Growing Ranks of Encore Teachers Give Schools a Boost

Posted 05/13/2009 - 4:44pm by Terry Nagel

http://www.encore.org/news/prepare/teacher-trainings-hit-bo


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The EnCorps Teachers initiative expects to place more than 150 new math and science teachers in California classrooms during the 2009-10 school year. EnCorps has received more than 1,000 inquiries in the past three months.

“We are targeting boomers and retirees,” says Jennifer Anastasoff, CEO of EnCorps, which was launched in 2007 by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sherry Lansing, former chair of Paramount Pictures. “There are programs like Teach for America for new graduates, The New Teacher Project for midcareer folks, and alternative certification programs bubbling up around the country, but nothing that brings it all together for retirees the way that EnCorps strives to.”

EnCorps is hosting an open house in Los Angeles on June 5. Anastasoff says would-be teachers can start as volunteers to refamiliarize themselves with the classroom, try substitute teaching or jump right into the program, which can fast-track them into the classroom in six to nine months.

Another route into the classroom is the nonprofit Citizen Schools, which places “Citizen Teachers” in 10-week apprenticeships in public middle-school classrooms. It serves 4,400 youths at 44 sites in seven states with 3,500 volunteers, 120 paid fellows and 230 paid team leaders.

The organization is seeing twice as much interest in its paid positions this year, compared to last year, says Emily McCann, president of the organization. Many of the candidates are career-switchers seeking to transition from the corporate world, she says. “And we’re just starting to recruit for next year, so we’ll probably get a lot more.” It didn’t hurt when the White House cited Citizen Schools as an example of “innovative, promising ideas that are transforming communities.”

Teaching, as well as working with children and youth, were near the top of the list of most desired encore careers in last year’s MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Encore Career Survey. Another survey, Teaching as a Second Career, found that 42 percent of college-educated Americans aged 24 to 60 would consider becoming a teacher..."