Strengthening our school teams

Strengthening our school teams

An update from Interim Superintendent John McDonough

Tuesday, August 19, 2014 

In January we announced a plan to overhaul how we attract, recruit and retain educators into our classrooms.

 

Beginning in March we launched a competitive hiring process for about 1,000 teaching positions and began a campaign to hire teachers much earlier than in the past. More than 5,000 people submitted more than 40,000 applications through our new website, teachboston.org.

In June we announced we had met our goal of filling 75 percent of open positions for the upcoming school year while also increasing the diversity of our teacher teams to better reflect the students we serve.

Today, as we approach the start of the 2014-15 school year I want to update you on what we have accomplished. We have come a very long way and our students will benefit. Our task is clear: We must ensure a great teacher in every classroom and a great school leader in every school for every student, every day.

This year we have ended the trend of filling the majority of positions very late in the summer. We have attracted talented teachers from outside BPS and our current teachers could more easily select and compete for different positions all across the District. We have offered school leaders and teachers the power to work together to ensure every child has the best educator possible.

This year we have also hired the most racially-diverse cohort of educators in six years. While there is more to do in this area, we have halted -- and now reversed -- a trend of decreasing racial diversity in our classrooms.

We have come a long way together with much more work ahead. Here is where things stand:

Office of Human Capital graphic - click for more

This week our Office of Human Capital is focused on hiring educators for the remaining 120 vacancies across our schools. About half of these are at Madison Park Technical/Vocational High School, where a hiring committee led by the Headmaster is choosing from among more than 700 candidates for 61 open positions.

We are also making sure the 115 permanent teachers who have yet to earn a position through the competitive hiring process have suitable positions this year. Although they have not earned classroom positions, we will assign them to roles that will give them the greatest opportunity to strengthen their own skills while matching their qualifications and experiences with student and school needs. This will put these educators in the best position to successfully compete for open positions in the future.

As the former Chief Financial Officer of the Boston Public Schools, I believe these hiring reforms represent some of the wisest investments in talent, public dollars, partnerships and sustained effort that we have made in many years. The most effective way to eliminate achievement gaps is to make sure every student is in a classroom with a great teacher, every single day.

This is what our work is all about. It is not about adults, job security or the bottom line. This is an investment in the future -- our city's children. We have offered schools more autonomy to collaboratively shape their educator teams and ensure there is an excellent teacher in every classroom every day. Now, as our educators prepare to open our school doors next month, we are looking forward to discovering the extraordinary things we will accomplish together.

John P. McDonough
Interim Superintendent