Schools get creative to fill teaching jobs
As he finished his degree at UCF, Conrad Troha thought teaching high school an intriguing career option. But he was a physics major with no education coursework or training.
Adam LaMee, the teacherin-residence at UCF’s Physics Teacher Preparation Program, knew Florida school districts still would be eager to hire Troha. They face a teacher shortage, and science classes are among the hardest to staff. But LaMee also knew that new teachers, no matter how well steeped in their subjects, tend to flounder and even leave, if they jump in with no classroom preparation.
So when Orange County school administrators came to recruit University of Central Florida science majors, he
pitched what he hoped was a better idea. Hire Troha right after his December graduation, he suggested, but put him in a veteran teacher’s classroom for a semester, allowing him learn the ins and outs of teaching without taking on full responsibility for classrooms full of teenagers.
Orange administrators agreed, and Troha spent from January to early June working at Timber Creek High School in east Orange as a paid apprentice of sorts — a strategy Orange administrators hope to repeat as part of their work to find new ways to attract and keep teachers.
This year, he’ll be on his own but more confident than he was right after graduation.
“I’ve never managed a classroom. I’ve never designed a lesson,” Troha said as the 2017-18 school year wound down. “It’s really nice to have someone have your back for all that. And so it’s been a very positive experience.”
LaMee called the effort “fantastic” and something he hoped other districts would replicate.
“It cost money,” he said. But there are bigger costs, he added, when no teacher can be found or one is hired but doesn’t stick around.
Across Florida, school districts are competing with each other for a shrinking number of new teachers graduating from Florida’s education colleges — and looking for ways to recruit other candidates, whether recent graduates who aren’t education majors or career changers. And with the new school year just weeks away, recruiters are in crunch time now.
“We definitely have to be more creative,” said Quiana Peterson, instructional recruitment partner for the Lake County school district.
Peterson — who this week had 30 open teacher positions still to fill before the first day of school — said she is constantly asking herself, “Have we exhausted all possibilities? What haven’t I thought of?”
Her motto now is “every lead counts,” and people she might not have followed up with several years ago — someone who registered for a teacher job fair but didn’t show up, for example — now get cheery emails. “We missed you. Let’s stay connected!”
Educators say finding teachers has become tougher because relatively low pay and Florida’s controversial teacher evaluation system, tied to standardized tests, has discouraged some young adults from pursuing teaching careers. Those problems have also pushed some teachers to leave long before retirement.
In August, both the Lake and Seminole county school districts are launching a grow-your-own teacher program, hoping to convince high school students with an interest in teaching to return home after college. Orange County, which had a teaching academy at Edgewater High School, made that a magnet program open to students from across the district starting this year, also hoping to nurture would-be teachers.
Seminole’s program targets students who plan to attend Seminole State College then UCF, offering them mentoring, financial support and jobs when they graduate. It is aimed at, but not exclusively for, students with an interest in science and math, hoping to boost the pool of teachers in those hard-to-fill jobs. The district tapped 90 students, 10 at each of its high schools, for the first class.
Emily Pardon, 17, a rising senior at Oviedo High School, was among them. She wants to be a teacher but isn’t sure she wants to stay in town for college. Still, she said the chance to take dual-enrollment education classes at Seminole State this year, the “generous” financial offer — a $1,000 stipend per semester while at Seminole State and not-yet-workedout help while at UCF — and the personal advising intrigued her. So she plans to be part of the program until she heads to college.
And she was happy to hear her hometown would want her back as a teacher, wherever she studies.
“I would totally see myself coming back to Seminole County,” she said.
And she would be welcomed. As things stand now, the pool of teaching candidates is shallower than it has been, and principals are sometimes readvertising positions, a sign they aren’t happy with the quality of would-be teachers sent their way, said Boyd Karns, executive director of human resources for Seminole schools.
As of this week, the district had 37 teaching positions to fill before the new school year starts.
“We’re not getting nearly the number of applications we used to,” he added.
The Orange school district, Central Florida’s largest, had about 140 open teaching positions listed on its website this week.
Like other districts, it’s been holding more job fairs, and hoping its new efforts pay off.
Recruiting at university science departments — along with education colleges — has landed the district a few more teachers, including two Florida State University graduates who will become Orange faculty next month, said Bridget Williams, the district’s chief of staff.
At meetings with college students majoring in science fields, district administrators tout “the beauty of teaching” but also the district’s varied science programs and its new efforts to support new teachers who, like Troha, might not come with education degrees, she said.
They are also hiring UCF science majors to serve as high school tutors, hoping that a taste of teaching will lead to job interest.
“It’s a pipeline for us,” she added. “It’s an introduction to the world of education.”