How Do We Find Quality Certified Teachers, and Furthermore How Do We Keep Them?

1. How Do We Find Quality Certified Teachers, and Furthermore How Do We Keep Them? Ronald C. Brown Jr. ED 845 Fall 2009 Reform Commission Research Paper Dr. Brogan, B December 1, 2009

2. Objectives • Demographics • Need Assessment • What are Highly Qualified Teachers’ Looking for in a District • Hiring Practices • Retaining Highly Qualified Teachers • Recommendations

3. Demographics The District is located in an urban city in the state of New Jersey. The student population is approximately 6,000 and growing. Due to the size of the community, 70% funding comes from state and federal funds, and 30% from local businesses, grants, and fundraisers.

4. Need Assessment The District schools are in need of an overhaul. The teacher - student ratio is 30 to 1. The staff is top heavy with teachers that have been teaching for 20 or more years. The District’s turnover rate for teachers range from 15% to 27% each year. The district cannot compete on salary terms with districts that have a bigger budget. Because The Teachers’ Union did not agree with the District’s Merit Pay Incentives system, the Teacher’s Union blocked the Merit Pay Incentives system. The faculty is made up of 55% certified teachers, 35% non-certified teachers, and the remaining 10% of teachers are temporary substitutes.

5. What are Highly Qualified Teachers looking for in a District? • Financial Compensation • Continuous Education • Collaboration with Administration • Job Security • Personal job satisfaction

6. Hiring Practices • Provide tuition reimbursement incentives to teachers for certification in a teacher shortage area. • Provide alternate-route certifications for teacher candidates. Salary bonuses for the district’s top 26 high performing teachers. • Funding for specialized Master’s degrees for selected teachers. • Offer hiring bonuses, stipends, and early-bird bonuses for qualified that are hired and retained in low-performing schools. • Establish web-based, ongoing on-line teacher candidacy orientations.

7. Retaining Highly Qualified Teachers • Develop personal retention plans from day one • Provide teachers “internal escape hatches” • Encourage teachers to “leave without leaving” • Build your own reserve forces • Develop and summarize a composite measure that will capture the extent to which new teachers report that the hiring process provided them with accurate pictures of their job and school.

8. Retaining Highly Qualified Teachers cont’d • Explore the fit between new teachers and their positions. • Decentralize the interviewing and hiring practices for new teachers

9. Recommendations • The committee recommends that the district establish: • a new teacher candidacy web site (on-going) • implement both a salaries incentives bonus for new teachers • a master’s degrees reimbursement incentive for specialized educational curriculums. • The committee would also recommend that a hiring bonus be give to newly qualified teachers that take assignments in low-performing schools with certified teacher shortages.

10. Closing Remarks