Should we hire qualified teachers from other countries using H1B visas?

[Anonymous]

Since MCPS has a chronic problem with an acute shortage of quality teachers in almost all subjects but specifically Maths, Science and Foreign Language, we should think about using H1B visa program to get qualified teachers to fill the gaps. What do you think? World class teachers or not?

[Anonymous]

No. Pay the teachers more so that teaching is a more respected and lucrative career.

Make it easy for scientists to get out of research/industry and go into teaching.

Teachers from overseas are not going to solve the problem. We have plenty of talent here in the US but we choose our priorities incorrectly. Kim Kardashian makes millions. NBA players take in the money. But teachers? Barely able to make enough to live in MoCo.

I have an advanced degree in Biology and many of our professors were from overseas. Often, they were terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Pay the teachers more so that teaching is a more respected and lucrative career.

Make it easy for scientists to get out of research/industry and go into teaching.

Teachers from overseas are not going to solve the problem. We have plenty of talent here in the US but we choose our priorities incorrectly. Kim Kardashian makes millions. NBA players take in the money. But teachers? Barely able to make enough to live in MoCo.

I have an advanced degree in Biology and many of our professors were from overseas. Often, they were terrible.

We will not get quality teachers if we increase the pay. It is not as if we can fire every incompetent teacher and rehire new qualified teachers with better salary. Besides years of substandard education at US schools have made teaching the profession of the least capable candidates.

[Anonymous]

Nope. The problem is not the number of qualified applicants - there are always MANY qualified applicants per job opening - but the sclerotic hiring process.

[Anonymous]

I would be thrilled for my child to have a math teacher that actually knows and understands math. It's no secret that the US underperforms in that area compared to the rest of the world.

I understand what the pp was saying about better pay for teachers. Unfortunately that's not going to all of a sudden mean we would have teachers that know and understand math. Where would the current ones go?

Math education starting from elementary years here is substandard so getting an influx of teachers that had a solid education in math to begin with wouldn't happen overnight. This would have to be long term thinking and strategy for future generations, which the US again tends to fail at.

[Anonymous]

I think if we want to go this route, then we have to specify from which country we want to hire and cap how many we should hire. There should also be some kind of additional screening during an interview process that shows how the teacher interacts with the kids, and what specials skills he/she may have. BUT, it is also important that the hiring staff document the process and outcome of this so they can compare if they have achieved what they were aiming for. We don't want them to start hiring outside just because they can do so, this needs accountability. You already see how lax they are with the current situation.

[Anonymous]

Prince George's County used to hire H1-Bs:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/29/AR2008072902645.html

Looking at more recent articles it looks like it suspended it:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-filipino-teachers-caught-in-labor-dispute/2014/04/11/f1679890-c0d2-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html?utm_term=.e94fdcedfbc4

Can't really say if they improved the education or school system in any way.

Even if H1-Bs were offered for teaching positions in Montgomery County, you won't necessarily get the smartest and brightest. Where there's not as much prestige in teaching in a K-12 environment as there is in a college or university setting. So it would be mostly people trying to find a way to get into the US.

As others mentioned part of it is just putting more emphasis in education both in providing it and also trying to make it an attractive field for people to get into.

[Anonymous]

Also just because someone has strong knowledge of a subject area doesn't necessarily mean that they would be good at teaching it. Some college professors might be an example of this.

[Anonymous]

Valid points about content knowledge, pedagogy and classroom control.

We need to only attract the best and brightest school teachers from other countries, not the college professors.

Since they will be H1B they are easily fired if they do not perform. The 10 weeks of mandatory teacher training to get them well-versed with MCPS and US standards will be helpful. Maybe even send them the training online so that they have gone through one iteration before they come here?

[Anonymous]

Look into it, but I think teaching is one of those careers where it helps to have someone who understands the culture/community of the school/students. It's not just about subject matter, it's about prioritizing certain things. For example, whereas rote memorization is still a large part of education in other countries, it really is not in the US. Also you need more than subject knowledge to teach. You need to be able to make the material engaging and accessible. A lot of that requires being able to relate to the kids.

--teacher, child of immigrants

[Anonymous]

Looking at PP's previous article, it looks like whoever hired the teachers did not do their job properly. It's obvious that the teaching culture of the specific teacher in the article would not fit in the culture of the school where she is assigned. As the other PP mentioned, teachers should also fit in to the culture, that's why there should be extra requirements and reviews before hiring a teacher outside the US.

[Anonymous]

In the USA you have to legally be qualified to teach in each state you teach in. So if you'er qualified to teach in Florida and want a job in NYC you need to re qualify.

You'd need to have these out of country teachers re-qualified in some way in order to do it.

[Anonymous]

Average staff costs for professionals (teachhers + principals) at Whitman is $95k/year before benefits (and that incliudes long summer holiday):
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04427.pdf

Is that not enough?

[Anonymous]

My mom was one of these teachers. I knew a lot of them. Most overstayed and had expired visas, a few were hired with permanent residency, some had to marry for papers and on a few went back to their country. One person from the board of ed. came to my country and did the recruitment. Most of these teachers took out a loan, sold their properties or some family member probably sold their liver or kidney so they could pay for all the fees to come here. They are usually given a year or two of working visa, then it expires and never gets re-hired. Most must have become illegals by now.

I came here with my mom and saw all these went down for her. We had nothing to come back to. I eventually got married and petitioned her. She's now a US citizen.

There are plenty of teachers here they could hire. This is a scam and should be stopped. My mom's accent is so funny and her English is not very good, I don't know why they hired her, but like I said earlier, we paid someone a lot of money to come here.

[Anonymous]

We have qualified teachers in this country.