Author: Lucy Feickert
Over the summer, Occidental’s administration chose not to reinstate the school’s teaching credential program after its cancellation following a 2011 probationary accreditation ruling, according to college officials.
In the fall of 2011, The Occidental Weekly reported that Occidental’s teaching credential program was put on probation. Although the probationary status of the program mandated that changes needed to be made to meet program standards, it did not require the program to be terminated, which is the option President Jonathan Veitch and Dean of the Academic Affairs Jorge Gonzalez chose. After pulling the program, Occidental was not eligible to reapply for accreditation until June 23, 2013, at which point the administration decided not to reinstate the program.
According to Education Department Chair Ronald Solórzano, the education department met with Veitch, Gonzalez and members of the alumni group Alumni of Occidental in Education (ALOED) to discuss the future of a potential credential program at Occidental.
“We had three round table meetings and they went well,” Solórzano said. “All three round tables pretty much said Oxy should have a credential program. We felt that with our current resources in the department we should have a single subject credential in the STEM areas of math, science and technology, as well as a new urban education major program. The round tables recommended that, but the President had the ultimate decision, and he decided he didn’t want to.”
Gonzalez was also instrumental in this decision.
“We concluded that at this point of time and given the current K-12 environment, it was difficult to see a robust enough enrollment to justify the investments that would be needed in order to have a first-rate program,” Gonzalez said in an email statement. “We do not want to have a small program that is chronically underfunded.”
An article released on July 2, 2013 on Occidental’s website announced the decision not to reinstate the credential program and stated that, while the administration would continue to contemplate the direction a credential program at the college would take, Occidental would pursue other education-related initiatives. Such initiatives include mentoring opportunities for students, working with K-12 teachers on technology use in the classroom and 4+1 programs with other schools, all of which would allow students to gain their credential at a partner institute in the first year after graduation.
Solórzano said that in addition to the school’s initiatives, many people have expressed enthusiasm about Teach for America, a program that recruits recent college graduates without teacher training or experience to work in needy schools for two years. However, he does not think that is the way to establish teachers.
“Some of the faculty and administration are thinking about Teach For America, but we don’t believe that’s the route to go,” Solórzano said. “We need quality, qualified, well-trained teachers, with methods courses and some kind of clinical experience to go into our most needy schools, which are our inner city schools.”
Solórzano said that he hopes the credential program will return to Occidental in the future, so as to continue the history that the program has established.
“There’s a long history of education at Oxy, and that’s something that, having been here for 20 years, I have a sense of,” Solórzano said. “But when you get new administration, they don’t have a sense of what Oxy is, that history, and that’s something that ALOED tried to impress on them, but that didn’t work out.”
The July 2013 article on Occidental’s website quoted a joint statement from Veitch, Gonzalez and current and former ALOED presidents Jill Asbjornsen ’76 and Nancy Kuechle ’75, respectively, which expressed similar sentiments.
“It’s possible that the credential program could be revived ‘once a consensus has been established around a compelling vision that is able to secure sufficient student interest, financial support, education partners and faculty endorsement,'” the statement read.
However, Gonzalez said the credential program will not return to Occidental anytime soon.
“We are not likely to bring back a teaching credential in the short-term,” he said in an email statement. “However, if over time we find that consistently many of our students are getting teaching credentials at other institutions, we might open this conversation again.”
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