Statement of

Raymond L. Orbach, Chancellor
University of California, Riverside

Before

The Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education
-- Kindergarten through University

"Administrator Supply and Demand"

Tuesday, March 6, 2001
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
State Capitol, Room 4202

Senator Alpert and members of the joint committee, thank you for your interest in educational leadership. It is in our collective best interest to ensure that California's system of public higher education will not only be able to train sufficient numbers of people for leadership roles in our public schools and colleges, but will produce leaders whose skills, vision, and values reflect this Committee's commitment to create a new Master Plan that embraces student learning from kindergarten through advanced graduate and professional training.

Through a number of initiatives supported by the Governor and the Legislature, UC has become more engaged than ever before in working with our colleagues in the K-12 and community college systems to ensure that all students are given the opportunity to prepare themselves for postsecondary studies. To date, these efforts have focused on outreach, K-12/community college/university education partnerships, teacher preparation, and disciplinary-based professional development.

We recognize that for these student and teacher-based efforts to have maximum pay-off, the University needs to become equally engaged in preparing future K-12 and community college leaders. On behalf of the entire University of California system and with full support of the Chancellors, President Atkinson sent Senator Alpert a recent letter committing the University to a number of new initiatives to improve educational leadership including doubling the production of quality education doctorates in UC and joint UC/CSU programs; developing a UC Institute for Educational Leadership; and expanding the opportunities for K-12 and community college administrators to participate in UC and joint UC/ CSU educational leadership programs.

Recent studies of administrator supply and demand differ in their method of inquiry but there is widespread agreement that there is a need for additional well-prepared educational leaders in our State's public schools and community colleges. After participating in these studies as a member of the advisory committee on the CPEC study, the University concluded that there is value in increasing the number of high quality doctorates in educational leadership offered by UC and in UC/CSU joint doctoral degree programs.

Student enrollment and the diversity of the student population are on the rise in California. The impact of this increase on the teaching and administrative staff in the K-12 system is evident, and has significant implications for the State's community colleges and universities. One strategy to assist this situation is to offer leadership training at the doctoral level, not only for school administrators in K-12, but also for others in key leadership roles who will have profound impact on school reform and educational opportunities. The anticipated 36% increase in community college enrollment over the next decade will intensify leadership demands for dealing with student transfer, preparation of students for job placement, student retention and remediation, and general education needs of local communities. There will be a need for an increase in doctorates in education who will be employed as professors in the CSU system, particularly in the fields of administration, teacher education, curriculum and instruction, special education, educational technology, and educational subject areas. The benefits from doctoral programs that further intellectual growth, general knowledge, and the use of research in decision making; and the specific knowledge and expertise related to professional duties which are required to analyze and recommend educational policy have been identified as essential elements for K-12 and community college leaders; for key leadership roles in universities, for State departments and professional associations; for school board members, community college trustees, and university regents; and for State policy makers.

California's public universities hold the key to establishing and maintaining high standards for the preparation of leaders in all fields through advanced degrees. As our economy and society become more complex and more dependent on the knowledge base generated at universities, there are greater needs for individuals with advanced graduate training. As part of our planning for enrollment growth during Tidal Wave II, UC is also planning to expand our graduate enrollments by as many as 17,000 additional graduate students in order to meet these societal needs. Education is one of the areas in which UC will increase its production of advanced degrees. One important component of the graduate enrollment plan is UC's commitment to increasing public higher education's capacity for producing education doctorates by 50 percent over the next five years and 100 percent over the next 10 years. The vehicle for meeting this commitment will be the addition of new joint doctoral programs with CSU.

Joint doctorates are not new models for the UC and CSU. These programs are partnerships that benefit both systems, the students, and the State. As of November 2000, 13 UC/CSU joint doctoral programs were in operation, four in education (including Special Education, Math and Science Education, and Educational Leadership) and nine in a variety of disciplinary areas (including Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, Clinical Psychology, Geography, and Public Health). Four new programs in education are in advanced stages of development: a joint Ed.D. in Urban Education between UC Berkeley and three CSU campuses in the Bay Area, a joint Ph.D. in Teacher Education between UC Davis and CSU Sacramento, a joint Ph.D./Ed.D between UC Riverside and a number of CSU campuses in southern California, and a joint Ed.D. between UC Santa Barbara and one or more CSU campuses in central California. Between 1990 and 2000, the UC/CSU joint programs graduated 281 doctoral students, 34 percent of whom were in education.

The joint doctorate in education holds particular promise for accomplishing the goals of the Master Plan for Education, Kindergarten through University, by building on the mutual strengths of the CSU and UC campuses for delivering degree programs of the highest academic quality. UC's important contributions to joint doctoral programs in educational administration and leadership include its ability to attract the most highly qualified and talented students and professionals into its doctoral programs, its research priority necessary for promoting a culture of research and inquiry, and a methodological foundation for examining complex problems and developing informed solutions. The blend of UC and CSU resources through joint doctoral programs will increase the reach of the joint doctoral programs across the state, encouraging underserved students to pursue doctoral training and maximizing the utilization of facilities and academic personnel. CSU is especially well positioned, through its large network of teacher and administrator training programs, to be able to identify and recommend individuals with promising leadership capacity for joint doctoral programs; and to add expertise to curriculum and research.

In developing the joint doctorate between UCR and regional CSU campuses, benefits from collaborations between the faculties are already occurring around such issues of common interest as language acquisition among limited English speakers in Special Education classrooms, the teaching of literacy, and the integration of educational technology into classroom practice. Faculty are already engaging in faculty exchanges, supervising interns, mentoring graduate students, and advising on doctoral committees--activities facilitating the scholarship roles for the CSU professorship and bringing doctoral studies and disciplinary expertise into the public schools. The UC Davis/CSU Fresno joint doctoral program in education provides a high quality degree to those students who plan to seek leadership careers in the San Joaquin Valley where retention of highly trained professionals is of some concern.

President Richard C. Atkinson has proposed a new California Institute for Educational Leadership (CIEL) with ramifications as great as those expected from the California Institutes for Science and Innovation. The Institute will be organized under the direction of a respected educator with rotating fellows selected from the ranks of higher education faculty, community college and K-12 leaders, and the business community. It will operate an executive program for K-12, community college, CSU, and UC leadership development and coordinate professional development activities already underway through the Governor's Principal Leadership Institutes and other campus-based programs such as the UC San Diego Principal's Executive Program. It will be responsible for developing a research agenda around critical questions of leadership in public education, and it will sponsor policy seminars and symposia on topics of concern to educational leaders and policy makers. It will welcome existing programs already in place so that every element of higher education, both public and private, can participate.

This bold proposal is significant for many reasons. The Institute recognizes that doctoral degrees in education are but one piece of a greater need for effective professional training for administrators and leaders in K-12, the community colleges, and beyond. It provides a locus for research and development efforts in the arena of educational leadership. It offers a gathering place for policy discussion and analysis among the various professional communities who must be unified around educational leadership issues. It amplifies the power of the intellectual enterprise at the campus level where quality derives directly from scholarship, research, and dissemination activities of its faculty. It provides a research-based resource for the educational doctorate, and an additional pipeline into joint doctoral programs.

The joint doctorate in education and the California Institute for Educational Leadership are keys which will add quality leadership to all institutions of public education throughout the State. They will be successful if they are adequately supported by the State and/or K-12 and community college systems; through scholarship programs, loan programs, and release time arrangements for K-12 and community college administrators; and planning grants for developing new doctoral degrees and new models for leadership training. Evaluation to establish program effectiveness will provide a basis for program improvement.

The University of California is fully committed to implementing high quality programs in the area of educational leadership: both UC/CSU joint doctoral degrees, and training programs tailored to the needs of working professionals in K-12 and community colleges.