18. Downward Spiral

Downward Spiral

As the years went on, there were two more Chemistry teaching positions posted locally.  One was for Chemistry AND Physics endorsed.  The other was for Chemistry AND Advanced Math endorsed, plus able to speak Spanish and/or Russian.  Each was on a temporary one-year contract.  That's all they want?    

I have some limited Spanish, no Russian.  I don’t have the Math or Physics endorsements also required for these positions.  If I apply, would they try to divide the job in half, like they did with the other one I applied for?  They already posted it as a temporary job – and one with a language barrier to boot.

Let’s pretend that a clever college student is going to double-major in Chemistry Education and Physics Education with a minor in Advanced Math Education, plus take Russian and/or Spanish until they have fluency.  Let’s now assume that this whiz-kid is going to pursue a job that pays $36,000 (in a well-paid-teacher state like Oregon).  Then in order to keep that job, this teacher is going to pursue a Masters Degree concurrent with an active teaching job with lesson plans and exams to write and grade in three content areas and in two or three languages, in order to keep that $22.50/hour job (not counting the unpaid prep hours and the weeks without salary).  If that teacher gets cut in a RIF, would that teacher choose to continue the graduate degree to stay in education?

Back to me.  Could I teach in another state without going to grad school again?  There are several states that will license me with the expired Oregon license and what I have now.  Montana is one.  Idaho would make me renew in Oregon first.  I have found many single-subject Chemistry openings in other states, several Biology and even a couple of FACS.  I am guessing that many of these openings are created by teachers who have already announced their retirements.  What will happen as the current staff of Chemistry teachers continues to retire?   

I realize now that I was not the perfect candidate.  I was middle-aged, a bit out-of-date (at the beginning), possessed of a pesky “decades old” Master’s degree, at the top of the entry-level pay scale, taxed in my husband’s tax bracket, and unwilling to take a job that did not provide a net profit (however humble).

So perhaps an ideal candidate is young, current, only has a Bachelor’s degree, enters toward the bottom of the pay scale, is in a low tax-bracket and is willing to take a low-paying job.  But remember, we are talking about STEM education, so that candidate must also have a college major in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics or other STEM subject.  Lately, it seems from the job postings, this student must be Praxis-ready in at least TWO of these areas (having at least a minor), perhaps more areas and languages. 

This student may have student debt.  This student must have ambitions for a teaching career, and confidence that teaching can pay enough to repay the debt, along with paying tuition for the required graduate degree.  Teaching is, perhaps, the lowest-salary option of all the positions available in the sciences (including healthcare), technology, math and engineering careers.  Why would a young, scientific scholar who is good at math become a teacher?  Love of students, perhaps?  Perhaps.

I love teaching students.  I can deal with the low salary.  Perhaps I AM the ideal candidate. 

Not enough college students are choosing to major in Chemistry Education, Physics Education or Advanced Math Education.  As the teacher pool dwindles, the high schools offer fewer courses, which may be why they have to combine these endorsements and have them do half-day Math and half-day Chemistry.  They should be able to have a full day of classes for several Chemistry teachers at a full-sized high school.  If there are fewer course offerings, then fewer kids will have these subjects in high school.  That means still fewer will be prepared to study them in college.  

Five local FACS jobs (full salary and benefits) have come and gone since I started this, before Dr. Chamberlain told me that I should have had the FACS endorsement all along.  Though I didn’t have the required FACS endorsement, I always applied anyway, but couldn't be hired without the endorsement.  Indeed, my only FACS interview was at the request of the principal who took the time to actually read my resume.  He couldn’t overcome the HR and TSPC hurdles to get me hired.       

Family And Consumer Science is at risk of dying.  In the last 10 years, the number of FACS programs in US high schools has decreased by 45%!  This is according to the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (formerly the FHA).  The number one reason they cite is -- get this -- NOT ENOUGH QUALIFIED TEACHERS.  If that isn't enough to make my blood boil....  But it's true -- there are fewer college programs to prepare the teachers.  These are the classes in the basic cooking (and eating) skills needed for life.   

As far as I know, none of the career-changing high school Science graduates in my class at WOU are employed in the Oregon public schools.  I asked my Science and Math cohorts what they had done since graduation.   

One young Math teacher got a Math classroom, but lost the job to a RIF in her district.  They bumped her out and put a Choir teacher in to teach Math full-time.  Meanwhile, they moved a lower-seniority English teacher to the now part-time Choir position.  The unemployed Math teacher worked as a substitute before leaving the country to teach overseas.  Another high school Math teacher opted-out of public school to teach at a private Christian high school.  This was the case with one of the Biology student-teachers as well.

A Masters-holding career-changing STEM friend my same age who was endorsed in both Math and Biology (who also had a college minor in Chemistry) subbed for years awaiting an opening.  Finally he heard of a Biology job that would be coming open in one year’s time, so he volunteered and subbed the entire year in that school’s Biology program in order to connect with the students, faculty and Principal.  The Principal wanted him.  The department wanted him.  The district did not hire him – his Masters placed him high on the pay scale for entry level.  They hired younger and cheaper -- a new graduate in Biology without a Masters.  My friend did not return to graduate school for the required credit to renew his license and chose to let it expire.  After many attempts to get a classroom, he left teaching to find job security with his own home repair and construction ventures.   

Is that a joke?  Left public school teaching to gain job security through self-employment?

Job security used to be one of the perqs of teaching, and helped to off-set the low salary.  Indeed, it still is a perq if you can get in and stay long enough to gain enough seniority to survive a season of lay-offs.  Hence, that Choir teacher in the Math classroom, still employed and still gaining seniority, while the Math teacher can’t get a job.  Which one of them has the required Math endorsement?

Teaching was still attractive when I started this quest, in spite of low salary, because of job security and benefits above and beyond the joy of teaching:  Health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, community advantages (credit union rates, cell phone plans, fitness club discounts, etc), 40 work weeks per year, disciplinary support for unruly students, reasonable class sizes, continuing education support, etc.

I was offered no job security, temporary contracts, pro-rated or no insurance benefits for myself only (not my husband), less-than-half-time, no continuing education support, with classes of 40 in the wrong classroom or with an expelled student at a library or online with no classroom at all and even lower pay.  For these positions I was offered a salary too low to actually make money.  Add to this rowdy students with ubiquitous cell phones, serious and dangerous student behavior, and (in some districts) year-round school, and it is easy to see why there might be a shortage of candidates.  This is especially true if willing candidates (like me) are given impossible Kafka-esque hoops to jump through only to land face-first against brick walls.

Big problems arise if there are seniority lay-offs.  Reduction-in-Force lay-offs punish the new teachers who absolutely must have a teaching job in order to be eligible for a permanent license.  Established teachers with the required graduate credit and years of teaching experience have permanent licenses.  New teachers, at least in Oregon, are required to have teaching employment along with the graduate credits in order to qualify for a final license renewal, yet they are the very teachers who are laid-off when the district budget falls short.  It serves to drive away the teachers who are employable as scientists and mathematicians into higher-paying careers.  It’s absolutely insane.

It’s spiraling down, folks.  

Chemistry education – all STEM education – is at risk of dying.  And since our very lives depend upon it -- well, you do the math.

Let’s think like a scientist and develop a hypothesis from an if/then scenario:  We need a new generation of Chemistry teachers.  If public schools offer such limited jobs, then will chemistry-trained folks come to teach?  Have they tried this method in the past?  To what result?  Hypothetically, how could the current method put qualified teachers in the classroom?  Could there be trials of other methods?  How did we get the previous generation?  Where did they come from?  Why aren't they here now?

WHO can do this job?  WHY would they?  HOW do we get them in the classroom?  

How do I get into the classroom?  How much will it cost me to renew my license?  Will I even be hired if I renew?  Will there be any openings?  Will I be qualified?

I know I am beating a dead horse by restating this over and over, but it just BLOWS MY MIND.  President Obama sent out a call for 100,000 new STEM Educators by 2021 (State of the Union Address 2011).  Sorely needed?  Yes. 

But who do they expect to do this job?  Not me, it seems.