On October 31, at the invitation of the A.L.R.I.'s Director, David Rosen, representatives from a number of ESOL programs in the Boston area met here to discuss the difficulties many programs are experiencing in trying to hire new ESOL teachers. No one expected to come up with immediate solutions to this problem, but we did hope, by coming together to discuss the situation, that programs might learn from one another's experiences and that we might explore some of the short-range and long-range steps that could possibly be taken to address this need.
The first question we considered was why programs were encountering this difficulty in hiring ESOL staff. The reasons that were mentioned apply equally well to the hiring of other teachers in the adult basic education system, but it's recognized that need is especially acute with regard to ESOL teachers right now. Reasons included: the (until recently) high employment economy; the continuing unattractiveness of positions at ABE programs (lack of full-time jobs, low salaries, limited benefits, inconvenient hours, etc.); competition from the public schools which are themselves facing a teacher shortage; the unavailability of affordable housing in the Boston area; and repercussions from the new reporting requirements imposed upon the field.
What strategies do programs currently use when trying to hire ESOL teachers? Programs regularly place ads and announcements in some or all of the following: the A.L.R.I. and MATSOL Job Banks; the Boston Globe and local community newspapers; some of the smaller, often non-English-language radio stations; on-line job sites (some of which are listed on the A.L.R.I.'s E-Square site, such as <bostonjobs.com>); and college job listings (such as Simmons, the Harvard Reading Lab, and the Lesley International Relations program). They also, of course, use word-of-mouth and ask other teachers if they know of possible candidates.
What other possible recruiting strategies might programs try? A number of specific groups that could be targeted were suggested: returning Peace Corps volunteers, retired public school teachers, "disappointed" K-12 teachers (who may not be pleased with their current jobs, but might be interested in teaching adults rather than children), immigrants who were teachers in their home countries, ESOL graduate students, undergraduate college students who may get credits for doing community service work, and community members and students who might be interested in serving as interns and training to become ESOL teachers (as has been promoted by the "From the Community to the Community" program at UMass Boston).
What can programs look for when considering candidates who lack prior teaching experience? Programs might be impressed by various sorts of related community experience. Also, some programs ask candidates to teach a sample class, either with real students or with an audience of other staff, to get some sense of how non-teachers would approach the job.
What can the A.L.R.I. do to help? Various possibilities were mentioned. We could: help with outreach to some of the potential target groups, such as Peace Corps returnees and public school retirees. We could revive the "Is This a Career For Me?" sessions that we used to hold for people who were thinking of entering the field. We could provide more staff development activities for beginning ESOL teachers, which programs might require new hirees to attend as a condition of employment. (However, making an ESOL Basics course, for example, available often enough for this to be feasible would be difficult.) We could conduct train-the-trainer courses for program coordinators and mentor teachers, so they could then provide their own training for beginning teachers on an as-needed basis. (This would, of course, require large amounts of time on the part of already busy program staff.) We could help develop programs that provide mentoring and training for students and others from the community who may be interested in becoming adult ESOL teachers, much as UMass has done (though this almost certainly would require sources of significant funding).
So, as we assumed, no immediate solutions, but programs did pick up some specific suggestions from their colleagues and some long-range ideas were proposed. The A.L.R.I. does plan to keep looking at and working on this issue in the future and we welcome any further comments from programs along the way.
Steve Reuys is Staff Development Coordinator at the A.L.R.I.