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JUNE 2004

U.S. Needs Qualified Teachers
by Alfred S. Posamentier, Ph.D.

In 1998 the New York City Board of Education and the City College of New York (CCNY) set a national paradigm for recruiting math and science teachers to meet the local teacher shortage. On May 1, 2004 we began the seventh round of annual interviews of “Austrian” math/science teachers in Vienna. This year, fittingly enough, there were more “new European Union (EU)” countries (some, previously called “former east bloc countries) than in the past years.

What apparently motivates these young teachers is their desire to teach their subject in English, learn more about the United States and earn a proper wage. A Slovak teacher currently earns about $300 per month. When compared to the modest New York City teacher’s base salary of $3,250 per month it becomes clear (even calculating cost of living difference) that these are incentives for a young Slovak teacher to desire a New York City assignment. Furthermore, the central European countries have an over abundance of math and science teachers, so those that teach in New York City alleviate the possible unemployment problems at home and fill a critical need in New York City schools.

When, I initiated the idea of providing fully qualified (and highly needed) math and science teachers for the New York City schools, there was some apprehension about foreign teachers functioning in the New York City schools. Commitment for employment was initially made for only one year. The first groups’ success prompted officials to ask candidates to commit to stay for at least two years—some have since stayed considerably longer!

The main concern besides the usual teacher qualities, are culture and language. Will the new-EU candidates be able to rise to the challenges presented by many New York City schools and will their English language competence be sufficient to not only communicate properly, but also to understand the myriad of language variations of our inner-city students—many of whom also struggle with the English language. Will they be prepared to teach the New York City curriculum? Of course, these teachers are very well content-prepared, especially when compared to our current teacher force which includes a fair number of math-immersion inexperienced “alternative-certification” teachers.

The English language competence of the Austrian candidates (and the few Germans among them) is truly excellent. This results from their country’s total commitment to making English-language instruction the most important in their school curriculum. They learn English at the beginning of elementary school. In comparison the new-EU countries, which, until recently, were still wedded to the importance (or tradition) of teaching Russian first and introduced students to English at about age 14. This was particularly evident in the group of Slovaks (for example) we interviewed this May.

Only 26% of the new-EU candidates were selected as compared to 55% of the German-speaking candidates. With the demise of the Soviet Union, English became even more clearly the lingua franca of the world. It is the language used in international commerce, in communication between citizens of countries when neither conversant knows the other’s language, and in the computer world. The upshot of this is the regrettable diminution of foreign language instruction in the United States.

The New York City experience of importing a much-needed resource has now been replicated throughout the United States. Yet, despite growing globalization, this cannot be a long-term solution to the ever-growing domestic math teacher shortage. We must take radical steps—including differential salaries, signing bonuses, more attractive (and more professional) assignments, and above all we must—as a society—recapture the prestige formerly inherent in the teaching profession. Only then will future generations aspire to this most noble occupation.#

Dr. Alfred S. Posamentier is Dean, School of Education at City College of New York.

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