If you look at the data on the teacher hiring process (some of the best of which has been put together by TNTP itself), what you see is that districts just aren't very good at it. They're slow, which causes them to lose out on better candidates. They don't recruit all that well, which means they have fewer candidates to choose from. And they tend to privilege more experienced teachers throughout the process, which, fair or not, limits their ability to attract young and motivated applicants.
Take, for example, the city of Philadelphia, which employs about 10,000 teachers in its 274 schools. Assuming a 9 percent teacher turnover rate (that's the national average--it's much higher in urban and low-income areas), the city needs to hire at least 900 new teachers every year. The graph below from the National Council on Teacher Quality shows how many applicants they've gotten over the last six years.
Simple division suggests that Philadelphia public schools are getting a little more than three applicants for every open position.Compare that to the competition for spots in TFA or TNTP programs. Only one out of nine TFA applicants get hired, and New York City's Teaching Fellows program, run by the TNTP, had 14,000 applicants apply for 700 spots (or 20 applicants per position).
These numbers matter. At the base level, it means districts have more and better options on who they want in front of its classrooms. Not to mention the symbolic impact for the ones who are selected to know that the position should be coveted, that if you do not care to be there, there are other people who do.
2 comments:
say what you want most of the TFAs i have known had 1 foot out the door the first day on the job.
I disagree with these programs, in a small percentage of cases they work. Look at the Teaching Fellows program that NYC has, most of the participants have jobs that they cannot succeed in, and the city hires them to make them teachers. Most of whom I have met (in class) have English as their second language and are not shining examples to put in front of a class. I may sound bitter, and I am, I was not selected for the program. I had to pay for the Master's out of my own pocket. Most of the Fellows get their Master's paid for and flunk out of the program. What a waste of money!!
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