Laid-off Teachers Trained in New Areas
article by Nancy Swanson | February 23, 2012
Around the country, more teachers are facing lay offs as districts and states struggle with budget shortages. However, various school districts are forming partnerships with universities and other organizations to get these laid-off teachers credentials in other high-need areas like math, science and special education.
In California, two universities are offering classes to get laid-off teachers credentials in math and science. At California State University in Sacramento, a $300,000 grant from the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, will allow 40 recently laid-off teachers to perform coursework and classroom time working toward new credentials.
“We are building up our numbers for high-needs areas and sending a strong message to new teachers and laid-off teachers that they shouldn't give up hope,” CSUS professor Pia Wong, CSUS’s program project director said to The Sacramento Bee.
This is being mirrored at California State University in Long Beach, where another program has been set up. They are currently offering four three-unit collaboratively offering four three-unit upper division undergraduate classes to help authorize teachers to teach subjects like algebra and geometry or introductory life science and physical science. Three of the courses focus on course content and the fourth focuses on teaching methods for middle school and high school.
“Teachers who complete the courses and already have a multiple or single-subject credential in a different subject will have a secondary credential that authorizes them to teach a range of areas inside their subject, such as algebra and geometry or introductory life science and physical science," Jeet Joshee, dean for the College of Continuing and Professional Education (CCPE) said to The Daily 49er, a student newspaper at CSULB.
In New York, a preemptive plan has been put in place to prevent teacher layoffs by training teachers in special education. This would allow some teachers to remain working at the school without pause.
“This is a way to give laid off teachers another option to help them keep working in our schools,” said DOE spokeswoman Ann Forte. “They will be great candidates because they have teaching experience.”
Because of the need for special education teachers, the city has offered to cover the coursework required to gain a secondary credential in special education if they are offered a job as a special education teacher.
In each one of these programs, the hope is that these teachers will become more marketable as an educator and will be placed back into the work place.
“We are trying to make it possible for them to have higher priority on hiring lists and lower priority on layoff lists,” Wong said to The Sacramento Bee. “In a different budget context, they would all be working as teachers.”
Not only will these programs allow teachers to teach in different subjects, but also have a stronger background in these subjects when teaching in elementary school classrooms.
“Our goal is to get teachers back to work and, in doing so, serve the function of increasing their knowledge base in science and math and making them more employable,” Cancy McArn, a Human Resources director at Sacramento City Unified said to The Sacramento Bee.
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