Teachers educate themselves

Benjamin Grove

Sunday, March 22, 1998 | 9:32 a.m.

First-year teacher Wendie Lappin is a typical foot soldier in the army of new teachers in Clark County.

The bright-eyed and energetic teacher at Von Tobel Middle School in North Las Vegas admits she often battles inexperience, learning how to teach as she goes.

Inside the pink walls of Lappin's smile-shaped room this year, she has found it's a minute-by-minute struggle to keep 16 antsy special education kids interested in learning.

"For my program, the numbers are too high," Lappin, 25, said. "I do a lot of behavior monitoring. It pulls me away from the kids who need one-on-one (attention). It breaks my heart because I can't give them everything they need. I can't give them what they deserve or what the parents are promised."

Lappin is one of 1,396 teachers hired in Clark County as of last September who generally say they love their new jobs but often feel overwhelmed by real-life classrooms.

Hiring a record number of new teachers affects the overall quality of education in Clark County, officials admit. Last school year, 807 teachers -- 58 percent of the new recruits -- were brand new to the classroom.

Nearly 33 percent of the district's new hires were 25 or younger. And 74 percent have not yet earned a master's degree.

"Anytime you have new teachers, you have teachers that lack experience in the classroom," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mary Peterson said. "But there is also a real enthusiasm and freshness that they bring. The big concern is how do we support and help them once they get in the classroom, and how do we help these teachers stay in the profession?"

Clark County's high number of new teachers isn't necessarily cause for alarm, district officials said. Those 807 teachers are among the 10,877 full-time teachers in the district. They also say that what new teachers lack in experience and training, they make up for in ambition.

But officials add that the hiring of more inexperienced teachers will continue as the fastest-growing district in the nation continues to explode. Superintendent Brian Cram said finding enough quality new teachers in the next few years will be "problematic."

"It's one of the things that I worry about most," Cram said. "The classroom is the center of the educational universe. If we can't get quality teachers in the classrooms, then everything else goes down the drain."

The teacher-hiring season begins this month and will continue through the fall. This year, officials will hire about 250 more teachers than last year, making it the largest recruiting class ever.

School officials have an aggressive battle plan to hire fresh troops and fill positions. Other school districts nationwide call Clark County "the gorilla" of teacher recruiting, Cram said.

"I take it as a compliment," Cram said. "We're recruiting the staff size of a small school district each year. We can't afford to be philosophical about it."

In the next few months, district officials will doggedly pursue new teachers during 70 recruiting trips in 45 states, including Nevada, offer applications on the Internet and grant special licenses to teachers who are not yet qualified to teach in their disciplines.

Officials say sucking up new teachers from around the country and pumping them into county schools -- especially into at-risk schools -- is far from ideal. But it's a fact of life in a district that added 12,000 students last year alone.

"You'd like to have a very experienced, high-quality teacher," Cram said. "A lot of those teachers tend to stay where they are. New teachers do bring a wonderful sense of adventure, a lot of enthusiasm and high energy. So it's a tradeoff."

A number of hiring issues worry school officials. One is the amount of feedback new teachers get.

It's difficult to know exactly how all new teachers feel about the support they get in their first year. District officials don't survey teachers about their first-year experiences, although it is something they are considering.

"We're trying to hire thousands of employees," George Ann Rice, head recruiter for the district, said. "We also work with support staff and administration. Is it (surveying) a good idea? Yes. We just haven't had time to do that yet."

Interviews with about 30 new teachers revealed some teachers get more support than others. Some say veterans have rushed to their side with advice.

At Frank Garside Middle School in northwest Las Vegas, first-year teacher Chad Schernikau's principal nominated him for the district's New Teacher of the Year award. He says he owes much of his success to teaching veteran Harvey Shealey. The two share about 15 special education students in classroom 203.

Schernikau, 26, said Shealey, 50, taught him everything from how to keep a gradebook to managing classroom discipline and breaking lessons into pieces. The older teacher even helped the rookie fix his 1972 Fiat Spider in the school parking lot one day.

"He's helped me out a lot," Schernikau said of Shealey.

The new teacher then reflected on his first year.

"Ever see 'Dead Poet's Society?' It's not like that at all," he said. "You're never prepared enough. A lot of it is on-the-job learning. You have the basics down, but not the classroom skills."

Other new teachers, particularly those in crowded at-risk schools, say they do not get the guidance they need. That can leave the new classroom leaders overwhelmed and lost in what can feel like an unfriendly, bureaucratic district.

Third-grade teacher Jennifer Oler has 22 students in her first teaching job at C.P. Squires Elementary School in North Las Vegas. The majority of her students read below grade level.

"Every day is a learning experience for me," said Oler, 26, sitting in a little green chair in her classroom. "Trying things that don't work, things that do. It's trial and error."

In Clark County, new teachers are only informally matched with veteran mentors, depending on the school.

"It's kind of a school-by-school effort as far as how much staffs help make the teacher feel like they fit in," Karyn Wright, director of teacher training and staff development, said.

State schools chief Peterson said Nevada districts should pursue a more formal mentors program.

"We need to put a structure in place so that it's not done on an ad-hoc basis, so that we get that support to our new teachers," Peterson said.

As for training, new Clark County teachers get a two-day orientation, plus four days during the year for training seminars, which cover topics like district policy, classroom management and discipline, Wright said.

Principals also sit in classes to evaluate teachers at least three times a year, administrators said.

The district makes other attempts to relocate new teachers to Clark County, such as helping some find apartments.

But some rookies said they still feel like they're on their own.

"The district is really big and it's easy to get lost here," said 25-year-old Caroline Schaeffer, a third-grade teacher at William Ferron Elementary School.

Schaeffer was hired in early October to ease crowding in bursting third-grade rooms at Ferron. She began work a week later with few supplies and no idea what to expect.

"I have a good principal but she doesn't come out of her way to see what I need, which I certainly understand," Schaeffer said. "She has 50 other teachers."

The district has no formal mentor program in part because teachers move around so much, often due to rezoning and new school openings, Cram said.

"All of this is complicated by the fact that we are growing at such an astounding rate," he said.

Next year, Wright said the district for the first time plans to pilot a mentorship program that makes someone at each school responsible for matching new teachers with veterans. It stops short, however, of automatically assigning mentors to every new teacher.

Education observers agree the district would benefit from more follow-ups with fresh recruits.

State Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, herself a teaching veteran, tries to take new special education teachers at Von Tobel, including Lappin, under her wing. She said new teachers are overwhelmed by tasks like ordering materials, paperwork, finding resources, meetings -- even taking attendance.

"We dump new teachers in classrooms and say, 'Good luck,'" Giunchigliani said. "It can be very overwhelming, and you want their first year to be a success."

Lecturer Harry Wong, considered a national expert on first-year teachers and author of "The First Days of School," agreed. Wong, a teaching veteran who lives in Sunnyvale, Calif., said he tells new teachers all over the country who feel undertrained and overwhelmed that the key to success is structure and procedure, not discipline.

"Schools are the only place that new employees are hired, given a key, shown their room and told, 'Good luck,'" Wong said. "It's crazy."

At UNLV, a special committee made up of university and school district employees is studying ways they could give more guidance to new teachers.

"We recognize teachers often think that as soon as you get your degree you're supposed to be perfect, and sometimes we expect that," said committee member Jane McCarthy, chairwoman of the UNLV College of Education department of curriculum and instruction. "We're trying to figure out how to move them from their sheltered experience to their classrooms."

The dean of UNLV's College of Education also agreed the university and the school district need to do more to train teachers.

"I don't think that in today's world, particularly in this district, teachers get enough preparation for all the nuances of what goes on in their classroom the first year," Dean John Readence said. "If you have the proper support, it will pay dividends in what you do in your first year, but also on down the line. We are doing things, but we need to do more. It's so critical when they're in their first year. When they get out there they encounter things they didn't realize they would be encountering."

Clark County Classroom Teachers Association President Sue Strand agreed many new teachers, particularly in huge, crowded high schools, need more help.

"The elementary schools seem to have a lot more camaraderie," Strand said. "Sometimes in the high schools, veteran teachers simply don't have the time to mentor because they're too busy, too."

Among the other problems facing the district: Clark County's relatively low pay scale makes it hard to attract new teachers.

Inside Nevada, Clark County offers the second lowest average teacher salary -- $27,270 -- among the state's 17 school districts, according to the most recent state statistics. Only White Pine County, at $26,904, is lower.

Clark County's starting teacher salary also ranks among the lowest compared to its peer districts. The 10th largest district in the nation, Clark County ranks 17th among the 20 largest districts in terms of starting salary for teachers.

District officials argue Las Vegas has a low cost of living and that Clark County teachers work fewer days than teachers in other large districts. Still, the relatively low pay is troubling, some say.

"We're working on that," union leader Strand said, referring to the current teacher salary negotiation, one of the longest ever.

Another problem is that the district offers only one year of credit to new teachers. For example, a 10-year teaching veteran from Pennsylvania who moved to Las Vegas would earn what a second-year Nevada teacher would earn.

District officials try to tempt the nation's top out-of-state teachers with the state's lack of income tax. But often they cannot overcome what are relatively low salaries, the district's recruiters said.

"Does it startle people that we only recognize one year of experience? Yes, it does," Rice said. "Of course that hurts us, no doubt about it."

Cram said that within the next few years, the state would have to offer more money for teacher salaries in order to draw quality educators.

"When we find that the candidates' pool is beginning to dry up, we'll have to give more credit for years served," Cram said.

Cram also said UNLV does not produce enough teachers, graduating only 300 to 400 a year. He would like to see that number double, he said.

So would university officials, if state money was available.

"This College of Education is ready to produce more teachers if the resources are out there," UNLV's Readence said.

Another problem, according to some education watchers: The newest teachers often are funneled to the most at-risk schools. That means the least experienced teachers teach the poorest children who often have the most difficulty learning.

A district policy gives at-risk school principals, who have the highest teacher turnover, first crack at new teachers. District policy also requires new teachers to accept their first job offer.

"We don't allow new hires to shop (for schools)," Rice said.

Lappin said at-risk Von Tobel was the first school to offer her a job, adding she feels lucky that she likes her students and other teachers. But working her first job in a rough neighborhood has been an eye-opener.

"There's been three drive-bys," Lappin said. "That's a little unnerving."

Clark County also faces the problem of teacher shortages in certain disciplines, namely special education, bilingual education, math and science.

One way the district fills the gaps is by taking advantage of loopholes in state law that allow districts to staff positions with teachers who don't have the credentials for the job.

For instance, Lappin is not yet credentialed to teach what educators call a "specialized learning disabled" center -- essentially having the same special education students in one classroom all day. But state laws allow Lappin three years to take university classes to become credentialed.

In another example, two district programs target adults with bachelor's degrees in non-education majors who think they would like teaching. The district oversees less than a year of training and then places them into schools under the guidance of mentors. The new teachers essentially learn on the job, some studying for master's degrees as they go.

Again, having that inexperience in the classroom is not ideal, district leaders said.

But officials defend the new teachers as qualified, if inexperienced, educators.

"How are we ever going to get experienced teachers if we don't start them off somewhere?" Rice asked. "We have to look at their skills and the heart they bring to the job. Age has nothing to do with it."

Back at Von Tobel on a recent afternoon, Lappin directs a lesson on managing conflict. She pairs up students and instructs them to physically act out words such as violence, negotiate, trust and peace.

"Wouldn't it be nice to have peace in here all the time?" Lappin asks the class of rowdy adolescents.

Students find it hard to stay on task. They argue and fidget, but eventually make it through the lesson.

The students seem eager to please, and they generally respond to Lappin. One student, about Lappin's height, puts his arm around her.

Later, Lappin surveys the class as the room gets noisy. It's an exhausting but rewarding job, she said.

"It just takes a lot of patience."

On another day after school, Lappin reflects more. She pledges to stick it out, saying she has found a profession she loves.

"You know it's not going to be la-la land," she said. "The kids need someone who cares. We don't do it for the salaries or the benefits. I love gaining their trust. Knowing that they want to be around you, it's a nice thing."

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