Competing for Teachers in New Orleans: Charter School Leaders' Recruitment and Retention Strategies

• In Event: The Charter School Principal: Inside Perspectives

Abstract

Objective

Many policymakers, education reformers, and researchers have identified teachers as the most important school-level determinant of student achievement (e.g., Chetty et al., 2011). One strand of policy that aims to improve teacher quality focuses on removing barriers to entry to the teaching field, diminishing the role of teachers’ unions, and revamping teacher pay/compensation systems to reward teachers for gains in student achievement. Until now, there has not been an opportunity to examine what happens when such reforms go to scale. New Orleans, because of the scale of its reforms, is an ideal site to examine what happens when policymakers lift restrictions related to teacher hiring and compensation.

Specifically, I ask: (1) What strategies do school leaders in New Orleans use to compete for, attract, and retain teachers (e.g., salary, perks, career pathways)? (2) How do school leaders define “talent”? (3) Which schools appear to compete with one another for human capital?

Prior Literature

Researchers have examined whether competition generated by charter and voucher policies results in higher teacher wages, and whether the distribution of teachers across types of schools changes as a result. These studies suggest that principals might respond to competition by changing hiring and compensation practices, and that charter schools and traditional public schools might have different strategies, but have rarely examined their actual practices. Few studies have examined the full range of school leaders’ actual hiring practices using qualitative methods (see Engel & Curran, 2012 for a key exception). Furthermore, these practices might look different in a highly competitive environment, such as in New Orleans.

Methods

In this exploratory study, I analyze qualitative data regarding how schools compete for teachers and talent in New Orleans. The data for the study were obtained from 96 interviews with district leaders, charter-school board members, charter network leaders, and principals of 30 randomly selected schools. I used qualitative case study methods, including in-depth interviews, observations, and document analysis in a stratified sample of 30 schools in New Orleans, supplemented by shorter interviews with 45 other school leaders in the city, resulting in coverage of over 75% of schools. Specifically, this study examines how exactly market pressures influenced school-level practices related to teacher recruitment and teachers’ search processes.

Findings

I find that school leaders and charter networks use a variety of strategies to recruit teachers and conceive of “talent” in different ways. In addition, school districts, charter networks, and intermediary organizations influence school leaders’ autonomy and teacher recruitment practices. Finally, the school choice setting poses unique challenges for teacher recruitment and retention.

Significance

This study contributes to theory and literature about what principals and human resources staff members look for when hiring teachers by examining the unique case of New Orleans. In addition, this study contributes to research on how competition affects schools, contributing to the small but growing body of work that moves beyond just competition for students to explore competition for teachers. This analysis also helps us to understand how market-based reforms influence different types of schools differently.

Author

• Huriya Jabbar, The University of Texas - Austin