BK-Based Teaching Fellows Feel the Recession

Aug 13, 2009 by Talisa Chang

BK-Based Teaching Fellows Looking for Jobs, Finding Support During the Recession

“Everyone says that teaching is the one recession-proof job. This is supposed to be the one profession where finding a job isn’t a problem because we’re always supposed to need teachers.”

Amidst a recession and hiring freeze, candidates in the New York City Teaching Fellows Program (NYCTF), such as 21-year-old NYU graduate and Bushwick resident Tyler Domino, are finding out that the recession-proof career is hardly that. Domino realized he wanted to go into teaching while working at children’s museums and observing the classrooms that came to visit. His decision was further influenced by the uncertain job market, in which teaching seemed like a safe option.

The NYCTF program was launched in 2000 as a highly selective alternative teaching certification program which provides training and subsidized master’s degrees to people of all ages and backgrounds. The program has produced almost 14,000 teachers, with over 8,800 fellows currently teaching in New York public schools, comprising eleven percent of the of the teaching work force last year. This year there was an influx of applicants, but, anticipating the consequences of the recession, NYCTF will certify only 775 Fellows this year—nine percent of the applicants in comparison to last year’s fifteen percent.

The Fellows are known for their diverse, as opposed to teaching-based backgrounds. Domino studied museum education. Another Fellow and Greenpoint resident, Kimberly Fox, studied art and community activism at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

“A lot of my art lent itself towards community activism and doing work for underrepresented populations, and I’ve always believed that the biggest group that isn’t listened to is children. Children in special education are a group of students that is often neglected. You have to be a teacher but you also have to be an advocate. I’m interested in how to create equality in schools for students that are very often pushed aside.”

Karla Wurzel, another Greenpoint resident and anthropology and Latin American studies major from Connecticut college, realized her passion for teaching while studying education and social change in Chile.

In April, most of the Fellows this year were notified of their acceptance to the program, which begins in June. In May they were notified by NYCTF of an across the board hiring freeze, which prevents schools from hiring any teachers who aren’t already in the school system—including recent teaching graduates, Fellows, and Teach for America candidates. In July, some of the freezes began to be lifted, starting with District 75, which serves the most disabled students, then later science teachers, and as of July 29, all special education teachers except in Districts 19 and 23.

“In my own mentality, a lot changed when they lifted the freeze,” Miriam Krent, a 22-year-old psychology major from Wesleyan said. “We were at a job fair when we found out it was being lifted. It was like ‘oh, this is actually possible now.’ It’s still difficult to not have a job and be looking for one, but at least we know that something might work out.”

Krent was attracted to the NYCTF program because it allowed for someone like herself, without a pre-professional focus in teaching, to go into education. She had been interested in special education from early on in obtaining her psychology degree, and held jobs in the special education field during college.

This lift is great news for many Fellows, as approximately 400 of them were accepted as special education candidates. Still, the job search has been bleak, as principals are torn between hiring Fellows and teachers already in the system, whose salaries will have to be paid by the Department of Education whether they find positions or not.

“I understand monetarily where they are coming from. I understand why schools wouldn’t want to hire me because I’m new or because it means another salary over one that’s already being paid,” Krent said. “But I personally want a job—that’s why I’m becoming a teacher. I want to teach.”

Since the freeze was lifted, some Fellows, like Domino and Wurzel, have been able to find special education teaching jobs in Brooklyn. Others continue to look, and have been met with a variety of responses from principals, some of whom will meet with them but cannot offer them a job, others who largely ignore their inquiries. Many fellows have been to schools where secretaries have been instructed not to accept their resumes, or where personnel are unaware of the lift.

“The fellows have a certain reputation that principals appreciate,” Fox said. “They tell us that what we have going for us is our gusto compared to teachers who have been doing it for a lot longer. We come with a certain freshness that they appreciate. Or, they may take it as naivety or ill-experience. I’ve had principals tell me both.”

Like many unemployed recent graduates, the Fellows are coping with the reality of the recession and the shrinking job market, even in the once-thought-safe teaching field. In fact, some Fellows have quietly started searching for jobs outside of teaching. Still, with a few more weeks of summer left, they try to remain hopeful, and are finding a lot of support, both from the NYCTF program and from their peers.

“Today I’m feeling optimistic,” Fox said. “There are highs and lows. If you have an interview coming up you feel really good and if you have nothing it can feel fruitless. There are so many of us applying for the same job that it can be nerve-wracking. It can become exhausting when there’s little to no positive reinforcement from principals. When you’re constantly told we have no openings it becomes exhausting.”

Even with the intense struggle for jobs, Fellows like Domino, Krent, Fox, and Wurzel, who are all in the same class at Long Island University, have found camaraderie more than competition. Many Fellows keep in touch outside of the classroom, talking about teaching but also enjoying each other’s company, like at the game night Fox hosted at her Greenpoint apartment Tuesday.

“When other people started getting jobs I was really jealous,” Domino said after the freeze had lifted. “The last month and half was a rollercoaster for all of us. But we were such great friends and we were able to talk about it. I think if I was dealing with the hiring freeze without that group of people it would have been a lot harder.”

“In the last few days of training everyone in our class was getting calls,” Wurzel said. “The overall environment, considering we’re all technically competing for jobs, was amazing. Everyone is just mutually excited for each other. There were tears, there were smiles, there were hugs. When I was considering the position I took I sent out an email to other Fellows to get advice. Everyone is really rooting for each other.”