How to successfully transition into a teaching career in your 30s?

June 30, 2009 10:43 AM

Due to the economic crisis, the small business I’m a partner in very likely won’t last through the end of the year. After a lot of soul-searching, I’m not sure I want to continue in my current industry and am looking at a possible career change at the age of 35 – becoming a high school English teacher.

Basic information – I’m in California and have a B.A. in English from a state university. What exactly do I need to do to earn a credential to teach at the high school level? More importantly, is it possible to earn a credential while still working full-time (and how would student teaching interfere with this)? Is where you get your credential a big deal or would I be ok going with a school that caters to working people like University of Phoenix or National University? I’m married with 3 kids, so the idea of moving in with my parents or a buddy and living on little income while I go through this transition isn’t really a realistic possibility.

On a similar note, my understanding is your pay scale as a teacher goes up if you have a Masters. Does it make sense to try to earn this at the same time I’m getting my credential? What kind of time frame am I looking at before I can be in front of a classroom?

Also, due to the cost of living and economic conditions, I’m seriously considering leaving California and moving somewhere with a lower cost of living. If I do that do I need to go through the credential process all over again or does one state’s teaching certificate easily transfer to another state? Is there anything I’m not taking into consideration or other questions I should be asking?

Throwaway email is [e-mail]

posted by anonymous to work & money (11 comments total)

I became certified to teach grades 8-12 English in Texas completely online (I Teach Texas is the program's name). I had first secured a teaching job--something you might be able to do even without a certificate--with the simple contractual promise to become certified while I was teaching. The I Teach Texas program treats your teaching job as your "student teaching" that is required by this state. A guy from the program would come sit in my classroom once every few months to make sure I was up to par.

Haven't searched, but perhaps there's something similar in California? If so, start calling high school principals now and asking about the possibility of working for them.

Oh and move to Texas if not.

And for some down-the-road advice, you'll want to teach that first year and not do anything else. You'll need time to adjust to the pace and structure (which, of course, is largely set by you, but also not). The graduate degree can come later and you'll be able to fit it more easily in once you've got your syllabus and lessons already in day-by-day folders in your filing cabinet (though auto-pilot teaching can get boring). Further--viewing graduate education from the instrumentalist perspective of getting more money--a master's degree earns you more pay in many Texas school districts, but it is not sufficiently higher to warrant the time/cost of a graduate degree. Mileage varies.

Good for you! Do it if you love it! You won't make tons of money; who cares? You'll probably see your family more and you'll have summers off. And nothing's better than getting up on a desk and loudly reciting Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon in front of dazed inner-city kids or yelling about how Shakespeare is not gay, you little fascist with your hand up, they just understood friendship differently back then, etc.
posted by resurrexit at 10:59 AM on June 30 [2 favorites has favorites]

Oh, and certifying institutions DO NOT matter, a certificate's a certificate for teaching purposes. Some may be substantively better than others--to me, I Teach Texas was a step above a diploma mill, it was so easy. But it didn't matter: you won't be a noticeably better teacher just because you took this short course over that short course. All that matters is the exact certification you get at the end of your course/program: if you want to teach elementary math, get that one; your 5-8 English certification will be useless for that purpose (and with your education, you're probably only "qualified" in the bureaucratic sense to teach some form of English or maybe one of the "social studies."

And certificates are probably non-transferable between states, but there may be some reciprocity deal I don't know about.
posted by resurrexit at 11:03 AM on June 30

The term for second-career teachers is often "lateral entry." That might be a good place for you to start your research on regulations, etc.

Keep in mind that nearly all teacher certification programs require a semester of student teaching, and that student teaching often leads to the first job offer. Questions about placement will be important to ask of any program. My two cents is that an accredited brick and mortar university has advantages over online programs in this area.

But you know the job market is really, really bad for teachers now, right?
posted by Sweetie Darling at 11:05 AM on June 30

Similarly to what Sweetie Darling mentioned--there are a huge number of school districts in CA currently in hiring freezes (fired lots of teachers at the end of this past school year, too), and some are projected to hire again in 2010 and some are not. Not a great time to be a teacher right now in this state, not at all.
posted by so_gracefully at 11:10 AM on June 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

Having talked to a CA (San Francisco) high school math teacher this past weekend, apparently there are positions open for science or math teachers but in English there is a glut of candidates. Consider certifying to teach Math if possible?
posted by GuyZero at 11:12 AM on June 30

You need to be doing research on the feasibility of finding a teaching job anywhere, and if salary is a concern, how much you'll actually be earning. I'll reiterate what Sweetie Darling said above: the job market for teaching is terrible right now. And for English teachers, even worse. If you want a better shot at teaching, math & science are the way to go.
posted by bibbit at 11:15 AM on June 30

Most states now have alternative licensure programs that allow qualified individuals who already possess a degree in their subject area to go straight to the classroom. Yes, you'll have to take classes to gain your teaching license, but you'll have several years to do it, you won't have to do student teaching, and you can begin drawing a salary right away.

I do not know about California's alternative certification program, but you may be able to find information at the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing site.

You will not want to move from one state to another in the middle of this process because each state's certification program is unique. Once you have your license, however, it will be much easier to move from one state to another. Do a search for "reciprocity agreements" for information on the specific state(s) you have in mind.

Don't worry about a master's program until you have become certified. You will have enough to worry about those first few years.

You don't say whether you have any teaching experience. My advice would be to spend some time as a substitute teacher before committing yourself to this career path.
posted by baho at 11:21 AM on June 30

I taught high school English in CA in a previous career. To teach HS English in CA, you need a BA in English (or a closely related subject), a Secondary Education Teaching Credential, and you need to pass several very low level certification tests. The teaching credential takes about 1-2 years: some of that time is spent taking graduate-level classes in education, the rest as a student teacher and/or classroom observer.

Once upon a time, there were more teaching jobs than there were qualified candidates to fill them, and it was possible to use your degree and business experience to get a waiver for many of the certification requirements. In those times, you could potentially teach under an "emergency" credential while you completed the full certification at a later date. The job market for English teachers has changed, however, and teaching under an emergency credential is no longer an option (practically speaking, as there just aren't openings, and what openings exist will almost certainly be filled by teachers with classroom experience).

Honestly, this is a lousy time time become an English teacher in CA. I wish it were otherwise. Sorry.
posted by mosk at 11:25 AM on June 30

you need to consider this carefully, as mentioned above, English teachers are a dime a dozen. Search the listings locally where you want to work and see how many jobs are offered, and contact some local school districts and talk to the HR person to see what kind of response they get to ads for English teachers.

A master's degree can be a liability, in most cases it puts you in a higher pay bracket...districts do NOT want to pay more than they need to...

whatever your decision.... best of luck... but do your homework first!
posted by HuronBob at 11:37 AM on June 30

I am not too current on this, so you may want to look it up. Most places that I have been want teachers to earn their masters at some point. If you can get this out of the way before you start teaching, that may take a load of stress off your workweek and give you some time with your kids.

You can check for reciprocity on the teaching. To my knowledge, Montana is not reciprocal with any other state on any certifications for any job. You would want to know that before moving there. Also, the only available jobs will probably be in one room school houses that are way the heck out in the middle of no where.

Also, as others have said, this is a crappy time to get a job teaching in CA. There are lots of teachers with lots of experience that you would be competing against for jobs. In my area they laid off teachers with over 4 years of teaching experience. You would even have a hard time working as a substitute teacher as they will pick the laid off teachers for the jobs first.

However, if you have not taught or been in a classroom in a while, seeing if you can substitute teach will give you a good idea of what today's classrooms are like so that you can decide if you really want to do this or not. This would be better to know before you spend a lot of time and money.

wife of 445supermag
posted by 445supermag at 11:59 AM on June 30

Not only, as has been pointed out, are there way more English teachers than English teaching positions, but the state of California is having what might euphemistically be described as a minor budget crisis at the moment. The state is considering laying off thousands of teachers, not hiring them. I don't think anyone seriously believes this situation is going to resolve itself within the next few years either, and things will probably get worse before they get better. Your odds will probably be better in another state.

But don't rule out the private school market. Not only do private schools generally not require state teaching certificates--some actually look at them as a black mark, having more form than substance--but they're largely unaffected by the state's ongoing financial debacle. Look around.
posted by valkyryn at 1:14 PM on June 30