Mastodawn

It just occurred to me that Pi-day might be the most appropriate day to make this kind of announcement about my future plans. https://dabeaz.com/next.html

The Next Chapter

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Chris Adams Mar 15

@dabeaz that's a great choice, I think you'll enjoy it! My wife did neuroscience to AP {Bio, Psych} and has had a lot of good experiences along with the annoyances (admins) and letdowns (kids who could but don't yet get why doing well matters).

She did an alt route program here in DC where a high school could hire her full-time as soon as she was enrolled in night school. Busy but not too bad–the proctored test was more stressful since she had to refresh on areas outside of her specialization.

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David Beazley Mar 16

@acdha Interesting. Did your wife have an "in" at schools or did she simply apply for jobs with no license? They have alternative licensure here, but it seems tricky to navigate.

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Chris Adams Mar 16

@dabeaz She had started an alternative route program in New Haven when she was souring on academia during her postdoc (in her area the baseline costs are high so you basically spend most time being a small business landing scarce funding) but didn't complete that before we moved to DC.

She interviewed directly at a mix of DCPS and charter schools (and a $$$ private school which paid very little), and got an offer from a principal whose staff helped keep DCPS HR moving.

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Chris Adams Mar 16

@dabeaz around here even back then (2010) there was a pipeline of disaffected scientists (fed. pay often low & often have a max time, vs. DCPS paying teachers close to top in the country) so it sounded like half of what the schools were looking for was confirming that someone bringing content knowledge could handle working with teenagers & especially people who don't have strong self-motivation.

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David Beazley Mar 16

@acdha My understanding of the alternative licensure path here is that it's mostly people who already have some kind of "in" at a school someplace. For example, teachers looking to jump from private->public. Or staff already working at a public school who want to move from something like a teacher's aide to teacher. Theoretically, it might be possible land a position from the outside, but it seems tough. I'm not going to worry about it.

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Chris Adams Mar 16

@dabeaz I'd also believe that DC is special because we have such a need for teachers, especially STEM, and they're competing with a lot of very close suburban school districts.

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David Beazley Mar 16

@acdha Does DC have a residency requirement? I can't actually apply for any jobs in Chicago PS because I don't live within the city limits.

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Chris Adams Mar 16

@dabeaz No. I think DC residents get weighted higher but in-demand subjects aren't turning people away.

I believe most of the alternative route teachers do program which is one year as a fellow paired with another teacher and then 3 years teaching, all at a high need school.

My wife's first school had most of the science department as former Ph.D researchers who'd hit the funding wall (never thought that'd seem like a good market but talking w/her grad advisor, now is just soul-crushing).

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David Beazley

@acdha Wow. Interesting. Weirdly enough, I am currently on the fastest, most unencumbered path to licensure now. Start classes now. Student teaching in the winter. License in the spring as a "free-agent" to work anywhere after that.