Web Site Strives to Attract Teachers

People with varied educational and professional backgrounds can get information about becoming a teacher from the new Web site, http://www.teach4nc.org, which provides step-by-step information for interested individuals.

The site targets people with N.C. teaching certificates, teachers with certificates from other states and countries, college students majoring in education, professionals who want a career change, retirees and military professionals.

"Anybody, anywhere, from any background can go to one place and find out how to get teaching certification and how to get a job much more easily," said NCBCE Executive Director Joel Harper.

The site, which was made public Wednesday by Gov. Mike Easley, is only one part of a three-part plan to draw more teachers to the state. The plan also includes a public relations campaign and a mentoring program.

Over the next eight months the campaign will use the media, including radio ads, to inform people about the teaching field. The ads specifically will target the unemployed and early retirees.

The mentoring program is the only part of the plan that has not been clearly developed, Harper said. But he added that the program would improve the quality of new teachers by employing veteran teachers as mentors.

Harper said the first step in the campaign was creating the Web site and that NCBCE took the step in response to the state government's request that they do so in order to combat the severe teacher shortage in the state.

North Carolina needs to hire 10,000 teachers a year to eliminate the deficiency, he said. "The worst case is that the school year starts with kids in classrooms and no teachers."

The state, desperate for teachers, has begun issuing temporary teaching licenses, Harper said.

But he added that this situation is far from ideal and that new legislation supported by President Bush would make the practice illegal.

Harper stressed that though there is a teacher shortage in North Carolina, there is no shortage of people who are qualified to teach.

"There are 50,000 people in North Carolina with college degrees that applied for unemployment," he said.

The Web site specifically targets the unemployed and retirees, said Marcy Holland, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

Holland said the teacher shortage is exacerbated by attrition within the teaching force, increased enrollment of students in schools and an increased state population.

But she said the biggest impediment to potential teachers is a lack of information about how to go about becoming an educator.

Holland said the Web site helps by "(providing) one stop for individuals interested in teaching who (otherwise) wouldn't have that information."

The Web site also provides contact information for schools in need of teachers, which aids both schools and unemployed teachers.

"The online teacher application is going to allow school systems to post vacancies with the click of a button," Holland said.

But because the site has been public for less than a week, Harper said there is not enough data available to determine whether it has been effective.

Holland said preliminary response to the site is encouraging.

"I think it has been very helpful," she said. "We have e-mails from people who are excited about the fact that it is there."

Rose Rhodes, a licensure specialist at Tyrell County schools, said she thinks the Web site is helpful to both school systems and to the unemployed.

"We get requests from people looking to change careers," she said. "I recommend it myself. They can see what positions we have available. I have recommended it to a lot of people."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.