Hiring

This qualitative analysis of teacher teams is part of a larger, comparative case study, “Developing Human Capital Within Schools,” conducted by the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers.  Within one city, we interviewed 142 teachers and administrators in six high-poverty schools (three charter and three district), all of which had achieved the highest ranking in the state’s accountability system.  Here, we analyze how each school approached the process of recruiting and hiring Black and Latino teachers.  All six schools reported that recruiting Black and Latino teachers was an enormous challenge—one compounded by the rapid rate of turnover among those they hired.  Each had strategically adapted its recruitment and hiring processes to address the unique challenges of recruiting and hiring teachers of color.  Principals recognized the important role that current teachers of color might play in recruiting more teachers of color, and therefore each school engaged teachers of color in their processes in some way.  At two schools, teachers of color were active partners in developing and enacting a strategy.  Teachers were clear that this worked because the school was already an inclusive environment where conversations about race were commonplace.  At other schools, however, school leaders and talent staff formulated an advertising strategy that depended on current teachers of color to convey the image of a diverse teaching staff.  But, they did not formally acknowledge the important role that teachers of color were expected to play in this process.  In these schools, teachers often expressed skepticism and sometimes resentment about their school’s approach.

This qualitative analysis of teacher teams is part of a larger, comparative case study, “Developing Human Capital Within Schools,” conducted by the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers.  Within one city, we interviewed 142 teachers and administrators in six high-poverty schools (three charter and three district), all of which had achieved the highest ranking in the state’s accountability system.  Here, we analyze how each school approached the process of teacher recruitment and how both administrators and teachers experienced that process.  Each school described strategies that were far from the “passive and provincial” efforts (DeArmond, Shaw, & Wright, 2009, p. 54) that have long characterized teacher recruitment in public schools.  Instead, each actively developed a pool of candidates from which it could hire when teaching positions arose.  Schools carefully pursued candidates by cultivating relationships with non-profits, universities, and the school district, and with the personal and professional networks of those working in the school.  Often, they depended most on those who shared their mission of educating low-income, minority students and were able to provide the school with candidates who had already been carefully vetted.