Teaching situation in Kansas? (Wichita, Kansas City: fit in, job market, school districts)

[EAS2009]

Forgive me if this thread topic has come up before, but I have a slow internet connection and cannot make it all the way through the pages on this forum! If you know of a similar thread topic and would like to post the link to that one, that would be great too!

Here's the story...My fiance JUST received his teaching certification in secondary education (history, social studies, political science) and now we're job hunting! We've noticed a lot of recent activity by school districts in Kansas, so naturally we've become more curious about the school districts and the state in general. We're from Michigan (the Metro-Detroit area) and the teaching prospects aren't great. We have such a surplus of teachers here due to our many teaching colleges the market is just over-saturated. Plus, so many people are leaving the state, and taking their children with them, vacant teaching positions are few and far between. Teacher lay-offs and buy-outs are happening all the time!

We noticed that many Kansas school districts will be attending the education job fair week here, and many job postings on education websites are from Kansas. We're just really curious about what it is like there, and if there is some kind of teacher shortage, or if the postings are just from really horrible districts. Any information and insight you can give would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by EAS2009

We're just really curious about what it is like there, and if there is some kind of teacher shortage, or if the postings are just from really horrible districts. Any information and insight you can give would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

What it's like: Could be anything from inner city Wichita to suburban Johnson County. Could also be some of the smaller more rural districts. Could be shortages, could be really crappy districts, we have both in Kansas.

Can you name some of the districts that are looking? Then we could comment on the areas specifically.

[quesera]

Everything I've read about the job market, specifically shortages, has said that nursing positions and teaching positions are in demand all over the state. Some districts are recruiting from out of the country to fill teaching positions.

[Modron]

I've heard Wichita has a hiring freeze. I've also heard of a smaller district cutting teachers and increasing class sizes. Other district will be hiring to replace teachers who retire or leave. But, i haven't hears anyplace that's increasing staff size without an increase in student enrollment.

[athfo]

Originally Posted by Modron

I've heard Wichita has a hiring freeze. I've also heard of a smaller district cutting teachers and increasing class sizes. Other district will be hiring to replace teachers who retire or leave. But, i haven't hears anyplace that's increasing staff size without an increase in student enrollment.

Small classes still a priority despite cuts | Local | Wichita Eagle (http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/760353.html - broken link)

[quesera]

Wow, you know what? I was looking for the articles I read. I found them, but they're over a year old. I didn't realize it had been so long. I still think you can find a teaching job in Kansas if you want one. You just have to find the right district.

[Modron]

Originally Posted by athfo

Small classes still a priority despite cuts | Local | Wichita Eagle (http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/760353.html - broken link)

"It's important to keep class size down, but the board might need to revisit what the optimum number of students is, especially once bond projects are completed, Walker said."

I think Walker as a candidate didn't understand there really isn't "revisiting what the optimum number of students" in a class is. That research has been done: student success is better with smaller classes. What Walker had to be suggesting was that the district will be revisiting the optimal number of students according to the budget, not according to student success. Walker wasn't campaigning from a very strong awareness of best practices in education. (She didn't win did she? I thought Dietz won.)

The small district in the area that's looking at reducing their staff to one teacher per grade level, I think K-8, will wind up with classes of about 40 students. That's really unfortunate when class size is the biggest factor in student success.

[thriftylefty]

It seems like there are alot of openings in western Kansas especially fine arts, and Languages, special ed., This is probally the most desolate area of Kansas. but western kansas is close to Denver Co. and Albuquerque
try this link if you don't have it already,KEEB - Search Job Postions and Postings (http://www.kansasteachingjobs.com/search_postings.cfm?sortby=JobPostedDate&dir=DESC& SearchPositions=true&startrow=21&category=15&regio n=0&StartMonth=0&startday=0&startyear=0&keyword=&E ndMonth=0&Endday=0&Endyear=0 - broken link)

[cp1969]

Originally Posted by Modron

That's really unfortunate when class size is the biggest factor in student success.

I think that is a myth.

My opinion is that the emphasis on smaller class sizes driven more by the teachers' union in an effort to provide more jobs for teachers than it is by student test results. If you think about it, in a class size of 60, the most attention a student could hope to get would average less than a minute per class. In a class of 20, you get three minutes. Some people will say "That's triple the amount of attention!" but in actuality either amount is inconsequential. However, in one case you have three teachers on the payroll; the other, one.

During my elementary education, my average class size was 65. In high school, I would guess it was 30 or 40. In college, some lectures had hundreds of students. My kids' class sizes have always been closer to 20. When I compare my education to my kids' and other young people, I feel like I got the better end of the deal. There have been so many times that my probing questions about geography, literature, math, history, and government have been met with vacant stares that I've lost count.

Most of these would have been answerable by me by the time I completed the 8th grade and I was nowhere near the top of my class, nor did I make any particular effort to learn. Yet these topics seem to have gone unlearned, if not untaught, in the modern classroom.

But the notion of increasing classroom size is a moot point, at least in my town. In both of our recently built schools, the classrooms themselves are so small that no additional desks could fit in the room.

[EAS2009]

Ok, here are some opening's I've found in Kansas:

Cedar Vale
Wamego
Silver Lake
Kansas City
Wichita
Salina