New recruiting practices will be in place once school officials begin hiring for teaching jobs in Pennsylvania.

As Allentown School District prepares for the start of another challenging school year, identified as Corrective Action II for the second year in a row, principals, academic officers and administrators have been working with new superintendent, Gerald L. Zahorchak, D.Ed., to significantly change the recruiting and hiring practices for a more objective, efficient and optimal selection process.

“There is a new three-part process for recruitment being developed,” says Dr. Zahorchak, “and it is designed to attract the brightest teacher prospects in a systematic manner that will create an inventory of qualified candidates. It is our intention to find the top seven candidates for every one opening, leaving no stone unturned in the process.”

Over the past few weeks, Allentown School District has been planning tenaciously, strategically identifying the ways to meet the human resource needs of the institution without major reductions to the work force, in response to the need to make up for over a $2 million budget shortfall. The District has not lost any positions while planning for this upcoming school year. “We are continuing to build resource models out five years with scenarios that reveal our vulnerabilities so that we can plan for them,” says Zahorchak. “We cannot afford to go backwards, especially since our district, according to the costing out study, still has miles to go to achieve adequate funding.”

The goal of the new recruiting program is to collect an inventory of qualified teachers in order to call them up as opportunities arise. “The Allentown School District Board of Directors has authorized me to put in the necessary upgrades and build a responsive system so that top-flight instruction is provided on a more consistent basis,” he says.

“Increasing the effectiveness of our recruiting process will enable us to put more talented teachers in our classrooms,” says Jeff Glazier, president, ASD Board of Directors. “It is an important step in increasing student achievement.”

“When looking at the educational success of children, there are few factors more critical than that of a highly effective, competent teacher,” says Sheridan Elementary Principal Michele Ryan, whose school has moved from 42/35% mathematics/reading proficiency in 2005 to 85/66% mathematics/reading proficiency in 2009. “Truly, teaching matters and makes a difference in the lives of our students. This process will provide our district the opportunity to place before our children, ‘the best of the best.’ The students in the Allentown School District deserve nothing less than excellence.”

An active recruitment process will support the selection process to attract more qualified minority candidates in order to generate a larger pool of diverse educational professionals who are certified. Such efforts require a district such as Allentown to reach outside the region, and this may include major metropolitan areas and stretch perhaps to distant states. Additionally, there are new residency certification programs pending that will create more flexible hiring practices of professionals who have had successful careers and want to enter into the public education field. Allentown School District is an advocate for these vast resource opportunities at the teaching level.

A new initiative could help create a slew of PA teaching jobs in important fields.

Gov. Edward G. Rendell recently announced a proposal to increase student achievement, address teacher shortages and prepare the state’s future workforce for high-demand fields. The proposal would allow skilled professionals in the science, technology, engineering and math fields to share their expertise.

The proposal would institute residency teaching certificates to attract mid-career professionals to teaching positions. The proposal is a response to President Barack Obama’s call for “innovative work” at the state level to promote math and science education. Pennsylvania also is one of only six states that received a National Governors Association grant to establish a STEM Center.

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A new program will help create new Pennsylvania teaching jobs.

The Keystone Innovation Starter Kit program will invest $2.5 million to help local economies, provide economic growth and cement the state’s reputation as a world-class leader in faculty recruitment and advanced technology.

Specifically, the program will allow 18 colleges, universities, academic medical institutions and research institutions across the state to recruit top faculty researchers in advanced knowledge areas.

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Those with Maryland education jobs recently received some great news.

Education Week’s 2009 Quality Counts annual report ranked Maryland as having the best public school system in the country out of all 50 states, an increase from the state’s third-place position last year. The report takes into account: chance for success; transitions and alignment; school finance; K-12 achievement; standards, assessments, and accountability and the teaching profession.

Maryland ranked number one in transitions and alignment policies, which measures a state’s ability to connect the K-12 education system with early learning, higher education and the workforce. The state earned a grade of 100 for early-childhood education, a grade of 90 for college readiness and a grade of 100 for the economy and the workforce.

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Three main industries are expected to be responsible for adding the most jobs in Pennsylvania in the coming years.

The education and health services, professional and business services and leisure and hospitality industries are expected to account for 90 percent of Pennsylvania’s annual employment growth through 2014, according to an article by Center for Workforce Information and Analysis.

“These sectors reflect the dynamics of an aging population‘s need for more health care, the gradual transition of the Baby Boom generation out of the workforce and into an active retirement, and the continued transformation of the state’s economy from a goods producer to a service producer,” the article notes.

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With a shortage of teachers, the state is looking for people to fill Maryland education jobs.

Maryland has a yearly average shortage of 6,000 teachers. The state’s education and health services industry employed 383,900 in July 2008, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, an increase of 2.8 percent from last year.

Possible careers in the education industry include:

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With the state’s educational system being one of the best in the country, job seekers should take note that Virginia teaching jobs are on the rise.

According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, 428,500 people were employed in Virginia’s education and health services industry in June 2008, a 2.5 percent increase over the previous year.

The Virginia Workforce Connection notes 314,945 people were employed in the educational services industry in 2004, and that number is expected to grow to 375,059 by 2014, a 19.1 percent increase.

While public schools are run by the cities and counties and not the state, all schools must adhere to educational standards set by the Virginia Department of Education, which maintains a program known as the Standards of Learning. There are 1,863 schools in the state, as well as 104 alternative and special education centers in 134 school divisions. Aside from public schools, Virginia is home to Governor’s Schools, magnet schools and the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

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