Teaching Is Hot New Job

Teaching is the new hot job as recession forces career changes

By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News
jmeyers@dallasnews.com
Paul Washington oversaw hundreds of employees in the auto industry and navigated the finicky retail market for Target. Now he's taking on a much more daunting task: teaching history to eighth-graders.

Washington, who will start work this month at Stafford Middle School in Frisco, is among a cadre of professionals leaving corporations for classrooms as the economy continues to wallow and frustrated employees reconsider career trajectories.

School districts nationwide are seeing a rise in these applicants, though they are having almost as much difficulty finding a job in this field as in their previous one. Slim opportunities have them vying against trained teachers and reinvigorating the debate between real-life expertise and experience in education.

The New Teacher Project, a national organization that trains midcareer professionals for the classroom, said applications for its summer training programs were up by an average of 29 percent.

"Whenever people get laid off, we have an influx of candidates," said Chris Kanouse, the director of teacher preparation and certification for the state Education Service Center for North Texas.

"But it has been difficult for individuals who think it's going to be an easy transition into the teaching world when that world isn't opening positions like they used to."

Texas requires its teachers to be state certified, and most of these newcomers go through a program called alternative certification. It involves hundreds of hours of coursework and classroom observation and usually takes a year to complete.

The Education Service Centers – there are 20 around the state – are among a number of providers offering alternative certification programs. The local center, which is Richardson, just started a program specifically for laid-off engineers at the behest of Texas Instruments.

Two weeks ago 3,500 applicants who have their alternative certifications were looking for local teaching positions through the Education Service Center's job network. But only 312 jobs were available.

Washington considers himself fortunate to have snagged a position. The 36-year-old Frisco resident worked as a general manager for CarMax until he was laid off.

"I managed adults all the time," he said. "Then I started spending all day coaching kids in youth sports and thought I could do this as a career. I could give back."

Fewer jobs out there

Teachers are struggling to find jobs – regardless of training – because most North Texas school districts are hiring fewer of them.

The Garland district is hiring almost 400 fewer teachers than last year, and only accepted 48 with alternate certifications. Dallas, which is hiring 285 teachers this year compared with 754 last year, has selected 250 who are alternatively certified. Even Frisco, one of the few districts that hasn't seen a sizable drop in new teachers because of enrollment growth, is hiring more conservatively. The district is bringing on 376 teachers this year, down from more than 400 last year. Of those, 62 are alternatively certified.

Linda Bass, Frisco ISD's assistant superintendent for human resources, said administrators don't maintain a quota or actively weed out people with nontraditional training. Instead, she said, they look for "knowledge of the world and specialized experience" along with an understanding of "technology and creative ideas."

The dearth of teaching jobs is a bonus for districts that are more selective in their hiring. It gives those districts the opportunity to select applicants with more extensive education-centered backgrounds, said Amber Magness, who completed her master's degree in early education at the University of North Texas in May.

She's been applying for positions across the region since October but hasn't found a job.

"Those who are obtaining [alternative certification] could be qualified," she said, "but they don't have the classroom experience I bring to the table, the student teaching, the clinicals."


'Steep learning curve'

Educators say not all professionals can transfer their skills onto a chalkboard.

"Some people believe teaching is easier than it is," Kanouse said. "They look back at when they loved school and the three to four teachers they liked. This is a serious steep learning curve, and not everyone is suited to teach."

But Kanouse argues that they recognize this by the time they start teaching. They've completed their required coursework and observation. And these new teachers also are likely to stay in the field, she said.

"When people make this career change, they're doing it because it is important to them. Someone in midcareer is probably going to be there much longer than someone who is younger who transitions into teaching."


A connection with kids

Training and passion are important elements in teacher quality, but they don't determine effectiveness, said Kate Walsh, the president of the Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality.

"You can't point to a study that shows that a teacher who has gone through traditional training is better than one who didn't," she said. "I'd argue that neither are doing a good job. We do know that being smarter matters. If you perform high, the chances of having high student achievement increases."

But a teacher's specific training doesn't matter.

"It's all about the connection with kids, which is not necessarily someone who is touchy feely," she said. "It's someone who holds you to a higher standard."


'Something rewarding'

That connection is what had Chad Davis staring intensely at an overhead projector screen this week during Frisco's new-teacher training session.

The 38-year-old McKinney resident re-evaluated his priorities when his finance company folded last year.

"I wanted something more rewarding," said Davis, who had spent 12 years in commodities and business management. He'll teach business and computers this fall at Frisco's Centennial High School.

"A lot of kids lack the knowledge to make financial decisions," he said. "I want them to have something they can rely on throughout life."

The bell rang for the next session, but he hung back as the cafeteria cleared.

Like any new teacher, he said, "I'm worried about getting it right."