Wanted: Educators Seeking to Relocate
Supply and demand are critical factors in any industry, including education. Those seeking a teaching career should note that educator supply and demand closely follows the rise and fall of the economy. More specifically:
- Schools compete fiercely for teachers when the economy is booming.
- When the economy is bearish, however, candidates may compete against one another for the same teaching career.
The education business becomes even more demanding when districts can hire every graduate in their home state who seeks a teaching career, and still not hire adequate numbers to fill all open positions.
To overcome these challenges, districts are looking for new and experienced candidates willing to relocate their teaching careers to a new state. Some districts travel the nation in search of highly qualified candidates. For those willing to take their teaching career out of state - opportunities abound.
Nevada's Clark County School District (Las Vegas), for example, attends 40+ job fairs and college events annually in search of teaching career candidates, while nearly one third of Georgia's new teachers (13,084) in 2001-2002 came from other states.
Traveling to find "needles in haystacks," however, is expensive. Districts realize they need magnets to pull the strongest "needles" from the stack. Some use online systems such as Teachers Support Network to glean these teaching career candidates and make initial contact with out of state prospects.
Bottom line, for candidates willing to relocate, the perfect teaching career could be across state lines.
Source: Maxson, Robert W. "Wanted: Educators Seeking to Relocate." AAEE Job Search Handbook, 2004.
