Teacher looking to move! (Chicago, Raleigh: house, transfer to, to buy)

[kmreichelt]

Hi there,

I am a high school Science teacher and am currently living in Raleigh, North Carolina. I am 24 years old and now is the time for me to move if I want to get out of NC before getting too attached here. NC is the 46th worst paid state and it does not seem to be getting much better! That said, I am looking for a new city. I have done some research and Chicago seems pretty amazing! I have visited and plan on going again in a couple weeks. If I leave NC, I definitely want to live in a city. Does anybody have any idea how teaching is up there? I know Chicago has some pretty rough schools but I would be open to living in the city and commuting out to the suburbs.

Help! Please!

[eevee]

You heard about that strike last year, right? I have ZERO inside knowledge on this matter, but I would think that, w/ the number of schools they shuttered this year and the number of teachers fired, there is no real demand for more teachers, especially a relatively inexperienced one. I would try elsewhere if I was you. Plus, IMHO, I'm not sure I'd want to get involved w/ this whole pension mess going on right now.

[marothisu]

Firstly, if you actually worked for CPS, you are required to actually live inside the city. With that being said, a bunch of teachers just lost their jobs this year here because some schools closed down, consolidation, yadda yadda. If you absolutely wanted to come here, you may want to look at some of the suburbs to teach in. I know some suburbs, which are middle class (partially upper middle class) that pay their teachers very well.

[nana053]

Also note that your NC certification may not transfer to Illinois. It may, but you cannot know for sure without contact with the Illinois Board of Education

Education Licensure

http://www.isbe.net/licensure/pdf/oo...ntials0813.pdf

[kmreichelt]

Thank you for the replies! I have looked into it and there is reciprocity but you (obviously) have a better chance of getting hired if you also have Illinois licensure. I will be sure to do that. I know that there are problems with pension right now but I am just looking to move somewhere for a couple years. Then I will figure out where to go after that! I am hoping that I can leave NC for a few years and they will get their act together and stop treating teachers like the enemy so that I can return. I know this is a high hope but it never hurts to try! I want to live in a fun, lively city. I am also single and so it would be nice to be in a larger city. I am just nervous about moving from one bad situation to another one. Chicago does not seem like it would be (if I am teaching in the suburbs or at one of the okay schools in the city) but you can never really tell unless you ask teachers that are currently working there. Does anybody here work for CPS or for a neighboring district? Feedback would be wonderful!

Thanks so much.

[marothisu]

^ My coworker's wife has been a teacher at a nearby suburban district for 10+ years

[chet everett]

There is flat out a GLUT of teachers in every desirable suburb of the region -- it is true that there are attractive salaries but there are probably upwards of 300 applications for every rare opening -- after many years of "incentives" to entice older teachers to retire there have been more than a decade when teachers have worked harder and harder to hang on to jobs as long as they are able. They see the likelihood of drastic changes in pension / benefits and have responded by working longer.

Similarly though salaries inside Chicago are also quite attractive the threats to their separate pension fund and the massive turmoil in the workload caused by overcrowded schools and animosity with poltical figures has seen large disparity between authorized openings and people disparate for a job. Additional controversy regarding initiattoves like Charter Schools and alternative teacher certification makes this about the worst possible climate for a teacher to relocate to...

Folks that have secure positions (becuase of relatively well codified statewide tenure laws) can do quite well financially but the barriers to entry are immense -- it is not uncommon for even folks with an "insider's edge" like being an alumnus of a desirable school / having relatives currently work in the district to be asked to work at greatly reduced "aide" wages for a number of years. Even once you is added to full time staff the budgetary constraints that even desirable schools face have force notifications of ALL non-tenured staff that they may not be retained. Some especially hard hit districts have had to RIF even tenured staff, those teachers have an especially diffficult time getting a new job as state laws literally does not allow them to be hired at a lower step than what they have attained at another public school. This forces many to work at the far less highly compensated private schools... Very very challenging.

Look elsewhere.

[kmreichelt]

Wow! That is what I was afraid of. The teaching environment is horrible in NC though and I really need to move before I get 'stuck' here... I would never move without having a job in place though. If I were to get a job in Chicago, would that be a poor decision? I understand it will be very hard to attain one but if I were to get into a pretty good district, is the teaching okay? Here in NC, we have nixed tenure so that is not a huge deal for me, considering I have not experienced it before. We have no job safety and have not seen a raise in 7 years. They have taken away masters pay. I have multiple coworkers who are 30/31 and are making my salary, 34,000 a year. That is plenty for me right now but I am trying to look to the future when I am trying to buy a house or start a family. I am hoping if there is an exodus out of NC, they will change their ways and I may be able to return. I am used to overworking and having crowded classrooms (usually around 35 students). We are given duties to do during lunch four days a week. We have our planning taken away at least once a week, if not more. It is quite a lot!

[SalingerBananafish]

CPS is in financial turmoil right now. I would suggest you look up the school situation in Chicago, because a lot of the problems you described in NC are happening in Chicago, as well as other large school districts around the country. CPS does pay relatively better though, if you can find a position. But you have to take Cost of Living into account. 34,000 is pretty low versus the national average though.

Also, I don't know how kids are in NC, but be aware you will deal with a lot more students with behavioral issues in the city. I work as a Teacher Assistant at a CPS school right now and getting an ECE certification. I don't think I'd stick around with CPS when I start looking into teaching, knowing where it is headed.

[DanielWaterhouse]

It can't hurt to try to find a position. Within CPS, at least, the principals are being given much more ownership of their budgets and their incentive is to maximize the improvement of test scores and to keep their local school council happy within that budget. Over the last few years that I've had kids in school it seems to me that the new teachers are invariably young and are often from out of the area.