teaching jobs

Below is a blurb from an email we sent out last week to the ABCTE mailing list...

News on Teacher Hiring

Though the teaching job market has been tough in some states in recent months, we continue to hear stories of ABCTE teachers being hired. And the recent emergency job legislation passed in the House on August 10 has opened up new positions and or kept positions open in many states.

Teaching jobs increased last month even as the rest of the country went to unemployment over 10% for the first time since 1983. The education stimulus is doing the job it was supposed to and at least 10,700 more people got jobs in education.

This is not a fluke. If you are a professional who needs a more rewarding career, education needs to be one of the places to look – especially if you have experience and a background in math and science.

Having served on the board of a charter school and recently attended the NACSA meeting, it occurred to us that charter schools could use more help. Since we are a non-profit focused on teaching, we felt like we could provide more resources to charter schools in the area of teacher quality.

For Part 5, the final in our series on teaching jobs, I was hoping to have more information about the billions going to protect teaching jobs, but I guess that is going to have to wait for a few months once we see what really happens.

Layoffs are incredibly difficult for any organization. During a recession it takes true leadership for an organization to make it through to better times and come out stronger. Organizations with weak leadership do not survive, and if they do, aren't able to take advantage of the upcoming economic recovery.

Layoffs damage morale and if they are done wrong, can irreversibly impact your talent pool. The problem for our education system is that performance never appears to have an impact on who gets the pink slip.

Interesting bits of news from around the states on hiring and firing of teachers. First is to keep your wits about you as reported by EIA. In 2003, California issued 20,000 pink slips to teachers and ended up only firing 3,000. Contracts in most states and districts require ample notice for layoffs which means that many teachers will be understandably upset now, but when the stimulus dollars start to trickle out, may ultimately be saved.

Guest Blog by Jessica Morris, ABCTE Teacher Preparation Manager