With the United States experiencing an estimated shortage of as much as 112,000 high school teachers in 2018, CNN.com reports that some of its states are filling the growing vacancies with long-term substitutes, contracted agencies, or teachers from overseas.
In the state of Arizona, Noel Que and Joevie Alvarado are among several experienced Filipino teachers currently teaching at the Casa Grande Union High under J-1 visas that allow them to stay in the U.S. for up to five years.
A J-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa issued by the U.S. to research scholars, professors, and exchange visitors participating in programs that promote cultural exchange. According to the U.S. State Department, the number of Filipino teachers coming to the US to teach on J-1 visas increased from 21 to almost 800 during the past decade.
IMAGE CREDIT: CNN.COMNOEL QUE TEACHES BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY AT CASA GRANDE UNION HIGH IN ARIZONA
Que teaches high school biology and biotechnology, while Alvarado teaches science. Both certified and experienced teachers before joining the J1 teacher program, Que taught in the Philippines for almost 30 years and Alvarado for a decade before coming to teach in Arizona.
Asked why many Filipino teachers are getting selected to teach in the U.S., Alvarado said: “Filipinos are very [well] known to be patient and hardworking, and that’s probably one of the reasons why mostly Filipinos are the participants of the J-1 (visa) teacher program.”
Read “Desperate to fill teacher shortages, US schools are hiring teachers from overseas” in the October 6, 2019 issue of CNN.com now! Check out this related 2014 retrospective reading in the Forum now, “Supply of English-capable Filipinos now falls short of export demand.”
