Analysis Shows Chicago Schools Benefit from Effective School Staffing Policies, but Hire New Teachers Too Late and Lack Effective Performance Evaluation Procedures

NEW YORK, NY – The New Teacher Project (TNTP) today released the results of an extensive analysis of the teacher hiring and school staffing rules and processes in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). TNTP’s research suggests that Chicago faces many challenges common to urban school districts in its efforts to secure high-quality teachers, but also that the district benefits significantly from an unusually effective set of school staffing policies.  The analysis was funded by the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation.

The New Teacher Project’s research involved an in-depth examination of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) contract with CPS, interviews with school principals and district administrators, and surveys of principals, teachers, and prospective teachers. The organization’s final analysis shows that:

1. Chicago is able to attract a large applicant pool of prospective teachers, but loses quality candidates who grow frustrated with a late hiring timeline;

2. The majority of teachers and principals are satisfied with the current teacher transfer and reassignment processes;

3. Top-performing teachers are vulnerable to being displaced because of a reassignment policy based on seniority rather than teacher quality or school fit; and

4. The current CPS teacher performance evaluation system does not distinguish strong performers and is ineffective at identifying poor performers and dismissing them from Chicago schools.

The analysis is especially critical of Chicago’s flawed teacher evaluation system, noting that only 3 in 1000 teachers are rated “unsatisfactory” and that 88 percent of CPS schools—even those in which students are not succeeding—have not issued a single unsatisfactory rating in the last four years. “In failing schools in particular, one would expect to see unsatisfactory teacher evaluations, given that those schools are not achieving positive results or progress for students,” the study’s authors wrote. “However, of 87 failing schools studied, 69 (79%) did not issue a single unsatisfactory rating between 2003 and 2005.” 

On the other hand, CPS drew praise for hiring teachers based on mutual consent.  “Chicago Public Schools stands out from many other urban school districts in that it requires mutual consent of both teacher and principal in its school staffing policies,” noted Timothy Daly, President of The New Teacher Project. “No teacher is slotted into a position without freely accepting it, and principals are not forced to hire teachers whom they do not want.”

Daly urged officials to adopt the report’s recommendations to fix other aspects of the CPS system.  “CPS and CTU officials now have the opportunity to work together on important new steps such as hiring teachers more efficiently; implementing a reassignment policy based on quality, not seniority; and putting in place a fair and rigorous performance evaluation process,” said Daly.

Ariela Rozman, CEO of The New Teacher Project, praised district and union leaders for working together to achieve sensible staffing policies. “We commend Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union for their hard work on behalf of teachers and students,” said Rozman. “Although there is certainly room for improvement, in our judgment Chicago is one of the nation’s leading urban school districts in terms of the implementation of staffing policies and procedures that put the needs of students first.  Chicago’s success in this respect is the direct result of the commitment and collaboration of CPS and the CTU.”  

The New Teacher Project’s full analysis and an executive summary are available at: http://www.tntp.org/publications/other_publications.html.