One hundred principals in struggling Chicago public schools will be trained on how to pick better teachers -- and hold onto them longer -- under a $150,000 program expected to be approved this week.

As baby-boomer teachers retire, the system needs to ensure their replacements are of the highest quality possible and don't bail out after a year or two, said Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan.

Board to vote this week

"If we can keep our best talent five, 10, 15 years, the benefits for our students are extraordinary," Duncan said. "Having a great teacher . . . as opposed to a constant stream of rookies, is going to make a huge difference in the academic lives of our students."

Nationwide, experts say, the neediest schools often have the toughest time holding onto their teachers.

Systemwide, CPS has been losing about 42 percent of new teacher hires within five years. However, there have been some inroads: In the last five years, the percentage of teachers who have left after one year has been cut almost in half, to 6.5 percent as of 2005.

Chicago school board members will vote this week on whether to use the New Teacher Project, giving 100 principals in CPS' low-scoring "probation" schools training on how to pick teachers that best fit their schools.

Under the program, CPS principals will be coached on what to look for in resumes. They'll receive a bank of 50 to 75 interview questions and be urged to use five or six of them consistently. And they will get help tailoring questions to their school's needs.

Principals also will be given various ways to stay in contact with new hires over the summer so they don't lose them to other schools before opening day, said Emma Cartwright, project manager in Baltimore, where the program has shown some success.

"Anywhere from 5 to 7 percent of the teachers you hire may not come," Cartwright said. "The first goal is to stay in touch with them so they don't leave before school starts."

In Baltimore, Principal Anthony Harold called his New Teacher Project training "illuminating" and invaluable.

When he was named head of Samuel L. Banks High three years ago, Harold said, only half of the students were passing state algebra tests. The quality of pupil work was weak and rarely on display. The school's suspension rate was the second worst in the district. More than 20 fires erupted inside the school in one year.

How to spot a realist

A year after he hired 22 new teachers based on training from the New Teacher Project, Harold said, two-thirds of students were passing their algebra tests. Fires stopped. Suspensions plummeted. High quality work started filling not only classrooms but also display areas in hallways.

A key difference, Harold said, was the new teachers.

Harold said he learned how to look for fraud in resumes and how to create scenario questions that probe instruction and classroom management techniques.

And, he said, he learned the importance of asking all candidates the same questions.

"Out of that consistency you'll see certain candidates will fall by the wayside, because they really don't have a clue what they are going to get themselves into," Harold said. "Part of the interview process is how to flush the realists from the idealists."

Training worked in Baltimore

Also valuable, Harold said, was training on how to sell his school at job fairs -- he shows candidates a PowerPoint presentation on his laptop -- while also being honest about its challenges.

"One question my schools frequently ask is, "What happens if a student curses at you?'" Cartwright said. "Sometimes principals say 'I don't want anyone to know that children in my school curse.' And I say, 'Are you kidding me? Otherwise you'll be recruiting people who will be so caught off guard [by cursing] that they can't recover.'"

CPS spokesman Michael Vaughn said the New Teacher Project is not a reaction to recent contentions by state Sen. James Meeks that Chicago's neediest students are taught by its weakest teachers.

CPS started piloting the training last spring, Vaughn said.

Cartwright said the effort has had an effect in Baltimore. Opening-day teacher vacancies among the 20 low-scoring Baltimore schools have dropped to only one or two from 10 or 20, she said.

In Chicago, by the end of the second week of school, CPS still had its share of teacher vacancies -- a total of 856.

On the plus side, the percent of vacant spots is now at its lowest level in three years, 3.57 percent, officials said. At the same point in 2004, it was 5.5 percent.