Teacher Assignment and Transfer

This resource provides legal insight into seniority-based layoff reforms. The authors also provide examples of district layoff policies in California and Connecticut. 

This vignette describes changes that the superintendent of the Nye County School District (Nevada) undertook to recruit a principal for an underperforming school. The school district’s strategy focused on starting early in the candidate search and also strategically searching for candidates who aligned with the vision of the district and school. 

This report from the Institute of Education Sciences examines access that disadvantaged students have to effective teachers in Grade 4–8 classrooms in 29 school districts across the country. The researchers found that the disadvantaged students had less access than advantaged students to effective teachers. Furthermore, this ratio did not change over time, and the unequal access to effective teachers is related to school assignment of teachers and students (i.e., access depends more heavily on the school that students attend than specific classrooms within schools).

This report from the Institute of Education Sciences reviews findings from research on the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI), implemented in 10 school districts across the country. The TTI offers teachers a total of $20,000 over the course of two years if they transferred to, and stayed in, low-performing schools. The researchers found that transfer incentives may be a feasible policy to fill vacancies; however, there must be a large pool of experienced teacher candidates from which to choose. In this case, the ratio was 16 candidates per teaching position.

This report reviews findings from research on the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI), implemented in 10 school districts across the country. The TTI offers teachers a total of $20,000 over the course of two years if they transferred, and stayed, in low-performing schools. The researchers found that the incentive attracted teachers with high value-added scores in 88 percent of vacancies. In addition, in those classrooms, students’ test scores increased over the two years in math and reading. 

This report from The New Teacher Project highlights the problem of experienced and effective teachers who end up leaving the profession. The report claims that the true challenge in retention is retaining the “right teachers.” Factors contributing to losing these teachers include poorly designed evaluation systems, lockstep compensation systems, layoff rules that don’t take effectiveness into account, forced staffing policies, and difficulty dismissing poorly performing teachers. The report considers district-level policy implications for each factor.