a*****g
发帖数: 19398 | 1 With more state money available to reduce class sizes, school districts in
California are using incentives such as bonuses and housing subsidies to
recruit teachers. Schools have hired 7,700 teachers over the past two years
who have only temporary permits, waivers or intern credentials, data show.
BY DIANA LAMBERT
[email protected]
/* */
A growing teacher shortage has California school districts offering
subsidized housing and signing bonuses in an effort to woo potential
recruits.
The hiring frenzy is a reversal from the recession years that left 32,000
California educators unemployed and college students too discouraged to
enroll in teaching programs.
Larry Ferlazzo, center, conducts class with the help of student teacher
Matt Smith, third from left, during a history class for English learners at
Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. Luther
Burbank pairs student teachers with veteran teachers. Larry Ferlazzo works
with a student during a history class for English learners at Luther Burbank
High School in Sacramento on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. Larry Ferlazzo, center
, conducts class with the help of student teacher Matt Smith, third from
left, during a history class for English learners at Luther Burbank High
School in Sacramento on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. Luther Burbank pairs student
teachers with veteran teachers. Larry Ferlazzo works with a student during
a history class for English learners at Luther Burbank High School in
Sacramento on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016.
1 of 2
Larry Ferlazzo works with a student during a history class for English
learners at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento on Tuesday, Jan. 26,
2016. Randall Benton [email protected]
/* */
Additional state tax revenue has enabled schools to reduce class sizes and
restore programs that were eliminated during the economic downturn. That has
led to sudden demand for teachers that the college pipeline is struggling
to meet.
“With fewer fully credentialed teachers available to take over classrooms,
the number of teachers hired on substandard permits and credentials has
nearly doubled,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning
Policy Institute and co-author of a report on the teacher shortage released
this month.
California has hired 7,700 teachers with temporary permits, waivers or on
intern credentials over the past two years. A third of all new credentials
issued in 2014-15 fit into this category, according to the report titled “
Addressing California’s Emerging Teacher Shortage.”
Special education, math and science teachers are especially hard to find,
with an increasing number working without full credentials, according to the
report. California districts were able to find less than half of the fully
qualified special-education teachers they needed in 2014-15.
In response, California school district officials have gotten creative. In
the Bay Area, where middle-class workers face high costs of living, some
districts are building subsidized housing for teachers. The largest
districts in the Sacramento region have developed aggressive marketing
campaigns and sent recruiters to out-of-state job fairs and professional
conferences.
In the North Sacramento area, the Twin Rivers Unified School District offers
signing bonuses of up to $5,000, said Bill McGuire, the district’s deputy
superintendent. The district of 31,000 students started the school year with
38 unfilled teaching positions.
Folsom Cordova Unified also offers signing bonuses, but only for
particularly competitive and hard-to-fill positions such as speech and
language pathologists, and psychologists, said Daniel Thigpen, district
spokesman.
Some school districts are trying to get ahead of the competition by hiring
early in the year. Sacramento City Unified and Natomas Unified are offering
“open contracts” to Sacramento State teaching students preparing to
graduate, said Stephanie Biagetti, teaching credential chair at the
university. Such contracts guarantee graduates a job but not a particular
school or grade level, avoiding conflicts with teachers that have seniority
rights.
Districts are recruiting with a fervor that hasn’t been seen before,
Biagetti said. Some districts have asked the university to host recruitment
events at their district headquarters before the annual Sacramento State
Education Expo recruitment held each spring.
Last year, more than 50 of the university’s graduates had contracts by the
time they graduated, Biagetti said.
The California State University system, which educates half the state’s
teachers, is trying to help meet the demand by doing a little recruiting of
its own. Five campuses, including California State University, Sacramento,
will be part of a pilot program this fall that will identify students who
might make good teachers.
“It is a way to recruit students within our universities who may never have
thought of teaching as a profession,” Biagetti said. “We want to identify
those students as freshmen and sophomores, and move them through the
pipeline as efficiently as possible.”
Enrollment at Sacramento State’s teaching college is on the upswing from
its all-time low of 370 candidates for credentials in 2013-14, less than
half of what the university had seven years before. University officials
couldn’t provide more recent information about the number of students
graduating with a credential.
“We expect the trend to continue given the economy and media coverage on
the teacher shortage over the past year,” Biagetti said.
Many students were discouraged from entering the teaching profession during
the recession, as California slashed funding for education. Districts laid
off staff members, and younger teachers often suffered most under rules that
prioritized educators with seniority.
The field still has a reputation for being demanding and paying relatively
low salaries despite the improved hiring picture.
“Teachers are so needed and they are so important, and they are paid
nothing and they work so hard for their children and, hopefully, somewhere
along the line people will realize that,” said Chantal Harper, 46, who is
completing her bachelor’s degree and plans to start her credential program
next school year.
Only a third of teachers who leave the profession each year are retirees,
according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Many others leave because
they are dissatisfied with their jobs. Once hired, teachers need strong
training, support and mentoring programs to keep them in the profession,
education experts told the Senate Education Committee at a hearing last week.
Matt Smith, 45, said he receives solid mentoring as a student teacher at
Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento.
“I’m really kind of buoyed with confidence, especially with the experience
I’ve gained in the program,” he said.
The Burbank program rotates student teachers through different classrooms to
expose them to different subjects, including special education. Each Friday
, student teachers meet with administrators for a weekly seminar and to
visit classrooms in a session modeled after medical rounds. On a recent
Thursday, Smith worked alongside veteran teacher Larry Ferlazzo in his class
for English-language learners.
During the recession, teachers were lucky to land any position they could;
now, they can be pickier when choosing their employers. Harper said she will
seek schools that care about teachers and students.
She remembers watching her mother struggle when she worked as a teacher in
an unsupportive school district, which “made me realize how important it is
to have people around that support you.”
Smith, who will complete his teaching credential program this summer, said
he is looking for a school where he feels he can have the biggest impact. He
also said he will look at pay and the proximity of the school to his West
Sacramento home.
“No matter what we are doing, the goal is to educate students,” Smith said
. “So, really, you just want an environment where you can make the biggest
difference possible in the most supportive environment possible.”
Diana Lambert: 916-321-1090, @dianalambert
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article57396608.html#storylink=cpy |
|
