Resources

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. 

The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (now the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders [GTL Center]) identified several lessons learned from implementation of the program. Although Montgomery County uses PAR for its evaluation system, some of the lessons learned can apply to the implementation of PAR for induction and mentoring purposes. As with other PAR program implementation efforts, the Professional Growth System (PGS)  development came from collaboration between the teacher and administrator education associations and the school district.

The New Teacher Center (NTC) is a national nonprofit organization that works with school districts and states to develop and implement induction programs. Its theory of action is based on research of effective induction programs. These programs, according to the NTC, should include a mentoring program, but also additional supports to ensure a comprehensive introduction to the district, school, or teaching profession. NTC divides components of effective mentoring programs into one of the four following categories:

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for  Civil Rights conducts the Civil Rights Data Collection to obtain information on:

• Enrollment demographics
• Prekindergarten
• Math and science courses
• Advanced Placement
• SAT/ACT scores
• Discipline
• School expenditures
• Teacher experience

Users can search for district and school reports to consider patterns and potential barriers to equitable access at a local level.