as a supply problem will never solve the problem,” he said. “As fast as we can pump these teachers into the system, from whatever source we get them, we’re losing them on the other end.”

Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy Principal Mattie Adams said she has already received phone calls from other school districts interested in replicating the program.

“We’re very excited to be at the cutting edge of a much-needed service to our profession,” she said. “The sooner we can get students focused on a career path, the better it is in ensuring maximum student achievement.”

The academy, which is not part of the district’s magnet system, is nestled in bungalows in a back corner of Harbor College. The students eat lunch together near a small set of bleachers shaded by trees and so far are mostly isolated from college students.

The goal was to accept applicants with at least a C average in middle school. But not enough students with that GPA applied the first year. So, some with lower grades were enrolled if they had a clean discipline record and showed a commitment to education.

Students Must Sacrifice

Academy students forfeited many traditional high schools customs such as football, cheerleading, homecoming assemblies and after-school clubs.

“Cheerleading, prom, that doesn’t really matter to me because my education is more important,” said Janet Ulloa, 14. “I really want to be a teacher because I like to help people. Without teachers there wouldn’t be any lawyers or judges or even presidents.”

Still, parents are organizing a group that will work to institute some of those extracurricular activities. The principal also said she wants to add a basketball team and other activities.

There are only three teachers now at the academy. Classes are on block schedules, similar to a college class rotation. Students are granted access to the college gym, library and cafeteria.

Gary Newman, who teaches biology at the new school, said the academy is on the right track. He requires students to teach lessons to their classmates, and if he is frustrated over student behavior, he will explain how it makes a teacher’s job difficult and ask them to come up with their own discipline policies.

For example, students decided that gum chewing should be allowed, as long as it is not smacked or stuck on chairs and walls.

‘I’ve Gone to Heaven’

“These kids are motivated; they’re wonderful. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,” said Newman, who worked at Narbonne High for 18 years.

Courtney Takakuwa, 13, said there are special benefits in a classroom where everyone cares about the learning process.

“We all want to be teachers,” she said. “If you don’t know how to do [an assignment], you have a whole room full of aspiring teachers, including the regular teacher, to explain it.”

During the summer, students completed a preliminary course that focused on study skills and college preparation. They are currently taking a college-level physical education course, and are expected to add more college classes as time goes on.

Eventually, the aspiring teachers may be mixed in alongside college students, but Principal Adams said she wants them to stick together in clusters, at least during the beginning.

“I want to make sure all of my students are successful,” Adams said. “We don’t want to lose any of them.”