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BOE mulls hiring of non-US teachers
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Posted on Dec 13 2006
It has been many years since the Board of Education has considered the idea of hiring teachers from other countries other than the U.S. mainland.
During yesterday’s Board of Education meeting on Capital Hill, the board once again took up the possibility of hiring non-U.S. citizens or residents to fill the void in the teachers’ pool at the Public School System. The board focused the discussion on filling “hard-to-fill” teachers posts within PSS.
Reiterating his stance on the issue, board member Herman T. Guerrero said that PSS need to look into hiring non-U.S. citizens from neighboring islands or countries such as the Philippines to find teachers for these hard-to-fill positions.
Guerrero said that PSS is having a tough time recruiting Math, Science, and Language Arts teachers. Other positions that are hard to fill include the Special Education teachers.
“Why don’t we look to the Far East where people are more advanced in terms of Mathematics,” he said.
He pointed out that the Philippines has several physical therapists who could be hired as SPED teachers or teacher-aides.
Guerrero recalled that, during his term as BOE chair, the entire board supported this recommendation. He said the PSS Legislative Committee raised this issue again and is supported by the PSS Fiscal, Personnel and Administration Committee.
“Let’s take this opportunity rather than just looking at the US,” he told the board.
Praxis update
PSS currently has 511 public school teachers; 56 percent of them have already passed the Federal requirement Praxis 1 and 2.
Federal Programs advisor Tim Thornburgh said the number is increasing every week. “Every week it’s higher and higher,” he said during yesterday’s board meeting.
He said by 2009, the PSS aims to have all its teachers considered “highly qualified.”
“We’ve done excellent job,” Thornburgh said, adding that the CNMI has surpassed the percentage rate of California after only two years of compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
California only had 52 percent of its teachers meeting the Praxis requirement during its second year of complying with the federal requirement.
