<p>Our children attended public school in PA in a well-regarded district. For years, it has been difficult to get a job in our district. At the secondary level, it helps to have a Master’s (or even a Ph.D.) in an academic field in addition to the education credits AND the ability to coach a sport. There is also some grumbling that especially at the elementary level, jobs are gotten on the basis of “connections.”</p>
<p>I did learn that although our district would like to start a strong Chinese program, there is a shortage of qualified teachers to draw upon. A bi-lingual college grad would need to become certified before teaching in a public school.</p>
<p>I am still very involved in our district- it is fascinating but so frustrating.
The private high school my older daughter attended has seen at least five alums- ( two from her graduating class of less than twenty) who have returned to the school to teach- 3/4s are young men.</p>
<p>I am sure they are paid less than if they taught in the public sector, but then they know the demand is there, they know what their working conditions are like and they know the school having graduated from it less than 10 years ago. </p>
<p>My daughter is also teaching, but in an afterschool program held in several schools throughout the Portland school district. She doesn’t have a teaching degree, but she really seems to love it- then again those expecting a high salary would be disappointed. She isn’t able to work fulltime, although her hours are configured so that she also could not find another job easily. I expect at some point she will go to grad school, but likely to become one of those highly paid “consultants” which plague my own school district, instead of going into the classroom.</p>
<p>I wanted to add to my above post… Some of my kids’ BEST teachers have been people who did NOT graduate with teaching degrees. So, again, perhaps majoring in something else, while working towards a credential provides the “best of both worlds” when the economy is “iffy.”</p>
<p>“It might also be wise for those studying to be teachers to perhaps major in something that will give them other job possibilities, while also getting the credits to get their credential. An el-ed teacher doesn’t “have” to major in el-ed to become a teacher.”</p>
<p>This is probably true, mom2. There is a lot more to teacher credentialing than there used to be, due to the No Child Left Behind Act. In many states, you have to pass a number of tests, both general and specialized, such as the PPST, the PLT, the Praxis Subject Tests, and any other tests of specialties such as teaching for special-needs. Here in my state, you need to pass all of the above, plus take coursework in Teaching Exceptional Children in the Classroom, and you need to student-teach. I believe this can only be set up through teacher-education programs in colleges.</p>
<p>It is all very complex and the requirements vary from state to state and district to district, and of course there is no guarantee of a job once you finish all that.</p>
<p>frazzled2thecore - you are correct about the Master’s and even PhD. Our hs physics teacher has a PhD. Nearly all of my kids middle and high school teachers had a master’s degree. One social studies teacher even had a law degree.
As far as “connections” - it’s called “networking”. ;)</p>
<p>Elem Ed certification - it takes 4 full years in PA to get your Elem Ed degree and certification with no other major. Add another major and you are looking at a year or two extra.</p>
<p>In PA, to keep your certification you have to keep taking classes and you get a bump in salary for your education level so most teachers do get at least a Masters. Our district reimburses teachers for classes that are in a program for a degree - it’s a real win-win situation for the teachers. The district hires them at the lowest salary range, they take classes in a subject that interests them, they get reimbursed and a raise!</p>
<p>This is VERY TRUE…It is very hard to find qualified high school teachers who can teach higher math and the sciences AND teach them very well (knowledge of the subject is not enough). I know that at my kids’ high school, they’re very concerned that the AP Cal teacher (super fab) might retire, and she’ll be VERY HARD to replace. They had a had time replacing the physics teacher.</p>
<p>The problem is that the type of person who has those kind of smarts, often chooses other professions - that pay more money or have more “prestige.” </p>
<p>Some schools are blessed with fab teachers, those kids take the AP exams and do well. However, many other schools don’t have such qualified teachers and those students don’t even bother to take the exams because they don’t they’ll pass.</p>
<p>The good news is that my son is a math major, and he has noticed that there are more strong math students considering education. We need those future teachers, hopefully they’ll find jobs upon graduation.</p>
<p>The one thing students hould consider doing is double majoring with a foreign language specifically, spanish, arabic, chinese, hatian-creole as in NYC, there are shortages in the following areas:</p>
<p>Good advice…another alternative to a double major (which could be too expensive because it may add years), is to minor or get a foreign language certification.</p>
<p>Many colleges also require the ed majors to carry a second major. My daughters did. She was at a private with four years worth of aid, so you can bet she finished in four years.</p>
<p>I have also read where it is very hard to find math and science teachers at the high school level, and I know from personal experience that at my daughters’ high school, the level of science teaching is poor to non-existent. The head of the department is foreign as is another teacher who teaches AP, and they are both, according to the kids and given the AP pass rates of their students, awful. Btw, this is a private catholic school. So my feeling is, if a person wants to teach high school science or math, there is demand.</p>
<p>Where I work a young medical assistant just went back to school to be a Biology teacher. She is so excited, but I heard her say she doesn’t want to work in a city school, which made many programs paying for a lot of the tuition unavailable.
That was a personal choice though, she knows herself, but the loans are going to be high.
My girls had wonderful Catholic school teachers that stayed while their children were small and then had to “go public” as they put it to help pay for college. They loved to teach and it showed, but the restrictions at public schools make it hard for them to shine the same way and teach more holistically, but the pay is much better.</p>
<p>this is indeed true for the independent school I work at. Except for elementary education, we will not hire someone with just a general education degree. We want our teachers to have been trained in the specific discipline they teach</p>
<p>This is REQUIRED in our state. It is also a requirement of No Child Left Behind that teachers have a certain number of COURSES in the subject in which they teach. Where we are, that would encompass a major in the field. Teachers in this state major in an academic subject area and then obtain teacher’s certification in addition.</p>
<p>By the way…the subject heading of the thread implies that at one point in time “being an education major” did guarantee getting a teaching job. I have been in education for over 30 years and that has never been the case in all the years I’ve been teaching. Yes…some years have been better than others for employment purposes in education, but guaranteed employment? No.</p>
<p>It is indeed true that public’s overpay their teachers in comparison to privates in my area of PA. We are the top private school in our area - and we pay higher than all our private peers and we believe we pay a very fair wage. But compared to the publics, we are at about 65% to 75% of what they pay. And we can not compete with the health care benefits offered nor the PA state pension plan for teachers</p>
<p>There is however a big difference in working conditions - and we find many teachers love wanting to work with small class sizes and students who want to be there to learn. We do lose some newer ones to public school after a few years - but we also attract some experienced teachers leaving public school as well.</p>
<p>We have no problem receiving lots of interest in any open position, the problem is finding truly qualified candidates (granted our requirements are more stringent and our expectations are probably higher than a lot of others). This is especially true in the math and science fields</p>
<p>I wish our districts union would allow incentive pay to attract teachers in math/science/languages .</p>
<p>But pay is by length of employment in the district- and whether or not you have advanced course work.</p>
<p>You could be a fantabulous middle school math teacher, who supplements the districts spotty materials so students aren’t two years behind when they get to highschool ( like my own daughter was), or you could be somebody who is " flexible" enough to assign posters instead of papers in English - and if you were at the same level of seniority, you would be paid exactly the same.</p>
<p>Just visited a college today where we were told they require students to pick a subject major, minor AND then they will have a teaching certificate on top of that. So for instance, my son could major in Math, minor in Communications (or whatever) and then take the teaching certification. Seems like a good route to take.</p>