While Ohio does not have the linguistic diversity of California or New York, it does have a significant presence of immigrant groups. In addition, the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant program has identified Ohio’s teacher shortage and high-need areas as including bilingual education, English language acquisition, foreign language, and reading specialists, running into 2013. The Teacher Cancellation Low Income Directory for Ohio includes several schools in low-income areas that need qualified teachers, including ESL educators.
Career Prospects for ESL Educators in Ohio
According to Ohio State University’s ESL – Content Teachers Collaborative, Ohio public schools have over 40,000 K-12 students in ESL programs. A significant portion of teachers working with immigrant newcomers have not taken TESOL coursework. In the past few years, Ohio has seen an uptick in immigrant arrivals, with the Ohio Department of Education’s (ODE) Lau Resource Center (2010) reporting a 182- percent increase in immigrant arrivals from 2000-2010.
While a significant portion of immigrants speak Spanish, the ELL population represents 110 different home languages, among them Arabic, Somali, German, Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean, and Serbo-Croatian. Part of the ongoing draw to Ohio is that it is a designated refugee resettlement state. This means that immigrants who first settled in another state end up moving to Ohio. In addition, Ohio’s agricultural work employs migrant farmers. All of these factors make Ohio a solid choice for ESL education careers.
Finding an ESL Teaching Job in Ohio
ODE’s Education Jobs webpage lists current openings throughout the state.
Apply to some of Ohio’s public school districts directly. District web pages include:
ESL Educator Resources in Ohio
- Ohio TESOL is the state affiliate of the international TESOL organization. This professional and pre-professional group hosts conferences and professional development sessions in ESL education.
- The Children’s Advocacy Center of Columbus disseminates information about programs supporting immigrants, newcomers, and ELLs in Ohio.
- The Lau Resource Center, a division of ODE, focuses on providing quality services to ELLs in Ohio public schools. It also oversees ODE’s Title I Migrant Grant, which supports the delivery of coordinated programming to the children of migrant farmworkers in Ohio.