A small group of 150 Sacramento State students will be admitted into the teacher credential programs this spring despite the California State University system’s closure of all spring 2010 admissions.

Sac State’s teacher credential program is known for preparing California’s teachers, and with thousands of teachers expected to retire in the next five years, Sac State is credentialing more and more teachers.

“As an institution that’s primarily been charged with educating future teachers, we were given special permission to continue admitting and enrolling students into teacher preparation programs,” said Vanessa Sheared, dean of the College of Education

Sheared expressed concerns over demands for teachers in specific areas of study.

As teachers retire, school districts will need highly qualified teachers, especially in areas such as mathematics, science and special education, Sheared said.

According to research by the Institute of Education Sciences, an organization within the U.S. Department of Education, more than 8,000 K-12 teachers in California are expected to retire this school year. The research estimates that by school year 2015-16, Sacramento County will need to hire nearly 7,000 teachers to keep up with student enrollment and teacher retirement.

“It (teacher preparation) is important if we’re going to provide teachers, especially for subject matter areas where they are desperately needed,” said Deidre Sessoms, director of the Teacher Preparation and Credential Office, which assists applicants during the application process, advises students and monitors their progress.

CSU Bakersfield’s department of special education admitted about 70 students into its fall quarter and will continue admission for the winter and spring quarters, department chair Anthony Van Reusen said.

“It’s of critical importance,” Reusen said. “There continues to be a demand for special education teachers both in mild/moderate and moderate/severe disabilities.”

CSU Stanislaus’ teacher education department was also given special permission to admit 50 spring candidates into the single-subject credential program, department chair Nancy Jean Smith said. “Multiple-subject credential program should have about 90 liberal studies students who will be allowed in by a special chancellor’s order because they are already in the program,” she said.

“Teacher preparation has always been a central part of the mission of the CSU system,” said Beverly Young, assistant vice chancellor for teacher education and public school programs for the CSU system. “CSU prepares well over half of the teachers in California and 10 percent in the country.”

In fiscal year 2007-08, according to a research by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 53 percent of credentialed teachers came from the CSU system. Five percent came from the University of California schools and 41 percent from private or independent institutions.

“Only five CSU campuses credentialed more teachers than Sac State,” Sessoms said.

These campuses are CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, CSU Northridge, Fresno State and CSU Los Angeles.

Three departments under Sac State’s College of Education offer teacher credential programs. These are the bilingual/multicultural education department, the special education, rehabilitation, school psychology and deaf studies department and teacher education department.

The teacher education department, which offers the largest program, will be admitting about half of the 150 applicants. The other half will be divided between the special education and bilingual/multicultural education departments, which have more specific areas of focus, Sheared said.

Sac State offers a multiple-subject teaching credential primarily to four different fields. These include elementary teacher candidates and single-subject teaching credential to high school teacher candidates. Also, education specialist credential to those who want to teach people with disabilities, and those who want to teach students with limited English proficiency, the bilingual/cross-cultural language and academic development emphasis in their credential.

Young said each campus determined where the greatest demands for programs are.

Sheared said the number of admissions for spring are based off admissions data and trends over the last few years. Last spring, the College of Education admitted nearly 150 students, of whom 50 or so were continuing students from Sac State and 96 were returning students and new applicants, she said.

“While we have been given permission to admit 150 students, the budget does impact our ability to try and recruit more than that,” Sheared said. “One of the concerns that deans and coordinators of teacher credential programs have is the impact of this budget in our ability to admit students to our programs.

Last school year, Sac State awarded teacher credentials to 547 students. 170 of the credentials were single-subject, 269 were multiple-subject credentialed and 108 were education specialist credentialed, Sheared said.

“Overall, I think we’ve done really well in terms of placing students in local districts or throughout the state,” Sheared said. “One of the things to be aware of is that we do have the job fair annually.”

Sac State has student-teacher candidates in the single-subject and multiple-subject credentials throughout Sacramento County. Students are admitted into on- and off-campus cohorts in school districts throughout the region, Sheared said. These act as a type of internship for the program.

Sheared said the college received approximately 200 to 250 applications in past semesters and around 200 in more recent semesters. There are usually more fall candidates than spring candidates.

“One of the things I’m very impressed with is our faculty, who, in spite of the economic difficulties in the state and the budget, has stepped up to the plate to make sure that students have the space and the opportunity they need,” Sheared said.

Sheared said faculty members are working to minimize the effects of the furloughs to students.

“I think furloughs are a fact of life for us right now,” she said.

Kristine Guerra can be reached at [email protected].