Rumor has it that the teaching shortage has disappeared, but Idon’t think that’s true. According to
Education Week
, 2 millionof the 3.4 million teachers in the United States will be leavingthe profession in the next ten years. One part of this is due toan extremely low retention rate nationwide. The other part isdue to the fact that the baby boomers are starting to retire andthere are a lot of them. If you want to become a teacher, if thatis your passion,
go for it
. LAUSD needs dedicated, credentialedteachers ready and willing to educate our children. The CareerLadder is here to help you make it happen.With this issue of THE LADDER, we come back to the topic of special education and, yes, there is still a shortage of teachersto serve children with special needs. The Career Ladder isdoing its part to ease the shortage. We support paraeducatorsstudying to become special education teachers and helpuniversities recruit candidates. In 2006, with funding from theU.S. Department of Education, we initiated the Early DecidersTeacher Recruitment Program (EDTRP) which provides EarlyExperiences to high school Teacher Career Academy students.These are three-day events which begin with a brie
fi
ng providedat California State University, Los Angeles, led by universityfaculty and LAUSD teachers. Then, the students spend twodays shadowing a classroom teacher. At the end of each day,the students have the opportunity to discuss their experiences.So far, over 200 students have completed an Early Experience.Twenty-one of these students are about to graduate and begintheir studies towards earning a credential. It looks like one inten decides that special education is the
fi
eld for them. Theothers have widened their experience and at the very least arenow more sensitive to the needs of children with special needs.California State University, Los Angeles, has been a strongpartner in our efforts. Dr. Diane Fazzi, the Special EducationChairperson, organized a committee which designed theEarly Experiences and paid internships. Dr. Margaret Clark led the committee, bringing with her a wealth of experienceand knowledge. Joseph Staub, Deborah Pandullo, and MyraHelguera, all experienced in the classroom, were the LAUSDrepresentatives. Steve Goin and Gwenda Cuesta from theCareer Ladder Of
fi
ce rounded out the team. These efforts arebeing made in order to create a Career Technical Educationcourse which will be part of the curriculum at all of the TeacherCareer Academies by the 2008-2009 school year. This meansthat students will have the opportunity to learn about specialeducation in a course that also ful
fi
lls a graduation requirement.Lastly, I have some bittersweet news. Two years ago, I managedto convince Jacinta Brunkala to leave the Carson High SchoolTeacher Career Academy, which she initiated ten years ago, tocoordinate teacher academies citywide. I knew from the startthat she would be with us a short amount of time and thenwould retire. Well, she retired on April 20
th
, but not beforeplacing all of the academies on a strong foundation. The depthof knowledge that she brought to the task, along with her abilityto work with high school faculty and administration, made itpossible for her to move the programs forward and even initiatea new academy at Jefferson High School. I am sure that all of theacademy coordinators and lead teachers appreciate the work that she did. We wish her well in her retirement, and we willcertainly miss her.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
FROM THE DIRECTOR
FIRST RUNG
FIRST RUNG
“...2 million of the 3.4 million teachersin the United States will beleaving the profession in thenext ten years.”
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