GETTING TEACHER MIGRATION & MOBILITY RIGHT
In general, the positions for which teachers are being recruited from abroad are the most difficult-to-fill positions in the most difficult-to-staff schools. While the international hiring practices may place a teacher into the classroom, they do nothing to address the root causes of the staffing shortage. They also create a situation in which migrant teachers are assigned to some of the most challenging jobs in the U.S. education system.89 A pronounced teacher shortage in the United States in the 1990s began a wave of alternative approaches to staffing schools, including international recruitment and a programme called Teach for America (TFA).90 Given the attention TFA has garnered globally, it is interesting to compare its scope over the past decade to the recruitment of migrant teachers, many of whom fill positions in schools with a similar demographic profile, particularly in needy urban schools. In the ten years outlined below, TFA recruited nearly 30,000 teachers for temporary jobs in U.S. schools, while international recruitment accounted for more than 76,000 teaching visas issued, also with temporary status. Nonetheless, international teacher recruitment trends and their impact have gone virtually unnoticed and unstudied in U.S. education circles. Figure 4.1 - Comparison of migrant and Teach for America teachers, 2002-2011 20000 18000 16000 14000 12000
n Active TFA corps members
10000 8000 6000
n Migrant teachers on temporary visas
4000 2000 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11
0
Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H1-B) Reports, Interagency Working Group on U.S. Government-Sponsored Exchanges and Training, and http://www.teachforamerica.org/.
89 90
AFT, “Importing Educators”, 2009. Started in 1990, Teach for America recruits graduates from top universities to teach in high-needs schools for two years. These recruits are not licensed teachers. Teach for America’s founder recently launched a worldwide programme dubbed Teach for All that promotes similar programmes in 31 countries and is growing rapidly.
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