LATE HIRING STRATEGIES
Purpose / This set of strategies describes how districts have made progress with filling teacher vacancies late in the hiring season. Districts can use this tool when they need to turn to late hiring to fill a significant gap.Intended Users / Recruitment Teams
Related Tools / Top Recruitment Strategies; A Year In The Life Of A Great Recruitment Team
Overview
This tool provides examples of promising practices that have been implemented by districts toward ensuring that schools are fully staffed by the start of the school year.
Action / Rationale / Key Enablers /1. Work with your Superintendent and Executive Leadership to communicate the accountability and expectation around early hiring / Consistent messaging to encourage earlier hiring from the “Top” will help drive action and accountability. / · Shared belief on the importance and impact of teacher quality and the direct correlation with earlier hiring
· Research highlights on earlier hiring
· District specific research on teacher quality correlation to early hiring
Example: SFUSD Superintendent informed Principals to fill all known vacancies before being allowed to leave for vacation with Principal Supervisors providing monitoring and accountability.
2. Consider delaying the placement process of surplus/excess teachers until mid Summer / Later in the hiring season, both the quantity and quality of applicants will be lower; thus, the ability to hire a high quality new teacher is limited.
The difference, if any, in quality between surplus teachers and new hires will be smaller at this point in the hiring season.
Leverage surplus teachers to fill vacancies in the summer and offer mutual consent opportunities to hire from this pool with forced placement as a last resort. / · Collective bargaining flexibility
· Accurate tracking of surplus teachers by subject with evaluation data
LAUSD has implemented this practice and CMSD is implementing this year with a goal of 90% mutual consent hiring for surplus teachers.
3. Over hire for highest need areas / Finding great talent later in the hiring season is a big challenge; the challenge is even greater for high need subject areas.
For these areas, hire more teachers as a buffer against late resignations and retirements that occur in the summer and after the start of the new school year. / · Projections of teacher attrition that occur late in the hiring season or after the start of school by subject area
· Identification of retirement dates during the summer and after the start of school
Through analysis of turnover and attrition that occurs after the start of the school year, Tulsa identified the areas for which they could over hire with little risk to budget implications.
4. If applicable, utilize legislation/policy to enforce late resignation penalties and communicate broadly; in addition or as an alternative, send a message on the adverse impact on student learning that this causes / Late resignations are the biggest challenge to opening schools fully staffed. Coupled with the further challenge of identifying and hiring a high quality teacher at this time, students will be adversely impacted with “last minute” hire. / · State / local legislation and policy
· Research on the challenge to hire quality replacements for teachers who resign late and its impact on student learning
Cleveland is communicating that they will suspend a license for any teacher who resigns after July 10th (never enforced previously). In addition, they are sending out a message to help leave a strong legacy of learning for the students by avoiding late resignations.
5. Identify retirement anniversary dates for late summer and early in the school year and allow for the hiring of a new teacher for these positions. / Teachers may wait to retire to ensure insurance coverage and full pension benefits are achieved.
Proactively identifying these teachers and allowing the hiring of new teachers into these positions can mitigate the challenge of finding quality candidates near or after the start of school.
Eventual retirees can be placed into co-teaching assignments or alternative teaching support assignments. / · Projections of teacher attrition at the start of school
· Identification of retirement dates after the start of school
Boston identifies summer and fall retirement dates and will allow hiring into these positions. The retirees will provide teaching or other related support to their respective schools until their official anniversary date.
6. For high need areas, identify state requirements around waivers / emergency certifications in order to expand the pool of eligible hires for high need areas. / In addition, to ACP programs, opening up hiring requirements can broaden the pool with candidates who may not have the appropriate certification, but possess relevant teaching or other related experience. / · State / local requirements around certification
· Leveraging alternative certification development and support opportunities
Tulsa largely increased their use of emergency certifications in order to fill late vacancies, which helped them achieve their goal of being fully staffed by the start of school.
7. DATA! DATA! DATA! Rigorously and continually track and share data to Principals and Principal supervisors on vacancy and hiring. / Data will:
• Ensure full awareness and understanding of vacancies as transfers, resignations may occur without the knowledge of the principal
• Identify differentiated supports and intervention on the part of HR
• Increase the executive support and accountability to support hiring goals / · Accurate and accessible vacancy and hiring data
· Established communication protocols and procedures to ensure that principal, leadership, and other key stakeholders are informed on a regular basis
Several districts are sharing hiring data on a weekly basis to principals, principal supervisors, and in some cases, to the executive cabinet. This shared commitment to early hiring aligns communication, supports, and accountability.
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Late Hiring Strategies