On the night of last April 17, the Philadelphia school community waited anxiously to find out which of the district's schools would land on a new list of low performers--schools that the state was declaring to be in urgent need of change.
Recruiting teachers can mean sending a representative
with a folding table to a hiring fair.
Or it can mean a yearlong campaign that targets
the best education schools, courts top
students, and doesn't let up until a hundred
newly minted teachers have signed contracts and been
matched to the neediest schools in the system.
Most districts trying to reduce teacher turnover and increase the number of
well-qualified teachers in their schools have focused on improving hiring and recruitment
practices. But research suggests that working conditions and salary levels actually
are more on teachers' minds as they decide where to
teach and whether to stay or leave.
Many poor schools are turning to alternative-certification programs to find teachers to fill their classrooms.
Julie Blair, January 9, 2003
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15 min read
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