South Dakota has a teacher shortage; here's how international educators are helping

Yahoo

17-02-2025

STEPHAN, S.D. – "Three, two, one. OK, in your seats."
Just as she did as a teacher in her native Philippines, Madgelie Camba uses a countdown method to gain the attention of the gaggle of second-graders she now teaches at the Crow Creek Tribal School in central South Dakota.
Her diminutive stature and slight Filipino accent create no barriers to effectively managing and teaching the students, who on a recent day were in their seats with pencils ready by the time Camba's countdown reached its end.
"I have to be strict with my kids, very consistent, so they get used to a routine," said Camba, who has 24 years of teaching experience. "After that, they will be more motivated to learn."
Camba is part of a growing trend in which South Dakota school districts are increasingly hiring international teachers on visa programs to fill open classroom positions.
In all, 446 international teachers hold active certificates to teach in South Dakota schools, said Mary Stadick Smith, deputy secretary for the South Dakota Department of Education. The number of certificates issued to international teachers peaked in the 2023-24 school year, when 138 new certificates were issued, she said.
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About 50 public school districts, roughly 25% of the state total, had foreign teachers on staff in 2024, the DOE said. The top three countries of origin are the Philippines, Columbia and Spain.
The DOE said the foreign instructors teach a variety of subjects and grade levels, and all must have valid visas and state certification as required by law.
South Dakota, like nearly every other U.S. state, struggles with a shortage of teachers, making international educators a hot prospect for desperate administrators.
As of January, the Associated School Boards of South Dakota had 366 openings listed on its statewide education job board, though that included some non-teaching positions. In early February, the Sioux Falls School District listed 37 teacher openings, and the Rapid City Area Schools had 45 openings.
An aging workforce and high level of retirements, low pay compared to other states and increased political tension in the classroom are creating the teacher shortage, according to prior reporting by News Watch.
South Dakota Education Secretary Joseph Graves said in an email to News Watch that the state supports the use of international teachers.
"This has proved to be an effective strategy in remote areas of the state where schools have an especially difficult time finding qualified teachers," Graves wrote.
Schools adapt to teacher vacancies in several ways, including doubling class sizes, obtaining a state waiver to employ a long-term substitute or using computers to access virtual teaching.
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But for Rob Coverdale, superintendent of Crow Creek Tribal School district in Stephan, those options were unacceptable because student learning could be negatively affected.
Instead, Coverdale has led an effort to recruit more international teachers to the district, which now employs 22 teachers from the Philippines, making up roughly half its certified teaching staff.
"It's hard to get teachers anywhere, but out here in Stephan, it's even harder," he said of the tiny community that is about an hour drive from Pierre or Chamberlain.
Hiring international teachers is time-consuming and expensive, costing about $5,000 to $8,000 per employee, Coverdale said.
Teachers come to Crow Creek either on a J-1 non-immigrant visa, which is aimed at cultural exchanges, or an H-1B non-immigrant visa that is for individuals working in specialized, high-need fields of employment. J-1 visas are easier to obtain but last only two to five years, while H-1B visas can last up to six years, Coverdale said.
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The teachers who come to South Dakota and other U.S. states tend to have several years of classroom experience and advanced college degrees, Coverdale said. "It's quite a process, but the end result is you get great, experienced teachers," he said.
Coverdale said all of his international teachers are bilingual and speak very strong English and they earn salaries well beyond what they could back home.
Camba, 45, lives in a rental home on the Crow Creek school campus with her husband, who also teaches at the school, and their teenage daughter, who attends high school in nearby Highmore.
Earning two salaries in the U.S. has allowed the couple to build a home and buy a farm in the Philippines, and to help support her parents and nine siblings back home.
Ronneil Vergara is a native of the Philippines who has taught in several foreign countries, including at Crow Creek Tribal School, where he now teaches special education.
So far, he has been pleased by his decision to teach in South Dakota and feels it has helped him grow as a person and as an educator.
"Some of the parents of my students here have treated me like I was part of their family," Vergara said.
The Sioux Falls School District employs a few international teachers but only in its Spanish language immersion program, said district spokeswoman DeeAnn Konrad.
'In our schools, it is for a specific skill set that they're coming here with and that's to speak and teach in their native language of Spanish,' Konrad said.
George Shipley, superintendent of the Bison School District in remote northwestern South Dakota, first learned of the concept of recruiting foreign teachers when he was an administrator for the McLaughlin School District. When he took the job in Bison, the district already employed teachers from the Philippines, and Shipley has gladly continued the effort.
Shipley said the Bison community has embraced the foreign teachers, with one resident making available a three-bedroom home that is rented by a small group of teachers who live together.
'I'm very honored and appreciative of what these folks are doing because it's a huge culture shock for them,' he said. 'You leave a tropical island, you've never seen snow in your life, and now you live in northern South Dakota in December? My goodness.'
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email to get stories when they're published. Contact Bart Pfankuch at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: South Dakota schools get welcome boost from international teachers