Good Teachers Rate ‘Perks’ in National Hiring Drives

WASHINGTON â€”  Teacher recruitment is big business and getting bigger. Like headhunters for Fortune 500 companies, recruiters for the nation’s 16,000 public school systems spend millions of dollars each year to attract new blood.

As competition for the best and the brightest intensifies, these recruiters increasingly are using “little gimmicks,� ranging from a month’s rent to free tote bags, Washington apples and Florida oranges--even summer jobs. In some cases, the community’s businesses foot the bill.

A major player joined this sweepstakes Tuesday, when C. Emily Feistritzer, director of the Washington-based National Center for Education Information, gave details on the first nationwide, computerized clearinghouse that will--for a fee--link school districts with teachers looking for jobs.

Taken together, the developments mark a significant shift in efforts to improve education, as businesses across the country become more directly involved in the push for excellence. “The nation needs high-quality teachers,� Feistritzer said. “They’re out there, and we’ll be able to get them.�

‘The No. 1 Question’

The motive for business participation is not entirely altruistic; good teachers make good schools, and, as one Maryland executive pointed out, “education is the No. 1 question� employees ask when they are thinking about relocating.

John W. Chandler, president of the Assn. of American Colleges, said that it is “encouraging to see the business community respond.� He added that, ultimately, businesses benefit because good schools turn out quality workers.

The need for teachers, school officials say, is most pressing in the foreign languages, sciences, special education and mathematics.

“Over the next decade, American school systems will need to hire well over a million new teachers to fill vacancies that will be produced by increasing enrollments, retirements and other turnover,� a 102-page report from the Rand Corp., released two weeks ago, said. “Most of the teachers who will be teaching in American classrooms in 1995 have not yet been hired.�

To meet the demand, the Rand study found that schools must “revise their selection and hiring procedures.�

Offers and Advertising

New ground already is being broken. At college job fairs, recruiters for coastal towns show slides of the sand and surf. Some court prospects with offers of gifts such as fresh fruit. Others try to get them to sign contracts on the spot. Then there are newspaper, television and radio advertisements.

First prize for innovation surely belongs to Prince George’s County, Md., which offers prospective teachers a package of incentives that adds up to the best attraction of all: money.

A month’s rent, discount loan rates and restaurant meals, waivers on credit card fees, free checking and legal services all helped to attract a record number of applicants to the Washington, D.C., surburb last year. There were 4,000 candidates for 400 jobs, said Supt. John A. Murphy.

The county’s Chamber of Commerce organized the effort, and 1,400 members donated their services. James W. Hubbard, chamber executive vice president, explained that the incentives are “little gimmicks you’d use in the business world.�

Meanwhile, the American Can Co. Foundation has awarded a $114,000 grant to the American Federation of Teachers for establishment of six placement centers around the nation. One is to be in San Francisco.

Low Turnover Rate

Of course, not all school systems need to recruit as aggressively as Prince George’s County. Small systems generally have far fewer problems than large ones. In East Syracuse, N.Y., for example, Fritz Hess, the superintendent, said that low turnover eliminates much of the need for recruiting.

On the other hand, Michael P. Acosta, director of recruitment for the Los Angeles Unified School System, said the system hired 2,400 teachers in each of the last two years, and spends $100,000 a year on the effort. Yet, he said, the schools cannot get enough bilingual, science, math and special-education teachers.

Bilingual teachers are at such a premium that Los Angeles pays them an extra $2,000 a year for joining the system, but the city is not about to rival Prince George’s County in the perquisites department, Acosta said.

St. Louis spends $22,000 a year on recruiting the old-fashioned way, mostly through advertisements and visiting college campuses. Recruiting costs are rising, said Kenneth E. Pilot, a St. Louis school board official, adding: “Down the road, we’re going to have some problems.�

Feistritzer, with her computerized service, hopes to capitalize on such situations by offering needy school systems help at rates much lower than what they now spend.

Hassles of Teaching

No matter how the new teachers are recruited, keeping them is another problem.

Although salaries have improved, many young people refuse to put up with the hassles of today’s classroom--rowdy students, excessive paper work and lack of instructional autonomy.

At the U.S. Education Department, C. Ronald Kimberling, assistant secretary for postsecondary education, called the profession “overstructured,� and suggested that giving teachers “class-based management� might help to slow turnover.