Teacher recruitment agencies and their specific roles

Teacher Recruiting

The administrative and practical aspects of education do not often receive the same attention either by the media or in scholarship as the practice of education itself, and the way students measure up to certain standards and respond to specific teaching methods. Yet without the practice of proper and efficient administrative techniques, all other aspects of education are rendered moot. There are serious issues that demand consideration and addressing if the education issue in this country is to be effectively combated. Teacher training, standardized tests, class size limits, and other aspects of the No Child Left Behind program -- as well as other previous attempts to revamp and revitalize national teaching procedures and practices -- can be debated for their effectiveness, but the simple fact is without the proper coordination and implementation of human resources in the education field, no amount of training, testing, or government intervention at any level will serve any valuable purpose.

It is for this reason that the recruitment of teachers is of such high importance. The process is much more complex, and has much more profound and far-reaching impacts, than hiring in perhaps any other industry, and the differences in credential programs and other teacher-training curriculums complicate the issue still further. Using established teacher recruitment agencies and organizations can make this task somewhat easier, but it does not provide a simple solution. The abundance of different organizations and agencies available for recruiting teachers requires almost as much sifting through background information and determining reliability and expertise as interviewing individual candidates, if not more so, and of course individual applicants must still be vetted as to their appropriateness for a given situation no matter what their recommendation or endorsement from a particular recruitment agency.

That beings said, the use of a proper agency can indeed make the task of hiring teachers much easier. Recruiting and retaining teachers has grown increasingly difficult in recent years due to dwindling resources -- there simply aren't enough people that want to be teachers, or that remain in the profession as a career (Guarino et al. 2006). The problem is severely exacerbated by increasing enrollment numbers in both elementary and secondary schools across most school districts in the country (National Conference of State Legislatures [NCSL hereafter] 2009). Problems are even worse in specific academic areas, especially mathematics and the sciences, further complicating and skewing the problem (NCSL 2009). Different credential standards in different states are difficult at times to match up with varying district needs, compounding the issue of the shortage of career teachers with complex system-wide problems (Guarino et al. 2006).

Teaching recruitment agencies and organizations can do a lot of the coordinating, sparing districts and administrators much of the headache of finding the right teacher for the job. In addition, though they do not by any stretch of the imagination solve the issue of the teacher shortage, they do aid those responsible for hiring teachers by helping to consolidate the pool of qualified applicants. At times this may seem to serve little purpose other then to re-emphasize the lack of available teachers, for certain subjects especially but truly across the board, but in less cynical moments it can be seen to be remarkably beneficial to use a teaching recruiting agency for hiring simply because a pool of candidates known to be qualified -- and often with experience -- will be available to choose from. This is the major bonus of many teacher recruiting programs; the level of understanding and commitment these individuals have is not an unknown.

One such program that both confirms the commitment of young people to a career in teaching and provides them valuable training and experience is Teach for America. Founded in 1990 by Princeton University senior Wendy Kopp to be a "prominent corps for teachers" and to provide an outlet for other graduates a "way to assume a significant responsibility that would make a real difference in the world," Teach for America saw five hundred teachers working in six low-income areas in its first year (Teach for America 2009). Since then, the program has only grown, and Teach for America currently has over six thousand young teachers working in twenty-nine separate low-income areas with at-risk children (Teach for America 2009).

The Teach for America program does offer extrinsic financial awards for service in their program. Aside from the guarantee of a job with a living wage immediately out of college (a commodity not to be too lightly discounted in the current environment), Teach for America rewards its corps members with money that can be used either for further education or to pay back existing student loans (nearly ten thousand dollars over the course of the two-year commitment required by Teach for America participants), loan deferment programs, special deals with lenders, as well as transitional costs to help cover expenses related to relocation (Teach for America 2009). These financial incentives are in place not really as enticements to the program, which hopes to attract teachers with a truly spirited commitment to the profession and social change.

The financial incentives, minor though they may be, serve to enable many recent college graduates to participate in the Teach for America corps that would otherwise be unable to; due to limited funds, transitional costs and certain other financial incentives are awarded based on need ensuring al possible participants have the same opportunity (Teach for America 2009). This reflects the organization's commitment to finding the best possible teachers, and given the situations these college grads find themselves in as part of the program it is likely that Teach for America is able to weed out anyone whose dedication and desire to teach is questionable.

The application process for Teach for America reflects this as well. The basic quantitative requirements are not especially stringent -- a bachelor's degree form an accredited university where the applicant maintained a cumulative GPA no lower than 2.50 and United States citizenship or permanent resident status (Teach for America 2009). The qualitative portions of the application process are much more extensive and stringent, however. Possible corps members are required to provide two recommenders who complete detailed forms regarding the applicant's appropriateness for the program, as well as one personal reference (Teach for America 2009). Each applicant is given three academic articles on education to read, and in a phone interview is asked extensive questions as to their opinions on these articles, such that their evaluation as educators begins well before they are allowed to set foot in a classroom (Teach for America 2009).

The near-exhaustive vetting process for the Teach fro America corps makes it an ideal source for recruiting teachers. There are, however, some real issues with using this agency vs. simply hiring teachers directly. First, the program only lasts two years for the corps members. Though it is possible for individual schools/districts to retain these teachers, many corps members do not stay where they were originally assigned; many go on to other programs and even other fields after fulfilling the program requirements (Teach for America 2009). In addition, though the vetting process is arduous and many corps members have some front-of-the-classroom experience, the vast majority of corps members have only recently received their bachelor's degrees and have little life experience, and might not know what they are getting themselves into (Teach for America 2009). Though it is still one of the best programs for teacher recruitment, especially in urban areas, there are some serious considerations.

Future teacher programs, or teacher cadet programs as they are known in many states, directly address the issue of classroom experience in new teachers. One of the first programs in the nation was the Teacher Cadet program of South Carolina, which now has three sub-programs: SAY (Science and Youth), MAY (Math and Youth), and FLAY (Foreign Language and Youth) (Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, & Advancement [CERRA hereafter] 2008). The Cadet program gives high school students with a desire to teach the opportunity to take classes in education and to get in front of the classroom and try things out before they even get to college, allowing them to plan their educational needs and goals better (CERRA 2008).

Many other states have adopted programs similar to South Carolina's -- over thirty, by their own count (CERRA 2008). California also has a very prominent cadet program, which operates along similar lines. The real benefit of these cadets programs is the experience they provide to prospective teachers, which is beneficial both to the cadet and to future employers. By the time they are actually ready and qualified to accept a teaching position, their skills, desire, and expertise will already have a record instead of being taken for a trial run when it really matters.