Article
3. Teachers of English Language Learners
99230.
The Legislature finds and declares the following:(a) Successful efforts to reduce class size in California classrooms have resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of emergency teaching permits issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Most emergency permit teachers have not completed subject matter courses required of teacher candidates enrolled in teacher preparation programs and are underprepared to teach. For the 1996–97 school year, the commission issued over 12,000 emergency multiple subject permits compared to under 6,000 for the 1995–96 school year. Of all multiple subject emergency permits issued, 50 percent are assigned to kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive. There
(b) Among these emergency teaching permitholders is a group designated as preinterns, for whom obtaining an emergency credential is the first step in an established path to earning a teaching credential. Subsequent steps in the path include: professional development under their employer’s approved plan; receipt of support from an experienced teacher; coursework at an institute of higher education to complete their subject matter requirement; and successful passage of the Multiple Subject Assessment for Teachers (MSAT). Upon completion of all of these steps, candidates may enroll in internship programs approved by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. There is a need to enhance the subject matter knowledge of these teachers consistent with preintern teachers consistent with the requirements of the MSAT and the academic content standards adopted by the State Board of Education and to facilitate their movement into teacher preparation programs leading to certification.
(b) to facilitate their becoming credentialed teachers.
(c) Teachers with strong foundations of academic content knowledge in the subject areas they teach are more likely to be effective in promoting and improving student learning in those subject areas than teachers without those foundations.
(c)Nearly 25 percent, or about 1,400,000 of the pupils
(d) About 1,400,000 pupils, or nearly 25 percent of the pupils in California’s classrooms are English language learners (ELL). The state must invest in opportunities for the teachers of ELL to learn the most effective ways of transitioning these students to English in one year, consistent with Proposition 227, while not sacrificing their academic development in core subject areas.
(d)
(e) The statewide subject matter projects provide an infrastructure of collaboration, leadership, and expertise for providing subject matter specific professional development to teachers in the areas of reading, literature, writing, mathematics, science, history, social science, international studies, foreign language, art, physical education, and health.
99231.
The statewide subject matter projects, pursuant to Article 1 (commencing with Section 99200), shall provide, with funds appropriated for this purpose, support and assistance to emergency permit and shall commence pilot projects to support and assist preinternship permit teachers in meeting to meet subject matter requirements in the areas of reading, mathematics, history, and science science, and additional fields that will prepare them to pass the Multiple Subject Assessment for Teachers examination and fulfill requirements for entry into teacher preparation programs leading to certification. The statewide subject matter projects shall also provide support and assistance to teachers of ELL to ensure that instructional strategies designed to transition ELL to English also support the academic development of these pupils in core subject areas. These pilot projects shall be located at sites throughout the state to meet the diverse needs of preintern teachers serving different regions, different school settings, and with varied backgrounds in their preparation, in order to meet the demands of teaching.99232.
Subject matter training for emergency permit, preinternship, and ELL teachers provided pursuant to Section 99231 shall include intensive summer ELL teachers, and the pilot projects established under this article, shall provide subject matter training for all teachers and preinternship teachers, pursuant to Section 99231, through intensive summer institutes for teachers of kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, focused on reading, mathematics, history, and science, the subject matter areas encompassed in the Multiple Subject Assessment for Teachers examination and followup activities during the academic year at schoolsites, on university campuses, and through on-line resources.99233.
For purposes of Section 99232, the summer institutes and followup activities shall be designed to accomplish the following:(a) Provide participant teachers with strong foundations of academic content knowledge in order that they may be effective in promoting and improving student learning based on curriculum content standards adopted by the State Board of Education.
(b) Provide participant teachers with strong foundations of academic content knowledge in order that they may to prepare them to pass the Multiple Subject Assessment for Teachers examination and obtain entry into teacher preparation programs leading to certification.
(c) Provide participant teachers with a strong foundation of subject-specific pedagogical knowledge to ensure that they can effectively transition ELL pupils to English in one year while enhancing their academic knowledge and understanding in core subject areas.
(d) Deploy statewide subject matter project teacher leaders to conduct the summer institutes and facilitate follow-up activities.
(e) Provide, first and foremost, for the needs of teachers and schools whose pupils’ performance on the achievement test designated by the State Board of Education, pursuant to Section 60642, ranks in the bottom 40 percent of all California schools, as measured by the test.
99234.
This article does not apply to the University of California unless the Regents of the University of California, by resolution, make it applicable.99235.
This article shall become inoperative on June 30, 2002, and, as of January 1, 2003, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute that is enacted before January 1, 2003, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.