NYC’s revamped teacher hiring system garners praise, criticism, litigation
A report prepared by the New Teacher Project (TNTP), which partners with the New York City’s education department on teacher recruitment, claims teachers who have been unable to find new jobs in the district under a new hiring policy, but remain on the payroll, will cost the city $81 million by the end of this school year. The system, established under a contract with the city teachers’ union, did away with the practice of allowing teacher transfers on the basis of seniority. School administrators now directly hire teachers they believe are a good fit. The district also abandoned the practice of letting senior teachers “bump” less experienced teachers from their positions. Dan Weisberg, the chief executive for labor policy and implementation for the district, described the new system as “a quantum leap ahead for New York City schools.” The report found the hiring policy had created a small but financially significant problem among what the report calls “excessed” teachers—those whose jobs were lost because their schools were closing or downsizing and who then became part of a reserve pool. Under the new system, they are no longer assigned by the central office to new teaching jobs, but have to apply and be interviewed by principals like any other hires. In surveys conducted by the group, teachers themselves appeared to like the new system. As many as 87% of the transfer teachers who responded, and 82% of teachers in the reserve pool, agreed that it was important for principals to believe the teachers were good fits for particular schools.
The report, and some recommendations it makes to improve the situation, drew the wrath of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the local teachers’ union, which slammed it as “slanted and ill-considered and factually inaccurate.” A statement from Randi Weingarten, the president of the UFT, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, dismissed the New Teacher Project as one of the city education department’s “wholly owned subsidiaries.” The report blames experienced teachers who, “through no fault of their own, were excessed from their teaching jobs,” she added. The report says that, by and large, the effects of the mutual-consent hiring system were positive. Teachers found new jobs at similar rates, it said, regardless of their seniority or their status as excess teachers or voluntary transfers. The UFT filed a lawsuit in state court last month, charging the district with age discrimination. Because principals are given a limited pool of money, they are likely to hire younger, less expensive teachers, the union contends. But the report found that experienced teachers performed on a par with their junior counterparts in job searches.
Source: Education Week, 5/5/08, By Vaishali Honawar
[Editor’s Note: The full article excerpted above details more of the report’s findings and proposals for changes. The report and the UFT statement are below.]
TNTP report
UFT statement