As teacher shortages continue, Chicago, Lincoln and Tulsa are filling the gaps with more than 150 internationally educated immigrants and refugees.
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This story was produced by The 74a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on education in America.
Despite immigrating with a degree in education, Iraqi refugee Maysoon Shaheen had a hard time becoming a teacher in the United States.
Shaheen fled Iraq in 1998 during Saddam Hussein's regime, made a harrowing escape to Jordan and eventually settled in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Shaheen is now a substitute teacher for Lincoln Public Schools, but not without the financial burden of enrolling in classes to meet English language requirements and taking out student loans because her degree in Iraq was not recognized.
“It was almost impossible for me to start over, which is very difficult for someone learning a new language,” Shaheen told The 74.
A new program started by Global Education Services for internationally educated immigrants and refugees who want to become teachers in the U.S. aims to ease the challenges Shaheen faced.
According to Immigration Policy Institutemore than one in three teachers, or 34 percent, are unemployed or not using their degree.
However, there are still thousands of teacher vacancies across the country — with more than 160,000 jobs were filled by insufficient teachersaccording to the Kansas State University College of Education.
“Even as we experience the Great Resignation, which has greatly affected the education sector, there are still people who want to be part of this workforce,” said Mikaela Santos, senior program director at World Education Services.
“The cultural perspectives and new ideas that immigrants and refugees bring to the table are becoming wasted talent because of the many regulatory and systemic barriers in the American education system,” he added.
To combat this problem, three organizations received a $100,000 grant in July 2023 to create pathways for foreign-trained teachers to become U.S. educators
Next year, the Asian Community and Cultural Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Mayor's Office of Resiliency and Equity in Tulsa, Oklahoma. and Richard J. Daley College in Chicago, Illinois will place more than 150 teachers trained in their home countries in schools in their communities.
Here's a snapshot of each organization's effort to help internationally qualified teachers and address racial disparities in the classroom.
Asian Community and Cultural Center
Nearly 50 percent of Nebraska school districts had unfilled teacher positions during the 2022-23 school year — with 66 percent saying they were either unqualified or had no candidates, according to Nebraska Department of Education.
Lee Kreimer, director of CareerLadder at the Asian Community and Cultural Center, said the organization wants to place at least 35 foreign-trained teachers in Nebraska's Lincoln Public Schools and South Sioux City Public Schools.
The need for diverse teachers is especially great in rural areas like South Sioux City that had a large influx of Latino families who immigrated in part because of meat packing industry which has historically relied on foreign workers, Kreimer said.
The US Census Bureau reported a growing Latino population of 47.8% in South Sioux City with more than 63.6% Latino students throughout the region.
“We see this as a great opportunity to tackle a lot of challenges at once, and it's really a win-win way to help everybody,” Kreimer told The 74.
The organization recently created programs in schools in both districts for immigrants and refugees to receive mentoring as they complete their U.S. teaching licenses.
“Investing in schools by providing teachers who look like their students helps them succeed,” Kreimer said. “And from a racial equity perspective, having kids see teachers who look like them and have experiences like them helps with retention, staying out of trouble, and getting better grades.”
Mayor's Office of Resiliency and Equity
In Oklahoma, there were nearly 180,000 unfilled teacher positions in 2022 — more than double the average a decade ago, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Mayor's Office of Resiliency and Equity estimates that nearly 650 internationally trained teachers in Tulsa have an education degree but are not working in the field.
Chief Resilience Officer Krystal Reyes said the city wants to hire at least 65 teachers trained in their home countries — mostly from Latino, Afghan and Ukrainian backgrounds to reflect the families who immigrated to Tulsa.
“Because we have a diverse student body, we need our teachers to reflect that,” Reyes told The 74. “So we know that our immigrant community can help us fill that linguistic and cultural need.”
Programs include expanding job training with ESL courses and creating free courses for those seeking alternative certification.
“We must do more as a government to ensure that there is full participation, representation and economic opportunity from all of our communities,” Reyes said. “There may be a money barrier or an English barrier, but they are still trained teachers who could fill a great need in our schools.”
Richard J. Daley College
In Illinois, 73% of districts report teacher shortages — with 30% saying positions remain unfilled or filled with someone less qualified, according to Illinois State Board of Education.
Janine Janosky, president of Richard J. Daley College, said the school aims to connect at least 50 foreign-trained teachers with schools across Chicago.
“We see a lot of immigrants and refugees coming with work experience already from their country of origin,” Janosky told The 74, adding that more than 10 percent have teaching licenses.
Trish Aumann, vice president of academic and student affairs at the college, said the need to hire diverse teachers is especially great because of the influx of immigrant families — particularly Ukrainian refugees.
“We need multicultural and multilingual people in positions in our schools,” Aumann told The 74. “So it's this bigger picture of supporting K-12 schools that in turn will help immigrants and refugees in their economic motility”.
Janoski said the college is creating a pilot program for internationally qualified teachers to fill vacancies in Chicago schools.
“In the middle part of the United States, there are very few of us doing this work,” Janosky said. “This gives us a huge responsibility, but also a huge opportunity, to make a big difference for Chicago, Illinois and the entire country.”
Joshua Bay is a staff reporter at The 74.
