District struggling with teacher shortage

The School District of Philadelphia yesterday rolled out the red carpet for prospective teachers.

They were served breakfast and lunch and taken on tours of six schools, all before district officials answered the would-be educators' questions during an afternoon debriefing.

The program, actually called Roll Out the Red Carpet, is designed to attract college graduates to teach in the 165,000-student district. The program takes place each fall and spring.

Though about 70 people attended the program, just one man began the hiring process, said Dina Hollingsworth, the district's executive director of employee entry.

At that rate, the district is going to need a lot more yards of red carpet to fill its teacher vacancies.

At more than two months into this school year, the district still is trying to fill 128 empty slots, most of them at the middle- and high-school levels, Hollingsworth told the Daily News.

"It's the economy, and of course in terms of qualifications, we have standards that have to be met," Felecia Ward, a district spokeswoman, said when asked why the teacher shortage is persisting.

As the rising unemployment rate leads to more applications for teaching jobs, she explained, district officials must spend more time researching applicants' backgrounds and qualifications.

"You want to make sure that you have qualified people, that they are interested in teaching for all the right reasons," Ward said. "You want to find out what skills they have, what are their motivations."

Hollingsworth said she would provide a detailed update on the district's teacher-recruiting efforts during next Wednesday's public meeting of the School Reform Commission.

And on Nov. 22, the district hopes to find more qualified teachers during a job fair for collegians who will graduate in December, she said.

Of the 380 student-teachers working in the district, 200 are expected to graduate next month.

Teachers in particularly high demand, Hollingsworth said, are those in the subjects of math, science, Spanish and music.

Greg Wade, president of the Philadelphia Home and School Council, the district's largest parent group, said school officials must do more to find qualified teachers, and help them remain on the job in schools that are often violent.

"The teachers are not equipped to handle lots of situations," he said. "It's a shame, but it just doesn't seem to be a very attractive school district for young teachers."

As a result, too many classes are covered by long-term substitutes, Wade has observed.

"One of my sons had a sub who could not even speak English," he said. *