Aides Eyed as Solution to Teacher Shortage

Prompted by a statewide shortage of teachers, the Capistrano Unified School District has approved plans to cultivate its own--becoming the first in Orange County to adopt a formal program to train and pay for instructional aides to become teachers.

After earning their bachelor’s degrees and teaching credentials, the new teachers would have to agree to stay with the district the same amount of time they went to school under the program.

District officials plan to spend $12,000 in the first year, which begins this summer with about 30 people. The program, operated by Cal State Long Beach, is designed to expand the role of teacher’s aides in the classroom. The second-year courses will cost the district about $28,600. The district is especially in need of special education teachers, officials said.

“There is looming now on the horizon, a teacher shortage given the growth of student population and class-size reduction,” Supt. James A. Fleming said. “This will provide an additional pool of teacher candidates and they are people who know our district, our culture, our communities and the parents.”

District trustees on Monday unanimously approved the three-year Paraeducator Career Ladder program, modeled after those at six other school districts in the state. But Capistrano Unified is taking an extra step by offering to pay tuition for participants to become certified teachers.

The program, established by the California School Employees Assn., helps instructional aides who are already in classrooms and guides them into college classes so they can become certified.

A similar program at Long Beach Unified School District began four years ago, and officials say it has been successful.

Long Beach Unified School District spokesman Richard Van Der Laan said there are many reasons why the program is needed.

“There’s a growing increase of teachers in their 50s who are retiring, a growing student population and additional staffing needs for class-size reduction,” he said.

Since the program started in 1993, the district has trained 12 instructional aides who became teachers. Another 250 have taken the paraeducation classes--some have not completed the courses and others have remained as aides.

In Orange County, Capistrano Unified officials plan to screen candidates for the program from among their pool of instructional aides with at least two years of employment.

Those selected will first have to complete a 45- to 50-hour program conducted by Cal State Long Beach and a 45- to 50-hour Capistrano Unified course that focuses on math, science, reading, technology and emphasizes the district’s goals and policies.

The Capistrano program will be presented to other local school districts at a meeting May 19 at the Orange County Department of Education, said Dee Fox, a labor relations representative for the California School Employees Assn.

“This is to encourage other school districts and let them know what Capistrano is doing,” she said.