National group easing teacher shortfall

Recruits from a noted nonprofit program will help fill spaces at Leeward Oahu sites

The respected national Teach for America program will provide up to 110 top college graduates from around the country for two-year stints teaching in disadvantaged areas of Leeward Oahu beginning this summer.

The nonprofit, which has been likened to a domestic Peace Corps for teaching, will recruit up to 55 teachers for the coming school year, which begins in July, and a similar number the following year, according to a four-year contract with the Department of Education. Yesterday, the Board of Education Committee approved the contract.

The program was started 16 years ago to help address a national teaching shortage, particularly in poor or remote locations where most teachers decline to work. It has gained a reputation as a highly sought-after postgraduate avenue for college graduates interested in social justice.

The recruits coming to Hawaii will be concentrated in schools in Ewa and the Waianae Coast, which the Department of Education usually has a hard time staffing, said Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Gerald Okamoto.

Okamoto said the program will help the department reduce its nagging teacher shortage. The state typically starts each school year with a shortage of several hundred teachers statewide and relies heavily throughout the year on substitutes and part-time teachers.

Okamoto said he does not yet know the size of the shortage for the coming school year since recruitment and hiring are still under way.

"But it will be significantly smaller this year, and that's due to the powerful results we've been getting from external recruitment. And Teach for America is going to provide an additional help as well," he said.

Teach for America says it received 17,000 applicants for roughly 2,000 positions available last year, including 12 percent of Yale's graduating class and 8 percent of Harvard's. Besides its altruistic motives, the program also provides participants a range of teaching-related professional development and training.

Applicants typically are not education majors, but about 63 percent of the program's participants remain in teaching, often in the area to which they were sent, said Diane Robinson, executive director of Teach for America Hawaii.

"We say, 'Teach for two years, make an impact. It could change your lives,'" Robinson said. "Most are so impressed by the experience that they stick with (teaching)."

Some studies indicate that students taught by Teach for America participants perform better in the classroom than their cohorts.

The recruits will be paid roughly the same as an entry-level Department of Education hires without teaching credentials.

Okamoto said that Kamehameha Schools will provide cultural training to the new recruits to help ease their transition.