As hiring freeze thaws, more new teachers enter city classrooms

Higher hires

August 17, 2011

As hiring freeze thaws, more new teachers enter city classrooms

by Geoff Decker, at 4:33 pm

For the first time since the city imposed a hiring freeze two years ago, the number of teachers entering the classroom from alternative certification programs has risen.

While some senior teachers worry about finding positions, two prominent organizations, Teach For America and New York City’s Teaching Fellows, are contributing hundreds of new teachers to the city’s teaching force. The organizations estimate that they will bring about 800 new teachers into classrooms this fall.

That would be 25 percent more than last year, when the groups brought on just under 650 new teachers, about 2,000 less than in 2006.

The dropoff began in 2009, when the Department of Education enacted restrictions limiting most hiring to teachers who were already in the system. The policy severely curtailed recruitment plans for TFA and Teaching Fellows and in a matter of two years, both were producing just a few hundred teachers per year. Most of those teachers worked in shortage areas, such as science and special education.

Now, as the city has eased some longstanding hiring restrictions in new subjects, those numbers are inching back up in response to demand.

Teach For America admitted 335 members this year, a 50 percent increase from last year. For the second straight year, a majority of those teachers – about 180 – will work in charter schools. As many as 145 could end up in district schools, said New York TFA executive director Jeff Li. A small group will also be placed in non-profit organizations that support early childhood education.

Li attributed the increase to demand from new and expanding charter schools and in high-need subject areas in district schools.

Teaching Fellows, which doesn’t place teachers in charter schools, also increased its enrollment, but by less — from 425 to 455.

Despite the restrictions, the DOE still hired roughly 3000 new teachers last year, according to a spokeswoman. It also lost about 2,600 teachers through attrition, according to a report from the Independent Budget Office, and projects losing 2,600 more this year.

Floridacrazy

I’m not a teacher. but I do belong to the UFT. Where is the UFT while all of this is going on? What about all the veteran teachers who were excessed because of the budget cuts – where are they supposed to find teaching positions if all the new graduates are getting them? The UFT (Michael Mulgrew) is Bloomberg’s puppet also.
Tiredofyou

Its ok they will all be gone in two years.
Angry Special Ed Math Teacher

Where are they hiring for math the schools are keeping their openings secret so teachers like me cannot get hired.
michael

I want my union dues back.
Ms.A

Exactly….sickening!
JL

While I am not opposed to any particular route that one might choose in becoming an educator I am mildly perturbed by the fact that the city is willing to offer incentives, and subsequently first crack at jobs, to those who decide to become teachers as a fall back plan (Fellows) or path to “bigger and better” things (TFA) while I am left paying for my schooling and searching for work just because I decided to go at it the old-fashioned way.
Where are all these jobs that are being unfrozen? Could someone draw me a map?
guest

This is not always true. We had ours posted (saw posting) and I was shocked how few people applied. I watched the teachers do sample lessons. By the way, the more experienced teachers were much better than the new ones. And, the former TFA applicant was awful.

The problem is that schools are not hiring.
Pogue

Let me be opposed for you, JL. TFA is a union-busting/career-in-waiting scam and will disappear once the economy rebounds.
Jim

Fellows become teachers as a fall back plan? This characterization doesn’t make any sense. A fall back plan here would be something that was always in place as a back up in case the original career path did not work out. That would be someone who majored (or double majored) in something education related, went into a different field, and then decided to teach later when their first career didn’t work out.

Most Fellows are career-changers, coming to teaching after time spent in other fields, and there is a limit on the number of hours of education credits you can have (15?) before applying. No incoming fellows are previously certified as NYC K-12 teachers.

This is not to say that people come in with no experience. In my ESL Fellows Cohort of about 20 people in 2008, almost everyone had at least one year of experience teaching abroad or at US colleges.

The vast majority of the population does not wind up in the same job they started out in. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with having a lifelong career as a teacher and I wish you the best of luck in your search.
Jim

Fellows become teachers as a fall back plan? This characterization doesn’t make any sense. A fall back plan here would be something that was always in place as a back up in case the original career path did not work out. That would be someone who majored (or double majored) in something education related, went into a different field, and then decided to teach later when their first career didn’t work out.

Most Fellows are career-changers, coming to teaching after time spent in other fields, and there is a limit on the number of hours of education credits you can have (15?) before applying. No incoming fellows are previously certified as NYC K-12 teachers.

This is not to say that people come in with no experience. In my ESL Fellows Cohort of about 20 people in 2008, almost everyone had at least one year of experience teaching abroad or at US colleges.

The vast majority of the population does not wind up in the same job they started out in. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with having a lifelong career as a teacher and I wish you the best of luck in your search.
Jelfrank

This post is motivated by my conversation with one of my ATRs (I’m a chapter leader) about how she’s in limbo again because the UFT agreed to allow them to be shuffled from school to school in the no teacher layoff deal.

The exodus of experienced teachers is the product of careful negotiations with the UFT. 1. In the 2005 contract teachers gave back the seniority transfer which allowed them to use their tenure in the system to get a position at another school over someone with less seniority (unless that school participated in a SBO process which suspended that rule). 2. The 2005 contract also took away a teacher’s right to grieve a disciplinary letter in their file no matter how preposterous. Now, with these to givebacks in place Klein moved in for the killing blow- 3. chainging the budgetting rules to charge schools for the full cost of experienced teachers (a cost absorbed by the DoE in the past).

Now the 1 – 2 – 3 punch to the UFT senior members was in place. Since they lost their right to seniority transfer, and their right to grieve letters in the file, these teachers were trapped and were often pummeled with file letters. No principal would hire them as they were too expensive under new budgeting rules. Oh, there was some temporary relief in their cost, but that’s long over. These teachers became ATRs when schools were closed (something the UFT agreed to go along with, see p. 1 of our contract- “the Union and the Board mutually agree to join together with other partners in the redesign and improvement of our schools, including closing those that have failed…”). It’s only the last couple of years that the UFT woke up and realized this school closing thing is bad for business.

So, there you have it, by contractual loss of rights and budgeting rules you have more and more experienced teachers fleeing the system. They are being harrassed out.
Burned

I just want to clarify something about your first point. The seniority transfer allowed someone to transfer into a position only if it were UNENCUMBERED. What that meant is that it did not have an appointed teacher in the position. Furthermore, a school only had to list half of its unencumbered positions on the seniority transfer list. I think you are confusing this with another right that we gave up in 2005, the right of an EXCESSED teacher to any unencumbered position in the nearest district school. It is the loss of that right that has created ATRs, not the loss of the seniority transfer. I agree with your overall analysis,nevertheless.
Burned

Exactly what I’ve been thinking!
Drockeducation

Back up plan.
Drockeducation

Help elect a new president.
Guest

I have a question and I am not sure if anyone can answer it so here it goes. In 2004 I was a school counselor at a Bronx high school and I left the system to be a school counselor in another part of the country. I have recently returned to the metropolitan area and I would like to get a job at another Bronx high school. Over the past 6 years I have gained an incredible amount of experience working in a special education high school as a college counselor and transition coordinator. My question is this- I have a file number and I am a former employee- So is it possible to get a job back at a Bronx High School as a school counselor?
I noticed that…

If you left before getting your tenure, you will not be hired now and the accumulated years of teaching are lost. Therefore, you will need to start all over again by applying for jobs even though you have a file number. You should go to the UFT office and ask them those questions.

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Higher hires

August 17, 2011

As hiring freeze thaws, more new teachers enter city classrooms

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