Passage 2 A Fast-Track Alternative to A Teaching Job
教師職業(yè)意外受寵 《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》
[00:03]A Fast-Track Alternative to a Teaching Job
[00:07]Anxiety about what comes next in midlife is gripping a lot of people these days,
[00:14]especially if their jobs are ending or they are nearing retirement age.
[00:19]Virginia-based Career Switchers program
[00:22]Wylie Schwieder thought over his prospects
[00:25]as his consulting job was winding down. And when his wife of 20 years,
[00:30]Katie, a former corporate trainer and business writing coach,
[00:35]came home on Sept. 3, 2007, their wedding anniversary,
[00:41]he was waiting on the front porch of their Richmond, Virginia,
[00:45]house with a bottle of wine and two glasses.
[00:48]"I've decided to become a teacher," he told his wife.
[00:51]"Really," she replied. "I was just thinking the same thing."
[00:56]Mr. Schwieder, 52, a former executive at CarMax and Capital One bank,
[01:02]became interested after a local science teacher told him
[01:07]about a fast-track way to become a teacher.
[01:11]The idea of studying intensely, then getting into the classroom quickly,
[01:15]appealed to the couple, who have four children.
[01:19]Within three weeks they had signed up with the Career Switchers program,
[01:24]the Virginia-based program that requires applicants
[01:28]to pass an Educational Testing Service exam in the subject matter
[01:33]they want to teach, take an online course and attend a series of meetings
[01:39]to learn classroom teaching skills.
[01:42]The program, which has helped more than 500 people earn licenses,
[01:47]costs $3,150 and takes about 18 months to complete.
[01:54]Armed with a provisional one-year license,
[01:57]the new teacher spends a year of monitored classroom instruction
[02:02]before earning a renewable five-year state teaching license.
[02:07]The Schwieders are both teaching full time now.
[02:10]Virginia certifies the program, which was started in 2004
[02:15]to deal with the shortage of math, science, reading and English teachers.
[02:20]The placement rate, said Rebecca Waters, the director, was 80 percent last year.
[02:28]This year, in the critical situation of state budget,
[02:32]placement has fallen to 42 percent.
[02:35]Teaching: a job haven
[02:38]Even so, teachers in math and science still find jobs.
[02:44]And over the long term, teaching may be a job haven
[02:48]because of its relative security and good benefits.
[02:52]A report by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future,
[02:57]a nonprofit research group, has estimated that about one million teachers
[03:02]could retire in the next four years. Career changers,
[03:07]according to a survey released in September 2008
[03:12]by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation,
[03:15]may help fill the anticipated vacancies.
[03:19]Among college-educated Americans 24 to 60 years old,
[03:23]the survey found, 42 percent would consider becoming a teacher.
[03:28]But these alternative certification programs have their critics.
[03:35]A National Council on Teacher Quality report in 2007, for example,
[03:40]found that two-thirds of the programs were not selective in their admissions,
[03:45]accepting half or more of those who apply,
[03:49]and that instead of streamlining certification,
[03:52]they simply imitated traditional teacher preparatory courses.
[03:57]The New Teacher Project
[03:59]Virginia has one of the most streamlined programs for career changers
[04:04]and is among the 47 states that accept alternative teacher training.
[04:10]Over all, about 600 such programs contribute about 20 percent of
[04:15]the country's new teachers each year, according to the Education Department.
[04:20]One of the best-known programs nationally is the New Teacher Project,
[04:25]which this year had 40,000 applicants
[04:28]for its teaching fellow programs in 21 cities,
[04:32]which include New York and Chicago. That was up 44 percent from 2008.
[04:39]But only 10 percent of the applicants were accepted this year,
[04:43]compared with 15 percent last year, according to the project,
[04:48]which is based in Brooklyn.
[04:50]Like the Career Switchers program in Virginia,
[04:54]the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence
[04:58]offers an online program that costs $975
[05:03]and has so far issued 1,900 certifications.
[05:08]They are accepted by nine states, including Florida,
[05:12]Missouri and Pennsylvania. The board says people 50
[05:17]and older account for one-fifth of its participants.
[05:22]Teachers 50 and older
[05:25]Among them is Ron Halverson, 52, who worked for two decades
[05:31]at Hewlett-Packard in engineering and finance.
[05:34]After taking early retirement two years ago,
[05:38]he became certified and is in his second year of teaching special education
[05:43]at Borah High School in Boise, Idaho.
[05:47]Pursuing a traditional teaching degree would have been too long and costly,
[05:52]he said.
[05:54]"I would not have been able to afford
[05:56]or pursue a second career without this program," he said.
[06:01]But it is "sometimes looked at negatively by those
[06:05]who have gone the traditional academic route."
[06:08]In Missouri, Bill DeLoach, 59, had a career in business sales and management.
[06:15]He left an executive position in a regional mutual fund company
[06:20]and completed the American Board program in science.
[06:25]He is now teaching physics at a high school in suburban St. Louis.
[06:30]"I haven't worked this hard in a long time," Mr. DeLoach said.
[06:34]One difficulty of the program, which must be finished in a year,
[06:39]is the required 30 days of classroom teaching
[06:43]at a time when people are lining up for substitute teaching jobs.
[06:48]Mr. Schwieder, in Virginia, landed a job before getting his license.
[06:53]He passed his subject test in math in November 2007, and in January,
[07:00]as he was beginning his class work, a math position opened
[07:04]at Henrico High School in suburban Richmond.
[07:09]He grabbed the chance to teach, but still had to spend the 20 to 30 hours
[07:14]a week needed to complete the Career Switchers course work.
[07:18]The program, which requires a bachelor's degree
[07:22]and five years' work experience for entry,
[07:25]is intended for people working full time, Mr. Schwieder said,
[07:30]but he said a Monday-to-Friday teaching job meant
[07:34]"I wasn't placing a lot of value on sleep at the time."
[07:38]He then moved into a full-time math teaching position
[07:42]and received his five-year license. His wife, 51,
[07:47]now teaches English in a middle school.
[07:50]While they both love teaching, there are some disadvantages,
[07:55]especially the pay, which averages about $50,000 nationally.
[08:00]Prospective teachers should know, too, that in a dozen states,
[08:04]teachers do not participate in Social Security
[08:07]but in public employee retirement plans. Under current law,
[08:12]if second-career teachers earn Social Security benefits
[08:15]from a previous job or receive benefits relating to marriage,
[08:20]those benefits can be reduced because of the teachers' pension benefits.
[08:26]Two-thirds of those in the Woodrow Wilson survey
[08:30]said they expected to take a pay cut to become a teacher.
[08:34]"The pay is depressive compared to a corporate career," Mr. Schwieder said,
[08:40]"but we didn't do it for the money. The challenge is huge.
[08:44]I'm trying to teach students to problem-solve.
[08:47]That's something that can carry them through the rest of their lives."
