Job prospects for Korean HS math teacher in the States

[gomchi]

This is my first time posting on this site so I hope I'm doing this right...

I'm an American married to a Korean national. My husband is a math teacher at a private Christian high school (not international school) in South Korea, where we live. We would like to move to the States, preferably California, in two years. We've researched how to apply for his visa and a preliminary California state teaching credential based on his Korean credential. I'm just wondering what the job prospects are for a math teacher from South Korea wanting to teach high school or middle school math in the States. Korea is famous for it's excellence in math and he is an excellent math teacher with a BS in math education from a SKY school (the Korean ivy league), a teaching credential of the highest grade, four years of teaching experience at the high school level, and great references. He does, however, have a slight accent and his four years of teaching experience have been teaching in Korea, in Korean. He's now applying to a semester teaching exchange, which would give him some experience teaching in the States, in English.

From reading some of the posts in the forum, I can see that even American teachers have a hard time finding teaching jobs in the States and it looks like it's been this way for some time. However, any information or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated! Do any of you know of first generation Americans that are teachers?

He's also interested in teaching at tutoring centers. I know there are many owned by Korean Americans in Southern California. If anyone has information about those, I would appreciate greatly appreciate that too!

Sorry this is long... thank you so much for your time

[TeacherGroupie]

According to http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/ip/ap/directory.aspx, Los Angeles Unified runs Korean-English dual-language immersion programs on several campuses - including two middle schools and one high school - and San Francisco has a Korean-English program in elementary. This directory might predate the worst of the budget axe of recent years, so one or more of these programs may not still be open, but the districts' Web sites should clarify that. I could see a district that's on the fence deciding not to waste your husband's linguistic gifts.

[gomchi]

Thank you so much, TeacherGroupie!

We didn't know about those programs. I'm eager to research them now. Do you happen to know if one needs special certification to teach in a dual-language program?

[TeacherGroupie]

One needs a bilingual authorization: see http://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/leaflets/cl628b.pdf. It looks like your husband will be eligible for a waiver of the Korean-language proficiency and cultural-knowledge subtests of CSET LOTE Korean, though the state might still insist that he either pass the bilingual-education subtest or take some coursework.

This is on top of the English language development authorization that's built into the credential program, because every credential holder in California can count on having to teach kids who are not native speakers of English, and on which account your husband will almost certainly either need to take the CTEL (California Teachers of English Learners) exam or pass equivalent coursework.

Given your husband's background, he might also want to look at high-end private schools and at community college teaching.

[redtop]

A bit of immigration advice. If you apply for a spousal visa when you have been married less than two years, his residency will be conditional - it will expire two years after it is granted, and you will have to reapply after 21 months and demonstrate that the marriage is valid. I'm not questioning that at all, but California might grant his license only through the date of expiration of his green card. You will then be faced with presenting a license with a near-term expiration date on it. If it's a close call, you might want to wait until you've been married for two years before applying. In my case, we applied the week after getting married because we wanted to get the process started. Count on a lot of forms and a lot of money.

[gomchi]

TeacherGroupie - Thank you again! This is really helpful info. I really appreciate it.

redtop - Thank you for the advice. We were planning to apply for the visa after two years for some of those reasons. Now I feel even better about it!