Impact: Washington, D.C.
Select a Highlight:

In the nation's capitol, The New Teacher Project's partnership with the DC Public Schools has resulted in nearly 600 new teachers for high-need schools and unprecedented reforms in the district's teacher hiring policies.

In public education, meaningful and sustainable change requires not only innovative thinking but collaboration. In Washington DC, joint efforts between The New Teacher Project (TNTP), the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and the city's education community have led to groundbreaking reforms.

TNTP has taken a two-pronged approach to improving teacher quality in Washington. Together with DCPS, TNTP created and implemented a high-quality alternate route to certification program that to date has brought in approximately 580 new teachers for the city's hardest-to-staff subject areas and neediest schools. TNTP also partnered with the district to radically overhaul its teacher recruitment and hiring processes, instituting key reforms and moving up the hiring timeline so that the district could secure the highest-quality candidates for DC schools.

 

580 New Teachers for DC Schools

Like many urban districts, DC Public Schools has confronted significant challenges. Faced with a dwindling supply of qualified teachers in 2000, DCPS reached out to The New Teacher Project to develop and manage an alternate route to certification program, the DC Teaching Fellows (DCTF), with the goal of improving the quality and quantity of new teachers joining the city's schools. Implementing comprehensive recruitment and selection strategies and an in-depth summer pre-service institute, the program aimed to bring young and mid-career professionals with proven track records of success to the profession of teaching and to the city's high-need classrooms. DCTF was developed specifically to provide new teachers for the district’s shortage subject areas, such as special education, science, math, elementary education and English as a Second Language.

Now in its seventh year, the program has drawn over 580 outstanding new teachers to city schools, with the number of applications for high-need subject areas increasing from year to year. The 2007 cohort represented 17 percent of all new teachers hired by the district that year, and exhibited an outstanding record of achievement and diversity. Among the cohort:

  • 15 percent held graduate degrees
  • 62 percent were eligible to teach in the district's high-need subject areas
  • The average undergraduate GPA was 3.29
  • 24 percent were people of color
  • Nine in 10 (92 percent) took positions teaching in Title I schools, which have high concentrations of low-income students

“DC Teaching Fellows are a vital part of teacher recruitment and refreshment of the teaching community,” said one principal. “They are idealistic and driven and push others by example.”

 

Collaborating for Systemic Change

In addition to implementing the DC Teaching Fellows program, The New Teacher Project worked hand-in-hand with DCPS to improve underlying processes that were crippling the district’s efforts to staff its schools with high-quality teachers. This work, which took place over a four-year span from 2004 to 2007, culminated in critical hiring policy reforms.

In light of the success of the DC Teaching Fellows program, DCPS reached out to TNTP in 2004 to spearhead a reorganization of its Human Resources department, with a focus on re-engineering the district’s recruitment and selection efforts. This project improved HR processes, identified points for hiring timeline and policy changes, and increased the capacity of school-level staff to manage vacancies and hire the best new teachers. TNTP also helped the district launch online tools to streamline the teacher application process.

In 2005, The New Teacher Project worked with DCPS to implement a landmark initiative, Staffing for Student Achievement, that advanced the budgeting process for the district by four months and allowed principals and other school-level staff to bring in new hires concurrently with transfer and excessed teachers. This crucial shift prevented unnecessary hiring delays and ensured that high-quality applicants were not lost to nearby school systems that hired earlier.

In order to realize the policy recommendations of the Staffing for Student Achievement initiative, TNTP brokered a pioneering memorandum of understanding between the Washington Teachers’ Union and the district. This agreement allowed:

  • Veteran teachers to have greater choice in selecting the schools to which they were transferring or being excessed;
  • Principals to select the teachers whom they wanted to join their staffs, instead of those teachers whom they did not particularly want; and
  • New hires to be considered at the same time as veteran teachers (instead of having to wait until the transfer and excess processes finished).

The city government and the WTU have heralded the district for its innovative and productive work. And results of the collaborative efforts have become clear:

  • Teachers now begin interviewing for positions beginning May 1, instead of at the beginning of August
  • 76 percent of principals rated the applicant pool in 2004-05 as better than those of previous years
  • The district hired nearly 70 percent of its new teachers by the final week of July 2005, compared to just 10 percent of new hires made by the same week in 2004
  • Nearly 90 percent of applicants in 2004-05 rated customer service as "good" or "excellent"

Having equipped the district with valuable tools for lasting change, TNTP continues to consult with DCPS to implement effective technology systems that facilitate the teacher hiring process.

 

Ongoing Partnership

Over the past seven years, TNTP and DCPS have become true partners in the effort to put a high-quality, committed teacher in every classroom. Through its work with the district, TNTP has not only met immediate, school-level needs, but also helped DCPS tackle complex policy challenges and achieve critical systemic reforms.

Ultimately, The New Teacher Project’s most lasting impact on the DC Public Schools may be more indirect. In 2007, TNTP founder and CEO Michelle Rhee was tapped by DC Mayor Adrian Fenty to become chancellor of DC Public Schools. Having spent a decade dedicated to TNTP and to fostering the organization’s mission, Michelle accepted Mayor Fenty’s challenge to lead DC’s school system, inviting two members of TNTP’s senior leadership team to join her. Today, the city’s schools are benefiting from Michelle’s vision and from her commitment to ensuring that all schools provide students with a quality education.

 

In Focus | DC Teaching Fellows

The sound of a jackhammer breaking through asphalt can be melodious—at least at Bruce-Monroe Elementary School. Bruce-Monroe is housed in a deteriorating, 31-year-old building with an aging, bleak playground in the Northwest quadrant of Washington D.C. Yet DC Teaching Fellow Sarah Snydacker has worked to bring a slice of nature to the scene by creating a garden. Snydacker spent several Saturdays working on the project, as well as afternoons and evenings with students, parents and community members planting bulbs and getting the garden off the ground—and out of the asphalt.

Sarah’s work exemplifies the commitment that DC Teaching Fellows have shown to Bruce-Monroe and its students. Fellow Jack Werstein created a library at the school and now runs it, while Fellow Cesar Espejo operates Bruce-Monroe’s after school program.

These teachers have contributed extra time to Bruce-Monroe’s students and are making a difference. In 2007, Bruce-Monroe made Adequate Yearly Progress for the first time. With five Fellows on staff that year, the percent of students who tested proficient on state reading and math exams nearly doubled. In 2007, 40.68 percent of the school’s students tested proficient or advanced in reading, compared with 23.53 percent the year before. In math, 39.83 percent of students tested proficient or advanced, compared with 22.69 in 2006. While the rising test scores proved cause for celebration, they also motivated the school’s staff—including the eight DC Teaching Fellows now teaching there—to work even harder.

In 2008, Bruce-Monroe Elementary will merge with another school as part of Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s plan to improve the quality of education in the district. DC Teaching Fellows will continue to play a critical role in bringing better learning opportunities to students who need them most.

*National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (2003). No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children.

When Washington, DC Principal Marta Palacios is faced with vacancies on her teaching staff, she says, “the first thing that comes to my mind is the Teaching Fellows, because I have had such great experiences with them.”