Word: filipino
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...find them, Baltimore and other school districts--in California, Florida and New York--have begun looking abroad for teachers to do the jobs they can't get enough locals to take on. After watching a presentation, at an education conference, on Filipino teachers working in other U.S. school districts, George Duque, human-resources manager for the Baltimore public schools, decided to give that approach a try. "We've always had difficulty getting teachers in math, science and special education," he says. "We would go on recruiting trips, and we could count on one hand the number of available teachers...
...encouraged by the success others had experienced with foreign teachers. New York City has recruited teachers from such countries as Austria, Canada and Spain for years. Three years ago, it began recruiting in the Philippines. Administrators in the city say only 10% of those recruits have left and 530 Filipino teachers are currently working in the city's schools. So last fall Duque took an 18-hour flight to Manila, courtesy of Avenida International Consultants (AIC), an agency that specializes in connecting U.S. schools with Filipino teachers. AIC put him up in a five-star hotel for five days...
...with most immigrant workers, the financial incentive looms large for Filipino teachers who opt for the U.S. According to Ligaya Avenida, AIC's founder, a Filipino teacher earns from $9,000 to $12,000 a year. In Baltimore the average Filipino recruit makes $45,000 a year. Many Filipino teachers seeking to practice their craft in the U.S. shell out as much as $10,000 to recruiting agencies like AIC to secure interviews with American administrators and receive help with visas and other immigration documents. With some agencies, however, the teachers don't always get what they...
...Still, Filipino teachers continue to clamor for positions in the U.S., and they're attractive candidates: they're highly educated--many have advanced degrees--they have tons of classroom experience and most are fluent in English. "We mainly had to make sure their English was intelligible to our kids," says Duque. "So I'd ask them about their favorite movie or their favorite actor. I tried to give them questions they didn't expect." In the end, Duque hired 109 new teachers...
After putting them at ease with softball questions about what inspired them to teach and how they responded to challenges, she asked them how classes in Baltimore compared with ones the teachers had had in the Philippines. Franklin, like most of Baltimore's students, is black, and the Filipino teachers were hesitant to respond at first, fearing they might offend her. "Back home it's so different. It's all obedience and respect," said one. "Here the students are, um, very direct, very bold." Franklin nodded but pushed for more. "Please don't be polite," she urged. Shyly at first...