One third of NET is a pretty bad salary, even in a low cost of living location. For ESL NET pays good and provides a middle class lifestyle in Hong Kong which can rival tier 2/1 schools at the upper levels of NET. As such NET is really competitive, not many job openings from people leaving and lots of applicants. Actually getting a position is a lot harder than getting into the applicant pool.

But really, one third of NET is just too low, you do not owe this school anything for such a contract. How low is this international school offering anyways? If we include the NET housing allowance that's maybe 1/3 of 50k HKD per month, I would recommend taking NET if you can get a position or searching for a better paying international school.

intltchr wrote:
> I want to change my job next year and I have offers from a few Chinese
> schools that use AP, IB, or A level curriculum and some may be affiliated
> with schools in America but none of them are accredited.

I would go with this, sure it would a less professional environment than a public school back in the US, but you're already in China. Moving back to the States to job hunt would be more costly and a big pain, and you may end up at an unruly title 1 school and would be unlikely to get AP classes for a new teacher. Plenty of teachers have done their dues in China and then move to better international schools, or stayed in China and moved up to some pretty well paying schools. Your ET experience will help you fit in at these Chinese International Schools, as you'll already be use to some of the stuff other international teachers would complain about.

@McTeacher

The purpose of the Teach-Now program is to lead towards a Washington D.C teaching license. The certificate that Teach-Now issues only has value towards meeting the academic requirements for the D.C teaching license. If your wife does not sit the Praxis exams and gets an FBI background check she will not be a licensed teacher. The Teach-Now program is not worth the money it costs if you don't get the teaching license. Non-Americans should have no problem getting the FBI background check, a SSN is not required.

Likewise, you might want to check that you have a valid teaching license as well, the TCNJ certificate may just be a certificate issued by the university and not a teaching license issued by a State. Tier 3 schools in China may accept it as certification but they would also accept no teaching license, you may run into issues if you ever want to move on to an international school that requires licensed teachers.

Q2. China requires your university degree and criminal background check to be authenticated. To get the Z-visa you also need either 2 years of work experience or an authenticated teaching certificate. Cheap online TEFL certificates count for this so the Teach-Now certificate would work. If your wife has at least two years of experience, the certificate isn't needed for visa purposes.

So it depends on the tier of school right.
If accepted to a tier 1 elite school, don't break contract and switch to another elite school unless you are tight with admin there.

For other tier 1 schools, be smart and error on caution.

For tier 2 and 3, still be smart, but remember they'll break contract too if it's in their interest.

If you used a recruiter and then break contract, yeah you're burning a bridge with that recruiter, obviously.

Keep visa rules in mind, if a school starts applying for your visa, and you want to switch to another school in the same country, there may be problems.

I like how PsyGuy brings up how this is a non-issue in most other professions. A talented computer programmer can accept a position, but then take a higher paying position elsewhere and be applauded for getting their market worth. (and company B would never go, oh so you were first given a contract by company A and then decided to work for us because we are paying more? Sorry we have to let you go...)

How do these different groups rank in reputation? I've heard some of these organizations have a pretty low reputation and all their schools are tier 3.

There's quite a few out there, some of higher quality than others. Leaving out SA and ISS I know of these:

https://www.tes.com/

https://www.teacherhorizons.com/

https://www.tieonline.com/

https://www.wishlistjobs.com/

http://www.seekteachers.com/

https://www.eteachinternational.com/

https://schroleconnect.com/

Of course there are school websites that sometimes lists job vacancies. Some larger recruiters will also have websites where they will list school positions and locations, if leaving out the name of the school.

It's not too hard to get money out of a Chinese bank account when outside of China. Set up internet banking, and get your bank's app for managing money. Sending money is relatively easy through the app, however may still need a working Chinese phone number as it is often used for security reasons.

Or just withdraw your last few months salary from a unionpay ATM. This can be kinda annoying but works for small amounts, and for small amounts the fees will be around that for a wire transfer.

@PsyGuy

The two contract thing doesn't mean there is a second company hiring OP and placing him at the school, or that there is anything shady that OP doesn't know about, it's part of the tax avoidance thing. OP signs a fake contract with the low salary that is used for government documentation, the other contract is the 'contract' between school and teacher. The school has a financial reason for doing this, they are so cheap that in order for their salary to be 'acceptable' (still really low in this case) they need to avoid paying tax on the salary. China has a problem attracting enough licensed teachers, I've seen and heard of higher end tier 3 schools also doing this. (offer salary in the 20-30k range, but report 4-12k to the government and pay the rest in a sneaky way)

@Cloud7

The pay is low, and the location kinda sucks. Jiangsu has a lot of international schools, get one in a city at least on the high speed train. Nantong is boring compared to other large Jiangsu cities, and traveling from Nantong to Shanghai sucks. First you need to get to Nantong bus station, then the 2-3 hour bus ride to Shanghai, going through Shanghai traffic. Now you're at the crowded Shanghai bus station, need to take the crowded subway to wherever you wanted to go. Traveling by long distance bus is an 'experience' in China, but not something you want to rely on.

By Nantong I hope you also mean Nantong city, which has around 6 million people. There are a few satelite cities that are pretty rural despite being in the concrete jungle that is Jiangsu province. I've been to the city a couple of times, it came off as a completely ordinary Chinese city of 6 million people. It has some parks and riverways that are common to Jiangsu, but nothing special to someone who has been to Suzhou/Wuxi/Changzhou/etc.

The city doesn't even have a rail station, (I've heard they are building one to Shanghai, it might be finished soon) so you will have to take the bus/car to Shanghai. People living in Nanjing are closer to Shanghai than you are due to the high speed train.

Also while tax avoidance is common in China, it doesn't mean you don't have to pay taxes, it just means you are concealing your income from the government. If the government finds out that your income is much higher than reported, they can demand that taxes be paid on the undeclared amount. So far teachers and schools have been able to get away with declaring very low salaries to avoid taxes.

Baidu map your school to see how far you are from the subway station. Xujing is the terminal for subway line 2, so you'll always get a spot to sit down at, and it connects to everything else. It's a bit of a ride till you get into central Shanghai. I personally like living nearby my workplace, but I know of teachers that live in central Shanghai and commute every day to their school in Pudong. Access to the metro is most important to experience living in a city like Shanghai imo.

Previously, the Teach-Now program has been discussed as a pathway for becoming a licensed teacher, it is a 9 month program but also offers a 12 month masters program. The 12 month program was also considered garbage because it's a masters degree from a non-university that wasn't accredited. This has changed, it's now accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission.

a) Can the Teach-Now program be consider d a 1-year masters program that leads to certification? Would there be any reason to consider the 9-month certification only pathway outside of cost when the 12-month program awards a masters degree?

b) Does DEAC legitimize the M.Ed, does it now count as a pay step increase in the U.S and overseas, and would it be valid for the 30+ credit hours required for the California CLEAR?

c) How would the reputation hold out, schools like to advertise the universities that their teachers received their degree at when it's a reputable school. How would a degree from Educatore School of Education hold out compared to other online masters program? (open discussion here, I don't think I've ever seen a profile that included a masters from Phoenix or Walden or Western Governors)