Here are excerpts from an interesting article in the Beaumont Enterprise. It discusses career-changing professionals turning towards teaching in Texas:

Thomas Riley always thought he would become an educator after retiring from his position with the Jefferson Park and Recreation Center-but not this soon. After 17 years, Riley was let go in December and now he’s looking at becoming a certified teacher.

“I’ve been looking through the job market looking for other employment, but every position seemed to be closed and everything kept going back to being certified,” Riley said.

With unemployment rates rising and people needing a steady income, Riley is one of many who are turning to what some consider the “old standby” – teaching.

“A lot of people are out here with degrees who just don’t know what to do and have been laid off from different jobs,” said Robert Foster with Texas Workforce Solutions. “Their job skills can be related over to teaching.”

And teaching jobs are hardly in short supply. The greatest need is for teachers of math, science, foreign language, and special education, according to the Teacher Education Agency Web site.

“It’s just very difficult to find good qualified math teachers because it’s competitive,” said Diane Daniels, superintendent of Kountze school district in Texas. “You don’t find universities putting out good certified math teachers.”

But area schools see new hope in the throngs of unemployed professionals showing up in teacher certification programs. The districts are not only getting more teaching candidates, but ones with more real-world experience that can reshape the classroom environment.

“We get a lot of career changers,” said Judy Williams, program coordinator for the Accelerated Certification for Educators Program at Lamar State College – Orange. “Lately we’ve seen a lot of engineers who have lost their jobs and want to teach now.”

With so many professionals from the workforce entering the teaching field, the quality of education is evolving into something different from what students received previous years.

“A lot of districts enjoy getting the person who has that (workforce) experience,” said Williams. “A lot of people look at it in the sense that they have a lot to offer in the classroom.”

Interested in becoming a teacher in Texas? Check out our page on Texas teacher certification for more information.

Today, Senator Dan Patrick (R-Houston) filed legislation to reverse the growing shortage of math and science teachers across the state of Texas.

Senate Bill 816 creates a scholarship program for college students pursuing degrees in math or science. The program would provide each recipient with an annual scholarship of up to $5,000 for four years. Upon graduation, the graduate would be required to teach math or science for four years in underserved areas of the state.

Recent studies on the shortage of teachers revealed the shortage is most felt in secondary math and science faculty. As an example, high school science teachers shortages have increased 80 percent since 2004.

“The shortage of math and science degreed teachers is forcing teachers without a strong background in these areas to fill the gaps,” stated Senator Patrick. “Current certification exam results show almost half of prospective math and science teachers lack strong content knowledge of these fields.”

“When districts are experiencing shortages in subject areas such as math and science, it is far more constructive to find ways to help more people obtain the appropriate certification than to assign teachers out of field. The Texas Classroom Teachers Association supports Sen. Patrick’s proposal, and we look forward to working with him to develop solutions to teacher shortages,” said Holly Eaton, Texas Classroom Teachers Association Director of Professional Development and Advocacy.

Read the full story.

Interested in becoming a teacher in Texas? Check out our page on Texas teacher certification for more information.

The Dallas news reports that a new study released Monday indicates that a longtime shortage of teachers in science and math in Texas has grown dramatically worse and will continue to do so.

The report from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin also found that the shortage has increasingly meant that less-qualified teachers are used, particularly at schools with lower-income students.

Among the other key findings:

• The most acute Texas teaching shortages in the state are in secondary math and science. Since 2004, those shortages have increased dramatically, especially in high school science where the shortage has jumped by over 80 percent.
• Projections of future supply and demand suggest that the shortage will continue to increase over the next five years. That shortage comes as Texas high schools implement the 4-by-4 graduation requirements for core courses, including an extra year of math and science. The requirements now apply to freshmen and sophomores.
• From 2004 through 2008, there were sizable increases in the percentages of math and science teachers who were not certified to teach their subjects. For example, the percentage of high school science teachers who were teaching out of their field jumped from 23 to 34 percent during the period.

Read the full story here.

Interested in becoming a teacher in Texas? Check out our page on Texas teacher certification for more information.