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| District of Columbia Public Schools In 2000, the superintendent of the District of Columbia Public Schools faced significant challenges. DCPS students had repeatedly performed well below national norms on standardized tests, and the District consistently began the school year with over 100 teaching vacancies. Two of the Superintendent’s immediate priority areas were recruiting new teachers and reorganizing the Human Resources Department. At the same time, Mayor Anthony Williams began to focus on teacher recruitment and retention as key parts of his citywide education agenda. Together, the Superintendent and the Mayor decided to contract with The New Teacher Project to assist in these endeavors. First, they charged The New Teacher Project with improving the District’s alternative certification program, ensuring that it would become a reliable pipeline for high-quality new teachers. This alternative certification initiative, known as the DC Teaching Fellows, was launched to attract 100 young and mid-career professionals to teach in DC Public Schools. Using our proven models, The New Teacher Project developed and managed the process for recruiting and selecting this group of new teachers. To ensure the initiative’s success, we pulled together local businesses, universities, national and local organizations, and public figures to support all parts of the program – from the recruitment and selection of the new teachers to their training and support. For example, we brokered relationships with two of the city’s most prestigious universities to provide certification coursework at a affordable rates, and to develop a program tailored to mid-career professionals transitioning to teaching. We also leveraged financial incentives and resources from the city and school district budgets to assist with certification costs. Local think tanks and educational development organizations, such as the Carnegie Institute for the Advancement of Science Education, the National Clearinghouse for Professions in Special Education, and the DC Area Writing Project, donated their services in specific areas such as math and science, special education, and writing. Additionally, we enlisted the help of First Lady Laura Bush, who lent her support by launching the DC Teaching Fellows recruitment effort at a press conference in February 2001. As a result, over 1,200 candidates from a variety of careers applied for 100 positions with the DC Teaching Fellows. The quality and diversity of the 2001 cohort of Fellows was impressive. Fellows included a Senior Economist at the Department of Agriculture; a manager from McKinsey & Co., a top global consulting firm; and an Assistant U.S. Attorney, among others. Initially skeptical about bringing more non-traditional teachers into the District, many DCPS principals were reluctant to interview DC Teaching Fellows. TNTP staff reached out to individual principals, explaining the rigorous selection criteria, and after a few principals held interviews, word began to spread about the high quality of the DC Teaching Fellows candidate pool. Principals who previously did not want to interview Fellows began to request multiple Fellows for their open positions. “I have to eat crow on this,” remarked one DCPS elementary principal. “I am amazed at how good these Fellows are. They are committed and bring a lot of professional experience and content knowledge which is exactly what we need!” As positive word of mouth spread, The New Teacher Project was able to successfully place all of the Fellows earlier than the usual DCPS placement process. The DC Teaching Fellows program continues today, and has been remarkably successful in bringing highly-qualified teachers to DC classrooms. The 2003 cohort of Fellows represents 24 percent of the district’s new hires, and has an outstanding record of achievement and diversity:
The Superintendent was so pleased with the work of The New Teacher Project that he asked us to spearhead a reorganization of the recruiting component of the Human Resources Department. We then set off on an ambitious plan to completely re-engineer the District’s recruiting messages and selection model. Our efforts in the DCPS Human Resources Department are ongoing, but we have already seen significant improvements. As a result of The New Teacher Project’s work, DCPS opened the 2002-2003 school year fully staffed for the first time in years, and in advance of the 2003-2004 school year, we received over 3,000 applications from interested teachers; by July 2003, over 650 pre-screened and eligible certified candidates were available for hire in schools throughout the district. See next Project Highlight | |||||||||
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