Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Getting Started With Texas Teaching Jobs

By Tom Addison


There are 5 main prerequisites before applying for Texas teaching jobs. The first requirement is a Bachelor's Degree, and it has to be from an accredited institution. Obviously, this isn't something that can be acquired overnight, so it's better to assume here that anyone reading this already has one or is currently getting one and plans to apply for a job after getting the degree.

The second and third steps involve a preparation program followed by a certification exam. After this comes an application to the state and then fingerprinting. The degree can be obtained in other states too, but the other four items on this checklist have to be completed via the Texas Education Agency or TEA.

Also remember that all these are prerequisites for anyone looking at Texas teacher jobs. The educator preparation program helps identify the person's suitability for a particular grade and subject. The certification exam will focus on this subject and grade.

The state application is a very through process that involves a national criminal background check and fingerprinting. Once approved, the educator gets the appropriate certification for a specific subject and grade, as per the exam passed. Only after all this can the educator start looking around for Texas teacher jobs.

One more thing to remember, at this stage, is that the Lone Star State is a big one where 320,000 people are employed to teach 4.7m students. Plus, an additional 70,000 people work as administrative or support staff. That makes the job market favorable for the school districts which employ all these people.

Finding and applying for Texas teaching jobs is quite easy, though. The TEA and TX Workforce Commission jointly run a web portal that connects job seekers with school districts and charters in need of educators. On top of this, the TEA has its own job-search website where it is possible to search for openings by city or zip code, or in a specific school district or charter.




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