Teacher quality

Denver Public Schools* - contracted with TFA for differentiated payment dependent on new hires performance in the classroom; district tracks performance of new hires in the first few years and provides information to colleges/schools of education. Better hiring practices have resulted in fewer non-renewals for performance.

Boston Public Schools* - established one of the first New Teacher Academy to develop candidates with development to serve urban students. Has resulted in a stronger pool of diverse candidates in shortage fields.

Los Angeles Unified School District* - have tracked all new hires, have met extensively with every university provider with data on their graduates' performance in their first three years. They have increased their hiring from universities whose graduates perform better and principals have been more satisfied in surveys with the quality of the new hire pool.

Shelby County Public Schools (Memphis)* - the district moved its entire staffing season earlier with budgets released earlier, staffing meeetings occurring earlier (March) , did not hold up hiring for involuntary transfers, and completed most of their hiring by June. Principals noted the quality of hires went up significantly.

Hillsborough County (FL) Public Schools* - the district moved to an HR Partner role to know the schools and their student achievement data well (ratio of about 1 Partner to 25 schools) – Partners are all previous school principals and have worked hard to match potential applicants to the unique needs of the schools. Principals have rated this matching service to be the most valuable to them in meeting the needs of their schools re: selection.

Los Angeles Unified School District* and Tulsa Public Schools* - both districts opened up fully staffed this year by moving up the hiring cycle, increasing numbers of alternative certification candidates, and minimizing forced placements.

Hartford Public Schools* - the district developed an induction program based on the New Teacher Center model and have lowered their turnover in the first few years.

Hillsborough County (FL) Public Schools* - the district built into their overall evaluation program full-time mentors who support new teachers. This has resulted in fewer non-renewals for low performance as well as a higher retention rate of new teachers.

Staffing & Deployment: Best Use of Talent

Boston Public Schools* - the district went to a new staffing model this past year with no forced teacher placements, thereby freeing up the hiring season to begin anytime a principal has a vacancy. Involuntary transfers who are not selected are placed as a co-teacher with an effective teacher who can both mentor them and assess their performance.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools* - the district has made significant progress in getting highly effective teachers to the highest needs schools (inner-city Charlotte) by selecting highly effective principals to go to a high-needs school then offering them the option to take 3-5 teachers with them. This option has created a “turnaround team” that has had a positive staffing impact on the highest-needs schools.

Pittsburgh Public Schools* - the district has created incentives for highly effective teachers to move to highest-needs schools through career pathways that are only available at the higher needs schools.

Prince George’s County Public Schools* - the district transformed their HR office by creating HR Partners closely involved with every staffing issue in their assigned schools, aligned to the configuration of the principal supervisors. Principals have found a much easier time of finding talented teachers working with their HR Partner than in prior years.

Shelby County Public Schools (Memphis)* - same as Boston – no forced placements have freed up the staffing cycle to much earlier dates.

Denver Public Schools* - Performance is the driver of all of Denver’s human capital work – compensation, teacher leadership roles, professional development, retention, layoffs and placements. They have made performance the cornerstone of their initiatives and strategies for improved student achievement.

District of Columbia Public Schools – like Denver, differentiation of teacher performance aligns with all other aspects of human capital work.

Hillsborough County (FL) Public Schools* - the district has one of the best performance management systems, incorporating multiple observers (including strong peer evaluation), student surveys, and student achievement data.

Los Angeles Unified School District* - the district has done an exceptional job of identifying the lowest performers and has either improved them significantly or exited them. Prior to the last few years, LAUSD had moved low performers around – now they clearly have significant numbers who have been exited through resignations, retirements and dismissals.

Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools – the district has one of the best performance management systems in the country called “The Professional Growth System” for all three employee groups – teachers, leaders and support services personnel.

Pittsburgh Public Schools* - performance management is a cornerstone of the HC initiatives and the system has done an excellent job of distinguishing among performance levels, rewarding the highest performers and exiting the lowest.

Linking PD to HR Functions: Quality Workforce

Atlanta Public Schools* - under the Teacher Effectiveness Dashboard built by ERS, the district has aligned its professional development to the competencies and needs of its teachers.

Denver Public Schools* - like Atlanta, the district has built a dashboard that aligns student achievement, teacher effectiveness and recommended professional development activities based on both and targeted to the specific needs of a teacher.

Compensation & Benefits: Competitive Advantage

Denver Public Schools* - Denver is the leader in differentiated compensation based on performance, student achievement gains, and differentiated roles. It has resulted in a higher retention rate of highly effective teachers and has incentivized those teachers to seek roles in high needs schools.

District of Columbia Public Schools* - Another leader in differentiated compensation based on performance and has enabled them to retain over 90% of their highly effective teachers annually.

Houston Independent School District* - one of the earliest districts to use TIF funding to differentiate compensation for highly effective teachers.

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  Denver Public Schools * - Denver’s Teacher Leadership program has been established for several years and has included teachers taking responsibility for student achievement for an entire grade level, supervising and coaching other teachers in that grade level. Denver is one of the leaders in this field which has increased their retention of highly effective teachers.
  

Houston Independent School District* - Houston developed HR Business Partners in networks that support groups of schools and specifically, Principals. They offered training for Principals in a number of different areas, including use of resources, strategic staffing, recruitment strategies, etc.

Atlanta Public Schools* - Atlanta also supports Principals as HC managers through their HR Partners, dedicated to specific groups of schools and Principals.

Shelby County (Memphis)* - Shelby is developing specific human capital modules that will be incorported into their Aspiring Principals program.

Baltimore City Public Schools* - Baltimore had one of the first breakthrough labor contract that provided differentiated pay for performance, mutual consent, and other best practices in human capital.

New Haven Public Schools – the district also had a breakthrough contract offering options for re-staffing low performing schools, differentiated pay for performance, higher standards of performance.

PRINCIPAL QUALITY

Building a Quality Pool: Strong Pipelines

Baltimore City Public Schools* - Baltimore has been supported by a Noyce grant to build a stronger pipeline into the principalship, partnering with local universities and improving the training of aspiring principals

Hillsborough County (FL) Public Schools*/Prince George’s County*/Charlotte-Mecklenburg* - All three districts have been working with Wallace grants to build their Principal and AP pipelines, utilizing their teacher leadership positions to recruit for school leader pools.

NYC Department of Education (Leadership Academy) – NYC was among the first to develop its own Leadership Academy, producing approximately 75 Principal candidates a year with strong instructional, business and coaching training.

Denver Public Schools* - Denver’s Instructional Leaders (ILDs) work closely together to review the whole pool of candidates and ensuring matches between school leader positions and the pool are best for that community.

Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools – Montgomery has a comprehensive training and development program for aspiring Principals with a full-year’s internship under a high-performing Principal.

Induction: Acceleration of Effectiveness

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  NYC Department of Education – The NYC Leadership Academy has well-trained coaches who are assigned to new Principals and ensure they are focusing on student achievement outcomes.
  
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  Tulsa Public Schools* - Tulsa reconstituted their Principal Supervisors, increasing their instructional capacity and coaching skills.
  

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools* - CMS offers differentiated compensation for high-performing Principals willing to take over a high-needs schools.

NYC Department of Education – Like CMS, NYC has an “executive Principal” role when a highly-effective Principals takes over a low-performing school and raises student achievements.

Performance Management: High Quality Principals

Hillsborough County (FL) Public Schools* - like its nationally-known Teacher Evaluation system, Hillsborough has utilized its Wallace grant to improve its Principal Evaluation system as well.

Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools – MCPS provides differentiated roles for Principals including a “Consulting Principal” (coach and mentor) for new Principals or those who are struggling through its Principal Professional Growth system.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools* - CMS has offered Principals career enhanced opportunities at high-needs schools with differentiated compensation.

Hillsborough (FL) County Public Schools* - HCPS has developed a tracking system for every teacher leader, every assistant principal and every principal that includes their aspirations, readiness for promotion, etc.

Denver Public Schools* - Denver has provided training and development for their ILDs in instructional coaching.

Houston Independent School District* - Houston created Networks with Leaders developed in instructional coaching and student achievement improvement.

Tulsa Public Schools* - Tulsa revamped the role of the ILD and provided training and development for the newly-selected team.