Retaining foreign language and math teachers is a tough task for many school districts, not only across Kentucky but nationwide, according to education officials.

“The federal government has designated foreign language and mathematics as two ‘critical shortage areas’ related to teaching, which means that districts may be having difficulty finding individuals to fill those positions,” said Lisa Gross, spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Education. “As a whole, the teaching profession is struggling, in part because of salaries. Individuals in teacher education programs may not be attracted to these particular subject areas. Or, it could be a reflection of the tight job market nationwide, which sometimes leads people to take jobs outside the field in which they are trained.”

Both Caverna Independent and Metcalfe County school systems have found it difficult to retain foreign language and math teachers over the last few years.

“The problem is in finding highly qualified, certified applicants that you wish to retain,” said Pat Hurt, superintendent of Metcalfe County Schools.

Over the last four years, the Metcalfe County School District has hired one teacher to teach Spanish, the only foreign language offered to high school students. Metcalfe County requires college-bound students to take two years of the same foreign language and a math course for every year of high school, she said.

Caverna Independent School District recently employed a new Spanish teacher for Caverna High School for the 2009-10 school year, which makes the third Spanish teacher the high school has hired in about five years.

“I think we probably interviewed around 30 people. We finally, finally found two candidates that we felt were qualified to do the job,” said Debbi Lindsey, principal.

The school chose one from the final two applicants to teach Spanish, which, like at Metcalfe County High School, is the only foreign language offered at the school. Caverna also requires two years of the same foreign language and four years of math for college-bound students.

“We see a lot of people who want to come into the alternative education route,” she said.

Both school districts have utilized programs in the past that enable them to hire people who are proficient in a foreign language and math, but often are not certified to teach. One such program, the Transition to Teaching Grant Program, is a federal grant awarded to the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative on behalf of 19 Kentucky school districts. The purpose of the grant is to recruit, place, train and support mid-career professionals and recent college graduates as they enter teaching careers. The project is designed to help school districts fill teaching vacancies in math, biology, chemistry, physics, middle grade science, foreign language, special education or other subjects designated as a critical shortage by the district, according to the GRREC Web site.

According to the Kentucky Educator Placement Service’s Web site, there are three school districts that are looking to hire foreign language teachers for the upcoming school year. They are: Raceland-Worthington Independent, Allen County and Morgan County. However, there are more school districts looking to hire math and science teachers, according to the Web site.

The Education Professional Standards Board offers various certification programs that offer alternative routes to teacher and administrator certification. The EPSB provides technical assistance to qualifying individuals who have potential as educators. Some of those programs are: Exceptional Work Experience Certification, Local District Training Program Certification, College Faculty Certification, Adjunct Instructor Certification, Veterans of the Armed forces, University-Based Alternative Route to Certification and University Institute Alternative Route to Certification, according to the EPSB’s Web site.

Attracting more teachers to math, science and foreign language subject areas would be a solution to the teacher shortage problem, Gross said.

“The question is, how do districts do that? Making the profession more attractive is one way, and that can include higher salaries. But, with school budgets becoming tighter, it is difficult for districts to offer large jumps in teacher salaries,” she said.