STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN CAPITAL: Urban Districts Can Recruit Talent

Allan Odden, Co-Director of SMHC

SMHC Project

• Goal: Dramatically improve student performance, focusing initially on urban districts: – Meaning to double student performance and reduce achievement gap as measured by state or local tests – For example, increase percent at or above proficient from 40 to 80 percent, or increase percent at advanced levels from 30 to 60 percent, or get all averages and sub-group scores above the 90 percent level 2

SMHC Project

• Our focus for accomplishing the goal: Strategic Management of Human Capital (SMHC) • SMHC includes Two Basic Strategies: – Recruiting and retaining top teacher, principal and central office talent, which are key to tackling the complex educational challenges of big, urban districts – we argue this can be done – Managing that talent around the instructional expertise to make every teacher effective – produce large student learning gains 3

The State of Urban Districts

• Dysfunctional HR systems: – Paper and pencil systems; late and inaccurate salary checks; large numbers of teacher shortages; larger shortages in math, science, special education; lack of sufficient teacher quality, especially in high-needs schools • Lack of strategic recruitment strategies; open school each fall with hundreds of vacancies • Result: – Low levels of student achievement, large achievement gaps, disjointed educational improvement strategies • Couldn’t produce student performance results in part because did not have people to do the job 4

Key SMHC Case Findings

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Big Finding #1

: Urban districts can recruit top quality teachers and principals by deploying a multi-faceted human resource strategy – Teacher shortages, lack of adequate talent, and school vacancies are not part of the “DNA” of urban school systems – It results from lack of attention to active recruiting 5

Former Passive Approach to Recruiting

• A decade ago, Boston, Chicago and NYC did little recruiting • Many people nevertheless applied, but – Applicants did not come from the best pipelines – Applications were not reviewed until August when the bulk of good talent had already accepted job offers – Not enough applicants left to staff schools fully – School years began with teacher shortages; teacher quality problems; and insufficient math, science, special education and other teachers – DC: 2500 applicants for 250 positions in 2006 6

If you recruit, talent will come …

• Active recruitment can identify top talent who will apply and accept job offers in urban districts – Colleges and Universities • Chicago began recruiting at Northwestern, Univ. Illinois, Univ. Michigan, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, etc. and other colleges within 500 miles (within a day’s drive of Chicago) – New college graduates who decide to teach after earning a bachelor’s degree • Chicago’s goal: 20% of new vacancies – Early career changers, many with math majors – from law firms, Wall street, management consulting, other high wage/high pressure jobs – Mid-career changers – the military, industry, etc.

– “Grow your own” programs – teachers and principals – Scores of talented people wanting to teach in urban schools • When a recruitment hand is offered & a pipeline is provided, these individuals can be channeled into urban schools 7

Partnerships with New Talent Pipelines

• Teach For America – In 29 (23 urban) areas today; goal is to be in 48 areas by 2015 • The New Teacher Project – Partners with many districts all over the country and now working regionally in some metro areas • New Leaders for New Schools • Academy for Urban School Leadership • Troops to Teachers • “National” organizations with a focused mission to recruit, train for initial license and place in an urban, high poverty school 8

New Partnerships with Universities

• Urban teacher & principal residency programs • Principal training: Chicago/TFA/Harvard • National Louis University in Chicago • Chicago seeking to have more say in and structure of student teaching • Close linkages in Long Beach and Cal State Long Beach – Long Beach staff “teach” both teacher and principal practicum courses • Not rosy on all university fronts – sometimes universities do not respond positively 9

Multiple Complementary Strategies

• Summer exposure programs • Job fairs have been very successful in Chicago – Candidates even get bussed to schools where they might teach • Let schools/principals make teacher selection • Train principals on importance of early recruiting – Many postpone recruiting until the summer when most good candidates have taken other positions 10

Multiple Complementary Strategies

• Automate the application and screening process • Selection screeners – Haberman, Gallup, etc.

• Reduce time from initial application to communication with candidates – 60 to 2 days • Make job offers quickly to “special” candidates – Male elementary teachers; math, science majors; minority candidates, etc.

• Cost out each step of the application process – Computer screening is much cheaper than phone interviews (which is cheaper than on site interviews) 11

Move Up Budget and Hiring Calendar

• Estimate school budgets and teacher vacancies in January and February – This allows recruitment processes to begin matching teacher applications with school needs • Have principals/schools begin interviewing in March and April • Attempt to fill all positions by May 12

Modify Seniority Bumping

• Work with union to change seniority bumping • Allow senior teachers to apply first for all vacancies, subject to school selection – The hiring calendar needs to be moved up – begin this in March • Eliminate automatic seniority bumping from school to school, even for untenured teachers 13

Improve the “Getting On Board” Process

• Have a gathering at the opening of the school year for all new teachers/principals • Get everyone on the pay system • Get everyone signed up for benefits • Provide everyone a “buddy” or mentor • Provide upfront training in district processes as well as instructional practice • Provide ongoing seminars or professional development 14

Actively Recruit Principals Too

• Principal “awareness” seminars on “what it’s like to be a principal” • Principal residency programs, New Leaders for New Schools, Academy for Urban School Leadership, etc.

• Limit principal selection to candidates who have gone through district training program • Central screening of principals even if school makes final selection • Sometimes leadership recruitment is directly linked to teacher recruitment: Chicago/TFA/Harvard 15

Challenges

• Can recruit top talent but it is hard to identify who will become an effective teacher – Private sector research finds predicting worker effectiveness is difficult without work samples – Points to importance of induction, mentoring, professional development and tenure • Same for principals – it is hard to predict who will be effective even in many new programs 16

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Final Take Away Message

Urban districts can open school every fall with talented teachers in each classroom and talented principals in each school Beginning steps to this goal: 1. Conduct a talent audit for teachers, principals and central office HR staff • What are current pipelines, do they provide top talent, where are shortages of numbers and quality, what are future teacher and principal needs, etc.

2. Create a strategic plan for talent acquisition 3. Implement a comprehensive, multi-faceted plan 4. Evaluate all talent pipelines – which lines produce?

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