Teachers, any thoughts on which endorsements will be most in demand next year?
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Anonymous
| I'm coming from a neighboring county with an English endorsement. I've been told that it's hard to find a high school English job in FCPS. I could potentially get certified in something else, but I'm not sure what would be a pretty sure bet except for math, and I don't want to teach that. Does anyone know what else is in demand? |
Anonymous
| Special Education |
Anonymous
| ESOL and special ed are going to be gutted due to FCPS enrollment going down. Will be a tough year to find a job, but special ed is always the best bet |
Anonymous
Always and yet they do nothing to make SPED in FCPS better. I know several amazing SPED teachers who are leaving this year 
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Anonymous
If they are gutted it will be due to trump and the P2025 nonsense. |
Anonymous
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I thought FCPS was scrambling to get enough teachers. |
Anonymous
Nah they made class sizes bigger and cut a bunch of positions/classes and now they can boast they are nearly "staffed". Many teachers lost prep time and are struggling with the added students in class and no time to prep. |
Anonymous
| DP but is math still a sure bet though? Wondering if I should pursue that. |
Anonymous
lol! |
Anonymous
No. We had plenty of applicants last year for a couple of positions. Special Ed is the name of the game. |
Anonymous
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I am going to share a different take on this. I have worked in both elementary and secondary positions within FCPS.
The demand for secondary positions largely depends on the school itself (strong staff/admin/safety, etc.) and of course commute times, and such. I was at a highly regarded secondary program in a good pyramid and there was never a lack of candidates for English, Math, Science, Social Studies, etc. And I am talking pretty solid candidates. The only time there were hiring delays was if the opening occurred later in the window (near late May or into the summer) and that was an opportunity for a less experienced candidate to get in. It doesn't mean that th teachers shortage is not felt from time to time, but overall, there were just rarely problems staffing positions. With that said, ESOL can be a good way secondary license to have. For example, you have your English cert, and with ESOL you could team teach and ESOL class as well as handle self-contained. I have known gen ed teachers to move into this role. Sped is a wild card. I would NOT recommend it in FCPS (I am very sorry to say). My post is already too long for me to get into the reasons, but I would pursue ESOL over sped in your case any day. Likewise, the less desirable the school/population/staff/admin are, it is going to be easier to get into those schools regardless of certification. On the elementary side, and I am not sure you are interested in that, there is stronger demand pretty much across the grade levels. Less so again in stronger programs with good admin, but the demand is there. Less protected planning time and generally poorer working conditions IMO likely partially at fault. However, there is a teacher shortage right now and there are more elementary schools to go around so there is a higher level of need. |
Anonymous
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I personally know math teachers who were not hired by FCPS last year and had to stay in their current districts rather than be in the one with their kids. We think it’s because they have experience and districts are trying to find teachers with little to no experience now to pay less. How far up are you on the salary scale?
Math is not a guarantee either. |
Anonymous
| FCPS vacancy rate is very low and retention rate is very high. Special Ed is the only need. |
Anonymous
| OP here - I have about 20 years experience, so I'm not a cheap choice. I didn't know that was something the larger counties took into consideration. I'm not willing to teach elementary. I have also heard that sped in FCPS is a nightmare and there are openings only because they can't keep people, but I don't know the specific reasons why. I'd to have to get hired on a provisional for that, though, and I'm not sure how willing the county is to do that. |
Anonymous
I am the PP from yesterday at 07:57. I did not mean to discourage regarding Sped but IMO it is pretty bad. This is NOT to say Gen Ed has it much easier - they are dealing with a lot too, but, the Sped workload is notedly unsustainable to the point that FCPS Sped contracts currently add 30 minutes of time to ease the pain a little. Sped issues are not specific to FCPS as I think most districts experience a good deal of turnover. With that said, I have found that FCPS is heavy on adding to our plate vs taking things away. For example, we learn an IEP procedure, and just months later, they add another step to it or completely revamp it. The initiatives are pushing towards full inclusion for ALL. This is a controversial issue so I won't get into the weeds of it, but think about it. Regarding the workload, I work 10-12 hour days and even with that I must put in a full weekend day to catch up. Lots of anxiety from "did I forget to". Don't worry about the 20 years, I came in with a lot of years (the max they would accept at that time) and no one flinched. It isn't really something I notice as an issue here. I would be more concerned that some hiring teams tend to hire more of the same whether that be by age, race or otherwise. I have experienced that myself and it was highly disappointing. Best wishes. |