The Arkansas Department of Education has been working for over a year to develop a teacher recruitment model that locates high-quality applicants for school districts with substantial annual teacher shortages. TeachArkansas was launched in January 2003 to turn this idea into a reality through an innovative pilot program. To date, TeachArkansas has worked exclusively with the 32 pilot school districts of the Great Rivers and Wilbur D. Mills Education Service Cooperatives. Through this partnership, a recruitment model has been created that has produced over 100 completed applications to date, with candidates from both licensed and non-traditional routes.
As we close out this school year and look toward a new one, TeachArkansas is being advised that districts throughout the state are searching for greater hiring options and are interested in joining this program. The Department is happy to announce that as of May 19th, the TeachArkansas program will make its applicants available to districts statewide.
Any district wishing to have applicants referred through the process will be required to follow the guidelines set forth by TeachArkansas:
· Districts must agree to use the standard TeachArkansas common application materials in order to conduct their interviews. All applicants sent to districts will already have completed these common application materials. Districts cannot send a district application to an individual because candidates apply to the program via common application to ensure efficiency. A copy of the TeachArkansas common application is attached to this memo.
· Districts must provide the TeachArkansas staff with a list of position vacancies every Wednesday by 4PM. In turn, districts will be sent applications meeting the requirements of open positions by the end of each week.
· This will be a competitive hiring process. Districts contact applicants directly to set up interviews and to offer positions. Multiple districts will have the opportunity to interview the same applicants at the same time. In short, interviews and hiring are done on a first-come, first-served basis and must be scheduled for a date and time within one week of receipt of an applicant’s materials.
· Districts must promptly notify TeachArkansas within 24 hours of any hiring decisions.
By choosing to participate in the TeachArkansas applicant referral process, it is the hope of TeachArkansas to provide each district with high quality applicants to match each district’s exact needs. All applicants to TeachArkansas are required to complete a full application to the program and to possess a bachelor’s degree and at least a 2.75 GPA. The following is a snapshot of the current applicant pool:
28% Non-White*
35% Male
68% possess an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or greater**
* Of those reporting ethnicity ** Self-reported GPA
In addition, current traditional and non-traditional applicant licensure areas include:
P-4 Middle School: Math & Science
Elementary Education Physical Education/Health
Middle School: All Subjects Social Studies
Secondary Math Secondary English
Spanish Music
Secondary Science Art
This offer is being made to all school districts as a precursor to a possible statewide fall rollout of the TeachArkansas program in the 2003 – 2004 school year. TeachArkansas is asking that all districts complete the form at the end of this memo to state whether or not they have needs right now and would like to participate this spring. If so, please return the form by May 23rd to TeachArkansas via fax at 509-471-5484.
Once a district has returned the completed form, TeachArkansas will send a weekly fax to the designated point-person that highlights current applicants and licensure areas available for interview. If a district is interested in interviewing any of that week’s candidates, it will be the district’s responsibility to contact TeachArkansas in order to receive a copy of the full application materials. It is the intention of TeachArkansas to move applicants as quickly as possible through the interview and hiring process to ensure that applicants are not lost to other states or opportunities during the summer.
For more information about TeachArkansas or how to participate in this recruitment program, please contact Jamie Goss or Bruce Villineau in the TeachArkansas office at 501-683-4382. Either of these persons will be happy to answer questions. Feel free to visit the program website at www.teacharkansas.org.
In closing, the Department of Education is excited to be able to share this opportunity with all districts and to help bolster teacher recruitment efforts. TeachArkansas urges districts to take advantage of this program to help end the teacher shortages and to eliminate the need for waivers at the start of the school year.