Teacher moving to Texas- Free to choose any city! Any advice on best cities/districts to work in? (Dallas: apartment, credit)

[loves2read]

TGANNAWAY89--where did you teach...the idea that all the "reputable" districts hire on merit and avoid any cosiderations like applicants know principal from church, went to school with superintendent's own daughter, are a daughter in law or son in law of someone on the faculty or school board, are a graduate of the high school or elementary school they are applying for---those things all happen--maybe not all the time but they happen and it is MUCH more difficult to be hired for a job when you are new to district or are from out of state...
yes--there are positive as well as negatives about "everyone knowing your business"

[Premont]

loves2read, it was my dorm in college. I'm aware of the town though.

[case44]

You can get a good teaching job practically anywhere in Texas. I strongly recommend the suburbs of our major metro areas (Houston, Dallas, Austin) because they are growing areas and are always building new campuses.

[loves2read]

case44--where do you teach

[case44]

Originally Posted by loves2read

case44--where do you teach

Whoa, hold on here. I'm not in the teaching profession, but have a couple of friends who do here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. I also browse the Internet quite extensively and read up on things now and then. It's just my recommendation that our suburban school districts throughout Texas are among the best in the nation. They're all livable places and are good places to get settled and they all have great students. It's a big state, so there a lot of great choices.
To answer your question on teaching, uh, sorry, but I don't.

[case44]

I meant, there ARE a lot of great choices. Is there anything specific that you are looking for?

[loves2read]

case44--just thought you probably had not actually looked for a teaching job--TX does have some great districts but getting a job in one is not the easy stoll down the aisle you made it out to be wth your comments--

[FarNorthDallas]

I have relatives that teach and it's not easy to get a job and it helps a lot to have connections of some kind with a school or district - you graduated from the district, you have relatives that work in the district - that's the best way to get an interview and get hired.

I don't think there's really much of a teaching shortage with the exception of bi-lingual. Even someone I know who teaches high school science couldn't get 1st interviews with many districts, but ultimately got hired with a district she had a personal connection with.

[loves2read]

real shortages are in working with the special needs kids which has high burnout rate and next year those kids scores will be counted in with the regular scores for schools--in some districts--like smaller ones--all special needs kids from high achieving to very low are housed in one school bldg for a variety of reasons--those schools are going to get thumped probably for first couple of years--
will be interesting to see how this plays out since the new tests are supposed to be activated in couple of years--everyone's test scores will probably drop (except for few districts who have almost no special needs compared to overall student population)...

[FarNorthDallas]

Yeah, that will be interesting and I will be paying attention. My son was special ed when he was in public, but I had to take him out and put him in private LD school. The cost is extraordinary and I keep wishing I could put him back in public (I've spent $78,000 for this so far).

Before, when he was in public he was exempt from TAKS. I wondered if he would have gotten more help had he been required to take he test and his scores would be counted.