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Remarks by Superintendent Jack O'Connell
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Early Childhood Education Summit
Sacramento, California
March 3, 2006
Thank you for your research and for this opportunity to discuss some of the most important challenges facing California today.
Recruiting and developing highly qualified teachers and an administrator is the most important investment of resources that local, state, business and community leaders can make in education. To maintain California's position as a world-class leader both economically and technologically, the state must continue to develop and support a world-class educational system. We know from research that the single most important influence on student learning outside the home is the teacher. From preschool through grade twelve, good teachers and strong leaders form the foundations of good schools.
The standards-based reform movement in California's K-12 education system has challenged schools to set higher expectations for all students, and this is critical to preparing students for the 21st century. We've seen continued improvement in academic achievement as a result of this focus. However, the graduation rate in California and test scores on state and national examinations point to continued problems with educational quality and equity, particularly among historically underserved poor and minority student populations.
Establishing preschool for all will help us to address the achievement gap before it begins in our elementary schools. But we must assure quality in preschool by developing a well-trained preschool teaching force and standards for high quality, developmentally appropriate instruction that will inspire in our youngest students a lifelong love of learning.
We do face tremendous challenges in preparing a well-trained preschool teacher corps at the same time that we must recruit and retain tens of thousands of new K-12 teachers to staff the classrooms of retiring teachers over the next decade.
But these challenges present us with an unprecedented opportunity to focus on and invest in ways to succeed in the next important steps of education reform -- the steps we must take to prepare students to succeed in a rapidly changing, global economy. Those steps are to:
Make preschool the beginning of our children's educational experience in California, To create a seamless education system from preschool through graduate school, where each step is aligned to high standards and leads clearly to the next step in the system, and To become a more agile system that works in partnership with businesses, labor and communities to ensure that our education system is truly preparing students with the skills they'll need to succeed in the real world.
In our K-12 system, we are moving to establish stronger partnerships and to offer more options for students in rigorous, standards-based career-focused academic programs. These partnerships and programs can help us create early interest in the teaching profession, both at the early childhood and k-12 levels, and begin the pathway into classroom teaching as early as high school.
Dr. Whitebook and Dr. Bellm point out that the growing public interest in early education has created an historic opportunity to redefine early childhood education teaching jobs and teacher preparation, and to address critical issues of access and support for the diverse group of students entering the early childhood education field.
I would add that this must be a part of an overall focus and reevaluation of teacher preparation, recruitment and professional development for teachers and administrators of preschool through high school in California. At every level there must be agreement on high standards and high quality.
I have recently issued a white paper focusing on the challenges of developing highly qualified teachers and administrators for California schools. The paper, titled "Developing Highly Qualified Teachers And Administrators For California Schools" proposes policy actions focused on these issues in preparing a qualified k-12 teaching force.
Both segments of our education system - early childhood and K-12 -- face a need to enhance recruitment efforts, preservice education, to expand pathways to credentialing, improve support for beginning teachers and to invest in high quality, ongoing professional development.
Dr. Whitebook's research identifies several issues and implications for California to successfully implement degree-offering programs that prepares teachers and administrators to become highly-qualified to work with young children. This research highlights important challenges on the way to ensuring the same level of highly qualified teachers and administrators employed in its preschool programs as in our K-12 schools.
First, the current early childhood college student population is very diverse. Institutes of higher learning are challenged to attract and retain diverse faculty and to offer more full-time faculty positions. The development of a set of comprehensive standards and competencies to serve as the basis for a new early learning credential through the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing would encourage additional coursework and education in preparing students to become early childhood teachers. New, articulated courses leading to the early learning credential will need to address content and standards that are specific to teaching in early childhood classrooms.
There is also a pressing need to design and support articulation and transfer agreements between and among institutes of higher learning. These agreements would smooth the career path for current and re-entry students by allowing students with an associate of arts degree to apply their coursework toward a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Courses need to be offered at times, locations and frequent enough to meet the needs of the student population. More on-site practicum classes need to be identified so teachers have an opportunity to receive feedback as they are learning new skills. More accredited on-line courses need to be developed as well since many of the students are balancing work and family responsibilities.
Compensation for teachers must also be tied to increased educational attainment. It will be difficult to recruit and retain new staff to work in this field if wages do not provide for economic self-sufficiency.
It is time for policymakers from local and state educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and business and community members to band together and rise to these challenges. This research study provides the basis for a new collaborative effort to educate and train the preschool teachers and administrators that will lay the foundation of learning for our youngest citizens, future workforce and future leaders of the 21st century.
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