Teacher applicants swamp DOE with phone inquiries

By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer

The Department of Education staff was deluged with phone calls and a steady stream of applications yesterday after schools chief Paul LeMahieu issued a call for recruits to ease the state's teacher shortage.

•	Prospective instructors can call the Department of Education at 586-3420 or download an application form from teachhawaii.k12.hi.us.

He even published his secretary's phone number for applicants to call.

By midday yesterday, the department had received more than 600 calls, and they kept coming in.

"Delighted" was LeMahieu's reaction to the flood of interest.

Exhausted was how his staff felt after dealing with the rush of calls while the air conditioning broke down in the department's Queen Lili'uokalani headquarters.

Staff members were posted for one-hour shifts at the front desk and on the phone lines. They screened applicants, answered questions and directed callers to the application form available on the Web. At day's end, the staff had a stack of application forms already filled out.

"If even one in four pan out, then 150 to 200 is a big chunk of that problem," LeMahieu said.

Hawai'i is struggling to increase its teacher count during a nationwide shortage when many states are offering generous bonuses and rewards to attract recruits.

Adding to the pressure, the department risks a takeover by the federal court if it cannot substantially increase its licensed special-education teachers by November.

The Hawai'i State Teachers Association has suggested that the continuing dispute over the teachers' contract is partly to blame for this year's many vacancies. And bureaucracy and red tape within the DOE are hamstringing hiring procedures and prompting teachers to retire or leave in frustration, according to HSTA Executive Director Joan Husted.

"They have to get into a more systemic way of fixing the problem," Husted said, citing statistics that show that only one in five of Mainland recruits is still teaching in Hawai'i after three years. "That's a horrendous turnover."

Many believe that hiring people with a bachelor's degree but no teacher training is a stopgap measure, at best.

"Obviously you'd only do it in an emergency situation because they don't have pedagogical training," said Linda Johnsrud, associate dean at the University of Hawai'i College of Education. "There are those who argue that content knowledge is sufficient, and there may be the rare individual who can take that content and has some intuitive notion of how to teach, but I know that we're fairly assured that you're much better off if you've gone through a preparation program."

Hiring staff without teacher training is not new for the department — there were a little more than 400 "instructors" in Hawai'i schools last year — but it does raise concerns about how prepared they are for the classroom and how they will cope with the DOE's reforms to improve standards.

"Parents want their kids taught by people who are trained," Husted said. "It's like having a medic handle your medical problems instead of a physician. It's better than bleeding to death, but it's not the best medical care."

LeMahieu agreed it's "not a perfect situation" but said the department is organizing courses and support systems to help the recruits. The staff is looking at how to streamline the application and hiring process to avoid delays, he said, and a more efficient computer system is in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen said prospective recruits "need to realize where the shortages are," which is Leeward O'ahu and the Neighbor Islands. The department also is specifically looking for teachers in special education, secondary math and science and industrial arts. It also needs librarians and counselors.

"We really are not just opening the doors to anyone with a bachelor's degree. It definitely needs to be someone who has a strong interest and desire to become a qualified, trained teacher," he said. "There are provisions for hiring someone before they're fully teacher-certified, but they must be in the process of going through teacher training and they are on a probationary status."

Instructors have three years to complete their training and earn certification — but that will increase to four years in 2002, Husted said. Instructors earn $25,436 a year compared to the $29,204 starting pay for trained teachers.

You can reach Alice Keesing at akeesing@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.