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MSN.com
Teacher
Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials Optional)
The New York Times
By Motoko Rich
ROHNERT PARK, Calif. — In a stark about-face from just a few years ago,
school districts have gone from handing out pink slips to scrambling to
hire teachers.
Across the country, districts are struggling with shortages of
teachers, particularly in math, science and special education — a
result of the layoffs of the recession years combined with an improving
economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers.
At the same time, a growing number of English-language learners are
entering public schools, yet it is increasingly difficult to find
bilingual teachers. So schools are looking for applicants everywhere
they can — whether out of state or out of country — and wooing
candidates earlier and quicker.
Some are even asking prospective teachers to train on the job, hiring
novices still studying for their teaching credentials, with little, if
any, classroom experience.
Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; Oklahoma City; and Providence, R.I., are
among the large urban school districts having trouble finding teachers,
according to the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents
large urban districts. Just one month before the opening of classes,
Charlotte, N.C., was desperately trying to fill 200 vacancies.
Nationwide, many teachers were laid off during the recession, but the
situation was particularly acute in California, which lost 82,000 jobs
in schools between 2008 and 2012, according to Labor Department
figures. This academic year, districts have to fill 21,500 slots,
according to estimates from the California Department of Education,
while the state is issuing fewer than 15,000 new teaching credentials a
year.
“We are no longer in a layoff situation,” said Monica Vasquez, chief
human resources officer for the San Francisco Unified School District,
which offered early contracts to 140 teachers last spring in a bid to
secure candidates before other districts snapped them up. “But there is
an impending teacher shortage,” Ms. Vasquez added, before correcting
herself: “It’s not impending. It’s here.”
With state budgets rallying after the recession, spending on public
schools is slowly recovering, helping to fuel some of the hiring. In
California, Gov. Jerry Brown persuaded voters in 2012 to pass a sales
and income tax measure that raised funding for public schools.
But educators say that during the recession and its aftermath
prospective teachers became wary of accumulating debt or training for
jobs that might not exist. As the economy has recovered, college
graduates have more employment options with better pay and a more
glamorous image, like in a rebounding technology sector.
In California, the number of people entering teacher preparation
programs dropped by more than 55 percent between 2008 and 2012,
according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Nationally, the drop was 30 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to
federal data. Alternative programs like Teach for America, which will
place about 4,000 teachers in schools across the country this fall,
have also experienced recruitment problems.
And that has led districts here — and elsewhere — to people like Jenny
Cavins.
Ms. Cavins, 31, who once worked as a paralegal and a nanny, began a
credentialing program at Sonoma State University here in Rohnert Park
less than a year ago. She still has a semester to finish before she
graduates. But later this month she will begin teaching third grade —
in both English and Spanish — at Flowery Elementary School in Sonoma.
Ms. Cavins said she would lean on mentors at her new school as well as
her professors. “You are not on that island all alone,” she said.
Esmeralda Sanchez Moseley, the principal at Flowery, said she could not
find a fully credentialed — let alone experienced — teacher to fill the
opening. “The applicant pool was next to nothing,” she said. “It’s
crazy. Six years ago, this would not have happened, but now that is the
landscape we are in.”
Before taking over a classroom solo in California, a candidate
typically must complete a post-baccalaureate credentialing program,
including stints as a supervised student teacher. But in 2013-14, the
last year for which figures are available, nearly a quarter of all new
teaching credentials issued in California were for internships that
allow candidates to work full time as teachers while simultaneously
enrolling in training courses at night or on weekends.
In addition, the number of emergency temporary permits issued to allow
non-credentialed staff members to fill teaching posts jumped by more
than 36 percent between 2012 and 2013.
At California State University, Fresno, 100 of the 700 candidates
enrolled in the teacher credentialing program this year will teach full
time while completing their degree.
“We don’t like it,” said Paul Beare, dean of the Fresno State school of
education. “But we do it.”
Some educators worry that as school districts scramble to fill empty
slots, the quality of the teaching force could weaken.
“There are not enough people who will look at teacher education or
being a teacher as a job that they want to pursue,” said Carlos Ayala,
dean of the school of education at Sonoma State University...
Read the rest of the article with photos at MSN.com
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