Going the extra miles for teachers

Monday, July 9, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

Since 2005 the Clark County School District has spent more than $37,000 to recruit 120 teachers from Canada, Spain, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Some of the recruiting efforts came at bargain - basement prices. Others had high-end price tags.

Thanks to the Spanish government picking up most of the tab for a visit to Madrid, the district spent just 31 cents for each of the 16 Spanish teachers hired in March 2006. A trip to Puerto Rico later that spring cost the district more than $4,000 for each of the two teachers hired in San Juan.

A May 2005 recruiting trip to Vancouver was a relative bargain. The district spent $1,363.58 sending an administrator on the four-day trip to Canada - including $534 on airfare, $645 at the Holiday Inn and a $27 per diem for meals. That worked out to $227.26 for each of the six teachers hired. A career and technical education coordinator's trip to Edmonton, Alberta, in July 2006 was far less successful. He spent four days at a job fair in the Canadian province and scored one interview. The individual was not hired. The cost for nothing: $4,158.

"There's really no way of knowing in advance how many people will show up or even be interested in working for us," said Emily Aguero, director of teacher recruiting for the school district.

As of last week Clark County had nearly 800 teacher vacancies, a figure that could grow as the summer progresses and more teachers decide to retire or quit.

Each year, faced with about 3,000 vacancies , Clark County recruiters make dozens of trips in the continental United States.

The recruiters are typically central office administrators and principals who volunteer for the job.

In January, two recruiters spent three days in Cleveland, interviewing 36 candidates at a cost of $2,210. By last week eight of those teachers had accepted offers, putting the district's cost per-hire at just over $276.

The value of international teacher recruiting can be difficult to quantify. The teachers' visas allow them to work for the district for up to three years, after which they must return home. But while they are here, the teachers fill gaps in high-need areas such as math and special education.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said.

Other school districts have undertaken international teacher recruiting trips, but none on the scale of Clark County's recent excursions. In Palm Beach, Fla., the fast-growing district recruited 35 teachers from Spain and 45 from the Philippines between 1999 and 2006. Another trip to Spain is planned for this year.

When recruiters strike out, as with last year's trip to Edmonton, the site is scratched from the list. And when large numbers of qualified candidates turn out in cities like Buffalo or Detroit, additional visits are quickly scheduled.

In 2005 the district hired 48 teachers from the Philippines. Nearly all of the more than $10,000 in expenses was reimbursed by the consulting firm that arranged the trip, leaving the district with a tab of just $41.02 per hire.

Of the 120 teachers recruited outside the continental United States, 25 - including five from the Philippines - have left, either voluntarily or because their contracts were not renewed by the district. That's a better retention rate than was predicted, Rulffes said.

Some of the Filipino teachers struggled with classroom management issues, Rulffes said. American students are less deferential to their teachers than their counterparts in the Philippines, Rulffes said.

"We had to provide a lot of support and extra training to help those teachers deal with the cultural difference," Rulffes said.

There were also complaints from some students that they were having difficulty understanding their teachers because of their heavily accented English.

Rulffes said he supports international teacher recruiting, and thinks there is academic value to a cultural exchange. At the same time, there must be a cost-benefit ratio, Rulffes said.

"If there's any potential of getting teachers stateside - U.S. citizens - that's our preference," Rulffes said. "In the absence of that, and with a critical teacher shortage, we have to reach out beyond our borders."