DCPS Recruitment Strategy

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DCPS Recruitment Strategy
A teachers and principals as clients approach to
attracting, selecting, cultivating and retaining
top teaching talent to drive student achievement
in DC Public Schools
NYU Stern Business School Debra-Ellen
Glickstein Catherine Hirschman Vanessa
Jackson Cindy Mino
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Recruitment Strategy

• The quality of a teacher in a classroom is 6
  times more impactful than all other factors
  combined. Six times!
• Joel Klein, Chancellor, NYC Department of
  Education
• February 13, 2009

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DCPS Recruitment Strategy

• Aim
• To develop a strategy to recruit top teaching
  talent for DCPS, in order to dramatically improve
  student achievement outcomes district-wide. This
  plan will be
• Fiscally sound
• Compatible with multiple Union contract
  scenarios and
• Seamlessly integrated into the human capital
  value chain.

• Agenda
• Key challenges
• Value proposition to target market segment
• Multi-pronged recruitment and retention strategy
• Implementation plan and timeline
• Budget

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Recruitment Strategy

• Key Challenges

Recruitment strategy must provide two-pronged
value proposition to district (1) Attracts
high-caliber teachers who get great results (e.g.
marked gains in their students achievement)
and (2) Promotes high levels of retention of top
teachers, who stay in district, develop, improve
and lead over time.
Recruit
Select
Develop
Retain
RESULTS x LONGEVITY MAXIMUM HUMAN CAPITAL NPV
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Recruitment Strategy

• Key Challenges

Barriers to Success

• Insufficient capacity at DCTF/TFA to recruit,
  on-board/ develop great new teachers
• Existing traditional certification programs
  provide inadequate preparation for successful
  urban teaching.

Anemic pipeline for new rising talent
NEW TALENT

• Timeline and budgeting timing for
  recruitment/selection of scarce star veterans is
  inadequate, driving lack of professional culture
  in recruitment.
• Recruitment/selection process places too little
  emphasis on screening for performance
  indicators/predictors of success.
• Union contract prohibits performance pay, an
  incentive to attract top talent among 2-4 year
  experienced pool.

Demand supply for high-performing, experienced
talent within DCPS
VETERAN STARS

• Lack of professional culture around supporting,
  rewarding great teaching under-investing in PD
  and attractive leadership ladders
• Union contract prohibits performance pay
  underinvestment of resources to retain top
  performers compensation to far back-loaded to
  retain star teachers in critical 2-4 year
  sensitive period.

Charters, PG county, affluent suburbs, etc.
cherry-picking stars
RETENTION
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Recruitment Strategy

• Key Challenges

Attracting and Retaining Top Talent

• Why arent high potential teachers coming to
  DCPS?
• Weak relationships with Schools of Education
  inconsistent quality of applicants
• Top undergraduates picked up by banks and
  consulting firms
• DCPS has stigma, is challenging to teach in
• Teaching profession is under-valued
• Why arent they staying?
• Lack of leadership/support from the principal
• Top teachers lack a sense of shared goals and
  values with colleagues colleagues lack
  commitment to student achievement
• Inadequate training and continued professional
  development and support
• Lack of career pathways, compensation for top
  performers
• Charter and private school hiring timeline
  begins earlier than DC recruiting

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Recruitment Strategy

• Value Proposition

Attracting Great People to the District
What is the value proposition that our target
market seeks?

• To be and feel well supported
• To be and feel valued
• To have opportunities for growth and significant
  leadership opportunities
• To feel that they are part of a successful team
  in a successful system both at the school
  level, as well as in the sense of being part of a
  larger movement to close the achievement gap and
• To achieve and maintain balance among personal
  and professional priorities.

Thats the value proposition we have to deliver,
and we have to do it BETTER than our competitors!
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Recruitment Strategy

• Value Proposition

All decision-making around human capital
functions services end goal of ensuring high
levels of student achievement.
Human capital teams value chain integrates
around teachers and principals as clients and
students as end users.
Human Capital Team
Teachers/ Principals
Students
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Recruitment Strategy

• Multi-pronged Recruitment and Retention Strategy

Core Strategies to Deliver Value Proposition
New structure for recruiting, selecting and
placing new hires (1) Client-oriented candidate
relationship manager team paid for
performance Aligning professional development,
compensation, and evaluation around taking back
teaching as a profession (2) Create tangible
value for teachers through strategic
partnerships (3) Performance pay (4) Significant
financial investment in ongoing support and
pathway development to grow and retain top
performers
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Recruitment Strategy

• (1) Human Capital Relationship Management

Human Capital Relationship Managers
Teacher Recruitment, Selection, Placement
and On-boarding

• New client-oriented model
• HCRM builds strong relationship with portfolio
  of principals
• HCRM provides seamless, high-touch experience to
  top teacher candidates throughout recruitment,
  selection, placement and on-boarding process
• HCRM is dually accountable to Dep. Chan. of
  Human Capital and to principals in the portfolio!
• HCRMs compensation driven by portfolio
  principals satisfaction with caliber of
  candidate yield

Principals
HCRM
Students
Teachers
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Recruitment Strategy

• (1) Human Capital Relationship Management

HCRM Portfolios Structure
Each HCRM will be responsible for recruiting,
selecting and placing 92 teachers/year.
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Recruitment Strategy
(1) Human Capital Relationship Management
HCRMs Relationships with Principals

• Communicate regularly with roughly 30 principals
  to gauge hiring priorities
• Assure that only highest-quality candidates
  occupy principals valuable time
• Manage early screening and selection phase
  including online application review, initial
  behavioral/culture fit phone interview, and
• Observe initial sample lesson, conduct data talk
  and lesson debrief
• Complete rigorous rubric-based evaluation of
  candidate to provide to principal in advance of
  principals interview of candidate

• Co-observes additional sample lesson with
  principal, debriefs with principal after
  candidates process is complete

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Recruitment Strategy
(1) Human Capital Relationship Management
HCRMs Relationships with Candidates

• Culls TeacherTrack database for desirable
  candidates, evaluates online applications
• Reaches out to desirable candidates within 5
  days of submission of application
• Conducts pre-screening phone interview for
  culture fit, data-drive, and assessment of
  candidates placement preferences and key
  priorities
• Observes initial sample lesson, conduct data
  talk and lesson debrief
• Completes rigorous rubric-based evaluation of
  candidate
• Assesses potential fit among schools in the
  HCRMs portfolio
• Coordinates school-based interview opportunities
  for candidates with principals
• Follows up with candidate to help navigate him
  through acceptance and on-boarding
• Arranges candidate dinners, cocktail receptions,
  etc. among new teacher candidates in clusters,
  portfolio schools, with mentors with their new
  teaching team

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Recruitment Strategy

• (1) Human Capital Relationship Management

HCRMs Ancillary Responsibilities

• Attend TFA and DC Fellows Recruitment Events
• Develop high-quality recruitment collateral
  (brochures, video, interactive web site,
  t-shirts, water bottles, note pads)
• Strengthen relationship with target Education
  Schools
• Plan closed target events for in-house referrals
• Run referral bonus programs
• Organize new candidate sell days

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Recruitment Strategy

• (1) Human Capital Relationship Management

Bottom line

• HCRMs are relentlessly committed to finding the
  right person for every classroom they are
  compensated commensurate with the level of
  service they provide principals in this regard.
• Hyper-investment of resources in up-front
  decision-making around recruitment-selection-place
  ment phase for candidates will ensure higher
  levels of teacher success later.

Compensation

• Base salary at market rate
• Bonus potential up to 20k driven by principal
  evaluations of candidate quality (after 1 yr.)
  teachers students assessment results (after 1
  yr, 2, yrs, etc.)

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Recruitment Strategy

• Multi-pronged Recruitment and Retention Strategy

Core Strategies to Deliver Value Proposition
New structure for recruiting, selecting and
placing new hires (1) Client-oriented candidate
relationship manager team paid for
performance Aligning professional development,
compensation, and evaluation around taking back
teaching as a profession (2) Create tangible
value for teachers through strategic
partnerships (3) Performance pay (4) Significant
financial investment in ongoing support and
pathway development to grow and retain top
performers
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Recruitment Strategy
(2) Creating tangible value for teachers through
strategic partnerships

• Create Opportunities for Teachers to Be
  Recognized and Rewarded
• Monthly Breakfasts with prominent DC movers
  shakers to reward success
• Fourth Friday Nights is teachers night 20 off
  at participating restaurants (critical mass of
  restaurants)
• Monthly Speaker Series events from exciting
  speakers exclusively for teachers. (Speakers
  might include academics, elected officials, heads
  of industry)
• Discounted Gym Membership (partnership with
  network of gyms, a la Washington Sports Club)
• Free Entry to Museums Cultural Institutions
• Ongoing Teacher discounts at participating
  stores (partnership with chamber of commerce)
• School Open Houses Cocktail Receptions
• Organized outings for teachers families
• Weekly spot dedicated to education on a local
  public access network
• Work with banks to get down payment assistance
  for teachers who have worked in the system for 5
  years.
• Teacher of the Month (Media blitz in local
  papers in school neighborhood around Teacher of
  the Month pictures at Subway Stations Bus
  Shelters in our school neighborhoods local
  stakeholders (ie leaders of religious
  institutions, businesses community organizations
  parents) invited to Teacher of the Month
  celebrations opportunity for Teacher of the
  Month to be recognized by/dine with prominent DC
  leader (e.g. Michelle Obama)

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Recruitment Strategy
(3) Performance pay
Show Them the Money!

• Merit pay would significantly enhance this
  recruitment plan and would markedly improve
  retention of quality teachers, minimizing the
  ongoing need for recruitment of new teachers.
• Absent the merit pay provision in Rhees
  proposed contract, our plan is still viable. We
  have built our plan around the assumption that
  the contract may be politically untenable.
• That said, rigorous and consistent
  implementation of PPEP review and dismissal of
  low performers is vital to our recruitment
  strategys success. Aligning our candidate
  evaluation rubric to the PPEP is of paramount
  importance. Candidates coming in should be
  measured against these same metrics. Performance
  pay should be aligned to these metrics.
• Additionally, the district should pursue a
  policy of financially incenting great veteran
  teachers to join teams in the most struggling
  schools and should incent math/science/special
  education certified teachers with financial
  reward.

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Recruitment Strategy
(3) Ongoing support and pathway development

• Urban Teaching Academy that provides rigorous,
  ongoing training and support

Modeled after Teacher U in NYC, DC Urban Teaching
Academy with provide opportunities professional
develop for 2-4 yr teachers.
Selective fellowship opportunities for
experienced teachers
Barack Obama Fellowship for DC Teaching
Excellence Fellowship for high-achieving teachers
with at least 2 years experience in DCPS 5
years overall. The fellowship would provide a
20,000 stipend and 2 years of additional
professional development support to 15 teacher
each year from a major philanthropic partner.
Fellows, in exchange, mentor 2 to 5 new,
inexperienced teachers in their school, serving
as instructional coaches and mentors.
Teaming teachers strategically within schools
Requirement for new teachers (e.g. TFA/DCTF Corp
Members) to team with a veteran teacher in their
schools for their first year, in order to ensure
(1) quality modeling, coaching and evaluation of
new hires, and (2) that new teachers receive the
support and guidance they require to feel
maximally successful during their first few years
in the classroom.
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Recruitment Strategy

• Implementation Plan and Timeline

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Recruitment Strategy
Budget
Break-Down of Budget-Forward Projected Fall 2009
Hiring Needs
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Recruitment Strategy
Budget
Proposed Budget 2009-2010
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Recruitment Strategy
Questions?