AZ teacher shortage: Volunteers sought

Arizona's teacher shortage is forcing the state to look at more creative ways to put specialized people into classrooms. So, it's taking a cue from universities and allowing adjunct instructors to complement high-school teaching ranks.

Beginning this fall, working engineers and scientists will sign on as adjunct teachers in a new pilot program. These professionals can teach one class of calculus or algebra daily after 36 hours of teacher training and a background check. Unlike adjunct instructors in universities, professionals teaching in high schools will not get paid.

The state calls the new volunteer program the "Adjunct Teachers Initiative."

Arizona's teachers union calls it insulting.

"What I see coming from the adjunct teaching proposal is that teaching isn't really more than some kind of community service that you do when you're feeling generous," said Andrew Morrill, vice president of the Arizona Education Association.

But Intel engineer Julie Rumer, 33, is excited about teaching kids how math and science are used to power their cellphones and make their computers faster.

"I could certainly see more than a handful of us that could find the time and have the interest to get involved in something like this," said Rumer, one of four engineers who volunteered for the initiative.

Although the program is an opportunity for Rumer, it also indicates the depth of the state's teacher shortage.

Qualified teaching candidates are hard to come by. Many principals are forced to fill classrooms with emergency teachers, especially in math and science. Fueling the shortage are fewer school resources, large class sizes and inadequate teacher pay.

Arizona teachers average $42,967 a year, about $4,800 less than the national average, according to Education Week's "Quality Counts 2008" report, a state-by-state assessment of public education.

'Instant teachers'

In response to the shortage, state education officials started creating shortcuts for people who already had a bachelor's degree and wanted to teach. By 2004, colleges were compressing two years of traditional teacher preparation into 10 months. A year later, the state began allowing teachers to take full-time jobs after a six-week summer course. Educators called them "instant teachers."

This year, the shortage deepened when the State Board of Education increased the number of math and science courses high-school students must take to graduate.

Arizona Education Association officials understand the pressures created by the teacher shortage, Morrill said. But he doesn't think the adjunct program is the answer.

"Tell me another profession where you increase the number in the profession by whittling away from the qualifications to be in the profession," Morrill said. "In any other profession, you improve compensation, you improve working conditions, you make the field more attractive."

Business leaders supported the increase in math and science courses and now need to help solve the problem of finding people to teach the courses, state schools Superintendent Tom Horne said. It only makes sense to encourage businesses to release their full-time employees, who have a great depth of knowledge in science and math, 10 to 15 hours a week to become adjunct teachers, Horne said. "To their great credit, they're stepping up to help us with the teacher shortage," he said.

Adjunct teachers will spend their first semester with a licensed teacher, but Horne expects them to be ready to take over a daily class on their own as early as the middle of next school year.

Time is an issue

Despite Horne's optimism, business response to the program has been more spirit than substance. The issue is time. State officials are piloting the program cautiously, knowing it has been tried in a few states without much success. Some programs recruited too many adjunct instructors and failed to train them to manage a classroom of teenagers or to create lesson plans that work, state officials said.

Arizona is recruiting eight volunteer engineers willing to teach one section of algebra, physics or calculus in a local high school one hour a day. So far, only Intel has committed four engineers, or two pairs, ready for an initial year of teaching math at Chandler High School and engineering at Chandler's Hamilton High.

Rumer and her colleague will teach alongside a trained math teacher. The engineers will examine the curriculum, then create and present lessons on how the theory is applied in practical ways to produce the products kids buy.

But no one is willing to say just when adjunct teachers would be ready or willing to take full charge of a class of 30 kids, prepare and present lesson plans and grade papers.

Cox Communications and Texas Instruments in Tucson are still trying to find a way to help their engineers squeeze in the time to participate.

"It's not very practical for most employees," said Paul Prazak, a community-relations director for Texas Instruments. Prazak has no solution but is beginning to think about selling the program to engineers ready to retire.