****** Jobs within School System ******


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  The school system in New York City is the largest in this country.  There
aremore than a million students in the City's school system.  In terms of em
plyees,there are 120,000 emplyees, teachers, administrative supervisors ...
and so on.This number is twice as large as the student population of San Fra
ncisco wherethere are only 60,000 students.

  The budgets for the school system in New York City is 7.3 billion dollars,
which is larger than many of the State's budgets.  Maybe New Jersey has roug
hlyabout the same budgets for the whole state.	In the school system of New
YorkCity, maybe more than 20 % of the studenta are immigrant students, and o
ut ofthese 20% students, 14,000 students are limited English speaking studen
ts.  Thismeans they are new immigrants; they have not lived here for a ling
time.
  In terms of Asian students in the school system, 20 years ago we had about
18,000 students, but now we have five times more -- it is near 90,000 Asians
tudents.  More than 50% of the 90,000 students are Chinese coming from all o
verthe world.  Owing to the increase of the number of Asian students and Chi
nesestudents, we need a lot of Asian teachers and Chinese teachers.  Also, m
any ofthe schools in New York City offer bilingual classes, thus we need a l
ot ofbilingual teachers.

  Where are the jobs?  In the High School Directory, which is provided mainl
yfor the parents as a reference to choose high schools for their children to
 go,you may see the different courses being offered on high schools.  In thi
s book,all kinds of subjects or courses offered in the school system are lis
ted.  Allof them need bilingual teachers.  In the school system here, many o
f you can bequalified to teach if you have the knowledge, like air-condition
ing, agriculture, advertising, accounting, law, politics ... and so on.  So
there are many, manyjobs within the school system.

  Also, at many areas, we need more teachers than we now have -- bilingualte
achers, science teachers, math teachers, or even some other subjects you'ven
ever heard of.	We have all kinds of support service jobs, such as psycholog
istand social workers.	So we have to look at your major in college.  You mu
sthave a B.A. in order to take a test to be lisneced and to be certificated
to bea teacher.

  Before you can approch the Board of Education for teaching jobs, you have
tovisit many of these offices.	You must be ready to stay there for a whole
day --you may be sent to differnt offices; you may have to wait in a room li
ke this,sit down, take a number; you have to be called to get information fr
om them ...

  In New York City, in order to be a teacher, you have to take tests.  In ot
herparts of the State (Long Island, Westchester ... ), you don't have to tak
e thetests if you have a New York State's Certificate.  But in order to get
New YorkCity's Lisence, You have to take a New York State's test. ( For the
informationabout the tests and the lisences, please refer to Mr. Cheung's ar
ticle)

Here, you have the telephone numbers to the City Board of Education, and als
oall of the requirements.  Before September 1st, 1993, New York State did no
thave the tests.  Here you have the schedual, too.  In New York City, you ha
ve topay a lot or the tests.  Also, in this year, I believe, ther are tests
inChinese: Manderin and Cantonese -- you may be teachers in Manderin or Cant
onese.... or many other foreign languages.  It is the first time.  For the C
Hinesetest, there are six parts: listening comprehension, reading and vocabu
lary,language structure, cultural understanding, literal expression, and ora
lexpression.  It takes about six hours -- it's a long, long test.  In the te
st,there are blanks to fill, or words to choose.  Also, they give you somese
ntences with wrong characters, and you have to correct them.

  There are many opportunities within the Board of Education.  First of all,
 youhave to get involve in the school system.  From time to time, World Jour
nalreports a lot of the problems in schools with Asian students and Chineses
tudents.  In some of the schools, we don't have any staff member who cancomm
unicate with parents.  So sometimes we need some other parents' help.  Manyo
f the kids drop out (especially in high schools) because they don't know wha
t'sgoing on in the classroom when the teacher speaks only English.  In a lot
 ofschools where there are a lot of Chinese students, we do have bilingual t
eachersor bilingual staff.  But we need more.

  There are many oppotunities for you to be teachers.  Within the City's Boa
rdof Education, in order to recruit teachers, we have a lot of free programs
 totrain you to be a teacher.  There are several foundings, from time to tim
e, inChinese newspapers, you may find these fellowships and scholarshipstrai
ning youto be social workers.  Schools, like NYU or some of the City College
s, do havefree training programs for you to be teachersof certain subjects,
especiallybilingual teachers.

  Also, the City Colleges provide second career training programs.  If you w
eretrained as an engineer, phisicist, or scientist, and you want to be a tea
cher,you need some education courses to be qualified.  There are programs li
ke thisfor Russian and Spanish people, but not for Chinese or Asian people y
et.  So Iam working with the CIty College to push for this for Asian populat
ion, too.Hopefully we well have this soon.

  If you are a teacher, and you want to take more courses, the Board ofEduca
tion can pay for your tuition.	You don't have to pay, but you have toserve
in the schools after the training for three years, or whatever the numbersas
 required.  Otherwise you have to repay the tuition.

  Some of you might know that teachers are very underpaid.  Begining teacher
swith just a Bachelors degree get 26,500 dollarseach year, while the maximum
 islike 60,000 dollars.  In order to get 60,000, you must have been working
for theBoard of Education for 20 years, have a masters degree, and beyondthe
 masters,have 30 credits.

  Of course, you have health benefits, welfare, and pension pay.Also, there
are many jobs within the Board of Education for promotion.  Youcan be superv
isor, coordinator, director, pricipal ... and so on.

  When you become a teacher of the first year or two, it is very difficult,
soyou need some support systems.  Thee are quite a few groups who are helpin
g someof these teachers which we called Professional Groups.  We do a lot of
 workshopsfor the teachers and cultural activities.

  I think the most important thing is to go to schools.  You have to know ac
ompany before you interview for it; also, for a job in a school, you have to
know something about the school, the district, the student population.	It i
salso important to visit some of the schools when they have open school hour
s.Some of you are parents, so get involved in the schools and activities.  W
e hopeto have more people interested in education.

  In order to get a lisence, you have to get the table work to do.  It takes
 along time -- at least 14 weeks, and sometimes more, depends on how you put
 yourpaper work together.  One thing I have to mention is that many of you m
ay havegotten a degree in Taiwan, Hong Kong or other foreign countries.  If
so, youmust have your degreee and courses evaluated.  You may have some cour
ses thatmay not be recognized.	If you have transcripts, you must have them
translatedinto English.  If you can attach your college catalogue or bulleti
n to explainwhat the courses were, it would be very helpful.¡»