No U.S. qualified teachers?

[flashl]

Recruiting of foreign teachers questioned

For the past two years, school district officials here have traveled to the Philippines to recruit teachers to fill teaching vacancies.

That may be at an end after school board members this week refused to approve a third trip, saying they wanted more information and will revisit the issue next month.

Several school districts in Kansas, including Wichita, have relied on overseas educators as it becomes increasingly difficult to find certified Kansas teachers. But the school board members, many of them new to the board, said they weren't yet comfortable with the policy.

"I just have never found this program to have enough answers there for it," said board member Betty Horton. "I'm really in general opposed to selling ourselves out in America if we have American teachers who have degrees."

Horton pointed out that the Kansas State Board of Education is trying to reduce some of the restrictions facing teachers who are certified to teach in another state when they move to Kansas.

"I guess I have been disturbed in general about our willingness to be so willing to go outside of the country to look for teachers when there are so many teachers in this country who, because they don't have Kansas state certification, are not allowed to teach in our schools immediately," she said.

Read Entire Story

[Ishoutandscream2]

1. I don't have the figures, but here in my state

There are many people who have their licenses who simply refuse to teach. While things have improved salary wise, many of these people still find their past experieces in teaching as taxing and unrewarding. And to top it off, lack of discipline and parental support don't help matters.

[treestar]

2. So if they can't find teachers here, what is wrong with recruiting

them from abroad? I don't get what is being "questioned" here. If there are Americans, they'd find them. It's much easier than bringing them from abroad.

[Ezlivin]

3. Who needs teachers when you have Google and Wikipedia?

And they're free!

I think people are stuck in an old paradigm. We should never let people directly interact with each other, but only through machines.

That's what makes DU so great!

[Ishoutandscream2]

11. Really?

[Ezlivin]

13. I don't want to respond personally

NOTE: The omission of the sarcasm tag is only a test.

[Ishoutandscream2]

18. I'm sorry, but I'm under the weather

And my "gullibility" sign was attached to my forehead.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Hospitals go recruiting in the Phillipines as well for NURSES.

[flashl]

6. It undermines local nurses salaries. n/t

[shaniqua6392]

5. What a bunch of crap.

"because they don't have Kansas state certification, are not allowed to teach in our schools immediately"??????????? So the people they have come from the Philippines are certified to work in Kansas? That makes no sense. My daughter is a Michigan certified teacher that could not find a job in her field. Others that she graduated with have been substitute teaching for over 2 years with no prospects of a permanent position. I would bet that the teachers that they bring in are making a pittance for their salary. Follow the money-It always comes down to the money.

[LiberalFighter]

9. Good catch. They say they can't accept from other states which is a lie

but they can from the Phillipines.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. The pay scale is standard

These teachers make no less than any other teachers in their district with a similar amount of teaching experience.

[LiberalFighter]

7. I am questioning the restrictions excuse

National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification

The NASDTEC Interstate Agreement
Facilitating Mobility of Educational Personnel

The NASDTEC Interstate Agreement facilitates the movement of educators among the states and other jurisdictions that are members of NASDTEC and have signed the Agreement. Although there may be conditions applicable to individual jurisdictions, the Agreement makes it possible for an educator who completed an approved program and/or who holds a certificate or license in one jurisdiction to earn a certificate or license in another state or jurisdiction. For example, a teacher who completed an approved teacher preparation program in Alabama generally will be able to earn a certificate in Georgia. Receiving states may impose certain special requirements which must be met in a reasonable period of time.

What it is:
The interstate agreement, arranged by NASDTEC, is a collection of over 50 individual agreements by states and Canadian provinces. Each individual "agreement" is a statement by that state or jurisdiction outlining which other states' educator certificates will be accepted by that state. Specifically the agreement outlines which particular types of educator certificates (teachers, administrators, service personnel, or career/technical), and which particular styles of certifications (titles, fields, etc.) will be accepted.

Such an "acceptance" agreement means that the "receiving" state will issue some form of authorization allowing the inbound certificate holder to legally teach or provide service in the receiving state, provided the license issued by the "sending" state is acceptable under the agreement. This authorization may be limited in time by the receiving state, and the receiving state may impose additional requirements which need to be accomplished before the educator can teach or practice after the end of the time limit.

What it is not:
It is not a collection of 2-way agreements of reciprocal acceptance. For example, although Georgia affirms with its agreement that it will accept certificates from Connecticut, this acceptance in no way implies that Connecticut will accept Georgia certificates.

It is not a guarantee that all certificate titles will be accepted by a receiving state. For example, in the "sending" state you may hold a "temporary" or "provisional" certificate which is excluded from the agreement signed by the "receiving" state. In such a case, the NASDTEC Interstate Agreement provides no help toward your receipt of a certificate in the "receiving" state.

It is not necessarily "full" reciprocity. The educator may have to complete additional requirements, such as coursework, assessments, or classroom experience, before receiving a full professional certificate in the new state.

FROM THE DOCUMENT it appears that they accept credentials from all 50 states.

[LiberalFighter]

10. How to get a Kansas license

Complete an approved program at an accredited university
Have passing scores for appropriate content and pedagogy tests
Send in application with fee
Send in fingerprints with fee
If out-of-state, send in all transcripts.

[knitter4democracy]

17. That's it? Heck, I could teach there, then.

My license expired years ago, but I have the degree, the good test scores on the NTE, money for the fees, and my transcripts. I can think of several teachers looking for jobs that would consider relocating if they did better on advertising it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. I live in Kansas but teach in Missouri

And because of the highly qualified teachers regulations in NCLB, if I want to teach in Kansas I have to take the Praxis. Until this policy was enacted, my 30 years experience and satisfactory evaluations would have been enough for me to get a certificate.

I have a bachelors and a masters degree from 2 Kansas universities. But even with 30 years experience in a field with a severe shortage, I have to take a competency test to be certified in Kansas. That is ridiculous. Between this and NCLB, no wonder teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

[LiberalFighter]

12. Could it be the state that places the creation theory over evolution

Find it easier to get teachers in the Phillipines that espouse creation belief than those taught in the US?

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. The science standards have been changed; evolution was never taken out of Kansas schools

The conservatives on the state school board were not re-elected in 2006.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Of course the Phillipines. Who wants to travel to Minneapolis to recruit teachers?

It's not just the money.

[flashl]

14. 2004 South Carolina Story ...

Rural schools fill classrooms with foreign-born teachers

A program designed to let foreign teachers get experience in U.S. classrooms has turned into a way for South Carolina to help fill its need for qualified teachers in poor rural districts.

"This is a dirty little secret that gets kept about how we're filling our classrooms," said Barnett Berry, president of The Southeast Center for Teaching Quality in Chapel Hill, N.C.

In Jasper County, for example, 30 of the school district's 200 teachers are from outside the United States. At one school, Ridgeland Middle, foreign teachers account for one-third of the faculty. "We continue to hire them because we can't hire anyone else," Jasper superintendent William Singleton said. The district pays about $3,000 less than the state's average teacher salary, he said, "so we're left with no teachers in that classroom or getting the teacher who has some classroom management problems or language barriers."

Overall, more than 400 teachers in South Carolina schools this year are foreign.

[aquart]

21. $3000 less. Yep. Follow the money.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. In my district, the foreign teachers are paid on the same salary scale as all the teachers

They even get a bonus to help with moving expenses.

[greenbriar]

15. our building has 4 special education from Philippines

its Kansas's new favorite recruiting place



I think its becasue they don't have to count the experience and they get "new" teachers

[flashl]

16. National story ...

Filling The Classroom Void

U.S. Schools Are Recruiting Foreign Teachers To Fill Shortages

While the United States is working to keep some immigrants from coming to live here, it’s actively seeking others. CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports that thousands of teachers are recruited from abroad each year.

A team of top officials from Baltimore has traveled to Manila to conduct an immigration raid. Specifically, it's a raid to hire Filipino teachers. If the interviews go well, school officials will hire every Filipino teacher in the room, 81 of them, to teach math, science and special education in the city's public schools.

Back at home, recruiter Patrick Crouse is the principal at a special needs school. When you try to recruit for special ed in America, he says, it's almost a waste of time.

In the United States, he says, "I could go out for recruitment and I might see five or 10 teachers. ... Overseas we saw hundreds."

Baltimore has recruited more than 200 teachers from the Philippines so far, and while administrators say they are pleased with the quality of these teachers, they are doing this because they have to.

There is a shortage of teachers, not just in Baltimore, but nationwide. Nevada's Clark County imports math and science teachers from Canada. Topeka, Kan., brings in teachers from India and Spain. Dallas brings in bilingual teachers from Mexico and Chile. At least 10,000 teachers are needed — from abroad — every year.

America's shortage is so well known that the Philippine colleges offer special courses in American education.

They said the same about IT while hundreds were graduating in the U.S. monthly. Something is wrong with this on so many levels.

[knitter4democracy]

19. Same crap happened when I was first looking for a teaching job.

During my last year of college, in student teaching, we all went to a recruiting fair. As an English teacher, I had a hard time getting interviews for anywhere close to where we were going to live in Cleveland. I had already filled out an application for the Cleveland Public Schools, which had said on their website that they needed English teachers, but when I spoke to the representative there, she rudely told me she didn't need anyone in English and that she'd just throw my application on the stack if I asked nicely. *sigh* Desperate for a job, I asked her as nicely as I knew how, wished her a nice day, and never heard from the CPS after that. I contacted them to make sure they had my file, and they did, but I was assured that they did not need any English teachers.

Then, the Plain Dealer about six months later ran a similar story of the CPS recruiting in India for math, science, and, you guessed it, English teachers. I ran off a strongly-worded ltte (that my principal didn't see beforehand and approve but loved when she saw in print, lesson learned on that) that made it plain that they had at least one application in their stack from a native-born teacher who was now at a private school instead of teaching in their district.

I think some of this is just to have junket trips to nice places for the administrators.

[flashl]

20. It also drives wages below the locals' reach. n/t

[LWolf]

22. Even states that have supposed "reciprocity"

require extra hoops to transfer a license from one state to another. While I'm "highly qualified" in both of the states I've taught in, I had to take an extra class (very much like one I'd already taken in my home state), and I got certified at a lower level. My new state has different degree programs for certification than the one that I'd completed in California, and more levels.

After all the things we do to get our initial license, many teachers aren't willing to jump through more hoops for another state.

It's too bad that a license earned in one state doesn't automatically transfer to an equal license in another. Some areas have teacher shortages, and some have an overabundance. While my salary is 2/3 what it was in CA, when I was applying there were 70-90 applicants for every opening, according to the district people handling the applications. In a district that only had about 10 openings at my level that year, that's a lot of people turned away. If Kansas really wants U.S. teachers, they could start by allowing licenses from other states to count.

Of course, even with reciprocal licenses to balance things out, there would probably still be an overall shortage. Not enough people are attracted to the profession with current salaries and working conditions. You get people to work for substandard salaries by shipping people in that will perceive U.S. teachers to be more prosperous than they are.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. I have to take the Praxis if I want to be certified in Kansas

even though my degrees are from Kansas universities and I live here! Plus I have close to 30 years experience in a field where the shortage is severe. It is absolutely ridiculous.

Just last week I was told by a state rep here in Kansas that they are making recommendations to change this policy because of the teacher shortage. For years I had planned on retiring from my district in MO and then going to teach for 5 to 10 more years in a district closer to home in Kansas. Because of the changes in certification standards, I had to cancel that plan. So I am very interested to see if the legislature will address this.

[LWolf]

29. I took the Praxis in CA.

When I moved to Oregon, they were phasing the Praxis out, and the ORELA in. If I'd waited any longer, all my Praxis scores would have meant nothing, and I would have had to retest (and repay all the testing fees, of course).

It doesn't make any sense to say that you are highly qualified on one side of the river, but not on the other side.

Then again, when there are politics and $$ involved, when has it ever made sense?

Good luck, and keep me up to date.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. We have a bunch of teachers in our district from the Philipines

Most are very good teachers. It's an unusual way to address the teacher shortage but it works for us.