Memphis schools turn recruiting over to reform group
March 13, 2010
Now, Agta Jedrzejewski gets such a sense of accomplishment teaching in city schools that she says she would turn down job offers from Shelby County and other districts where the work might be easier.
But she remembers how anxious it made her to receive her first offer to teach less than two months before school started.
"It's stressful not to know where you're going to be in two months," she said outside the door of her honors biology class at Wooddale High.
"Especially for first-year teachers. ... You start to think maybe you just need to take a job."
In one of the earliest and most visible results of its collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the district has turned teacher recruitment and hiring over to The New Teacher Project, a national reform group with a record of improving teacher hires and retention.
Monday, the school board is expected to approve a $1 million payment of Gates money to TNTP, the first of two installments totaling $2.5 million this year.
TNTP plans to fill every vacancy in the 30 most troubled city schools first -- including Wooddale -- giving them first crack at teachers who typically have their pick of jobs and get early offers, often from suburban districts.
Then it will staff the rest of the city schools, hiring 600 to 700 teachers in April or May, two to three months earlier than what is now standard practice.
"In Memphis, our goal is twofold: To increase the number of high-potential teachers in the pool and have lots of really good candidates for principals to choose from," said Sheila Redick, TNTP spokeswoman.
By waiting longer to hire -- and most urban districts do -- principals are often forced to accept less-desirable applicants.
Memphis typically hires about 70 percent of its teachers a month before school starts, TNTP says.
More than half of the applicants have grade-point averages of less than 3.0, and as a whole, score in the bottom quartile on the state teacher licensure test.
MCS requires a GPA of 2.5. "That may change in the future," Redick said.
Having staff in place for next year before school is out this spring is a luxury Wooddale Principal Walter Banks can barely fathom.
Banks -- Wooddale's fourth principal in three years -- started the year with six vacancies, forcing him to fill English and math classes with substitute teachers.
"A substitute does not have the commitment of a full-time teacher," he says.
When he did find permanent teachers, because the school year was already in progress, the change was disruptive.
"You see it in the students' progress," he said.
TNTP guarantees providing three to five candidates per vacancy, but tends to have more, said Christine Love, TNTP partner here.
"We have more than 900 applications in process in Memphis. We anticipate a lot more."
Gates' interest in Memphis is helping with national recruitment.
"A man in Virginia found out the day before one of our information sessions, booked a ticket and flew to Memphis. Another applicant drove from Chicago," Redick said.
Eventually, the program will be funded by contributions from the $55 million the Gates Foundation requires the district to supply to qualify for its $90 million grant.
"The Gates dollars are front-loading the first two installments, going out for probably two years, given the uncertainty we still have in our budget," said Supt. Kriner Cash.
At Wooddale, TNTP will provide résumés from teachers interested in urban, high-poverty schools, saving Banks the time it takes to interview people who don't have those interests.
TNTP began asking teachers about their plans for fall on Wednesday, by sending an anonymous e-mail survey.
"This is not a conversation teachers are wanting to have right now," Redick said.
"Plans to leave can create tension. A principal doesn't know why someone would leave. It may feel personal."
By midday Thursday, 1,600 teachers had responded. By Friday afternoon, 2,500 had logged in.
"I think it shows teachers are engaged in the process," Love said.
While she said teachers still have questions about the Gates work, "They understand that we are trying to bring in the highest-quality teachers to join them as colleagues. There is definitely buy-in on that."