‘We still need teachers’: UC Davis may pause its teachers program. Will it harm schools?

University of California, Davis, administrators are considering suspending the teacher education master’s degree and credential program beginning in fall 2021, allowing the university to redesign it and prepare it for a stronger social justice lens.

But the teacher education faculty, and the surrounding school districts that benefit from the partnership, said they support the changes to the program. But putting it on pause is not the answer.

Plans to suspend the program caused an outcry among faculty, lecturers and local school leaders who say the decision will hurt local schools and the community.

The university currently serves about 130 teachers, who go through induction programs, and are sent through a pipeline into Yolo-, Napa-, Solano- and Sacramento-area schools.

Educators planned to protest the possible suspension Thursday afternoon and more than 2,500 people signed a petition calling to not pause the program.

“During this moment of racial reckoning, massive economic upheaval and intense distance learning needs, UC Davis is choosing to back out and back off instead of being the leader our surrounding communities expect of us,” read a letter from education lecturers to the UC Davis Teacher Education Program.

The UC Davis School of Education plans to conduct a vote by the end of the month to suspend admissions to the program. If approved, UC Davis Graduate Studies must also review and approve the decision. The suspension would be in effect for one or more years, according to the university.

“We are proud of our program as it exists now, but at the same time, educational priorities are constantly evolving and teacher preparation programs need to be responsive,” read a statement from UC Davis School of Education Dean Lauren Lindstrom. “We have received input from alumni, students and faculty that we need to do more to prepare our students to address institutional racism, meet the needs of LGBTQ students, bilingual students and students with disabilities, and use digital tools to promote learning.”

Educators said that the program doesn’t have the luxury to put their work on pause.

The university informed school leaders on Oct. 9 — some of them said they were caught offguard.

“In my 27 some years in education, I have never seen a decision made this quickly,” said Grant Ermis, director of California Agricultural Teachers’ Induction Program. Ermis called the university’s plan to redesign the program laudable, but said the pause would cause disarray.

“In reality, we still need teachers. Doing a wholesale cut and replace is not responsible leadership,” he said. “We have to remember that we have a responsibility to our students in our classrooms.”

Irina Okhremtchouk, who received her Ph.D from UC Davis School of Education and is a current director and educator at San Francisco State’s Graduate College of Education, said the lack of transparency of the pending vote is especially concerning.

“Redesign happens all the time but it happens concurrently with running a program,” she said.

As a former Dixon Unified board president, Okhremtchouk said she knows how important the program is to bringing qualified teachers to teach at local schools.

Eric Estes, a Vacaville middle school teacher and recent graduate of the program, said he was happy with the content of his classes —many of which has restorative justice lens and prepared him to work with a diverse student population, including students who identify with the LGBTQ community.

Estes said he is concerned that a redesign would result in layoffs in the program, and will exacerbate an already existing teacher shortage in the region.

Current students in the credential and master’s program will not be affected by a vote to pause the program. Many of those students will finish their programs in 2021 and 2022.

“Our program has been proceeding, like all educators have been, with Herculean effort through a multi-tiered emergency in education: racial reckoning, distance learning, and a pandemic,” read a letter from university lecturers. “We are proud of the way we have been educating beginning teachers during this unusual time. We have been meeting the moment and want to continue to do so, without pause.”

This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 1:54 PM.