In the competition to hire the best and brightest teachers, Delaware comes late to the game each year. Recently, over half its new teachers are hired shortly before the school doors open or after the school year begins. A task force created by the General Assembly last summer believes it has solutions to this problem – a problem that could be hurting Delaware’s ability to attract the best teachers to its schools.
The Delaware Teacher Hiring Task Force believes Delaware can become more competitive by slowing the trend of late hiring of teachers by Delaware school districts. The task force suggests the state develop spring student population estimates and use them to guarantee minimum amounts of state funding to districts, encouraging them to hire teachers in spring and early summer, rather than late summer and fall.
“The fact that we hire so many of our new public school teachers so late in the year is really a direct threat to our getting the very best new teachers in the classroom,” said Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn, who chaired the task force. “Right now, school districts from surrounding states can and do make offers to teachers weeks or even months before Delaware school districts make offers, and in this economy that means losing some of our best teaching candidates.”
The 10 member task force, which included representatives of the Delaware Department of Education, Delaware State Education Association, the Delaware School Board Association, and the Delaware Association of School Administrators, released its report Tuesday, detailing the late-hiring trend. In the 2005-2006 school year, 42.2 percent of teachers were hired in August or later. That number rose to 50 percent in 2007-2008 and more than 60 percent in the 2009-2010 school year. The figures are based on research by Jeffrey Raffel, professor of public administration at the University of Delaware. Although Raffel was not sure what the target percentage for late hires should be, he called Delaware’s recent percentages shocking. “When we did our very first survey, we re-ran and re-ran the results,” said Raffel. “I kept looking at the chart and and the tables and just couldn’t believe what the percentage was.”
The task force believes the primary cause of the late hiring trend is uncertainty on the part of local school districts about the amount of state funds the districts will get. Schools districts receive funding for a portion of teacher salaries based on a student population count, but the head count is not performed until the end of September. If schools overestimate the number of students and hire too many teachers, they have to absorb costs. On the other hand, delaying their hiring decisions can cause chaos.
To minimize that uncertainty, the task force suggests that the state coordinate an annual student population projection for each of its local school districts each spring. The projection would be based on a survey that would cost $50,ooo to $100,000 a year. Lt. Gov. Denn believes the cost could be offset by contributions by the districts or by a grant.
“Doing this at a state level is consistent with our belief that school districts should stop doing things in a piecemeal fashion and start sharing resources,” Denn added.
The task force further recommends the state guarantee it will provide almost all of its share of funding for teachers needed based on the spring projection. The task force report suggests providing 95 to 98 percent of the state’s share based on the spring numbers . “That means school districts will be exposed to little financial risk in making early contract offers,” said Denn.
But the recommended help from the state may come with strings. The task force calls for developing consequences for districts that fail to bring the number of late hires down once the state provides spring student projections and funding guarantees. The task force intentionally shied away from suggesting consequences because its members, according to Denn, “were very optimistic that given these tools that the numbers will change pretty dramatically” and there will be no need address the question more specifically.
The task force is also calling for publishing district-by-district statistics on late hires to increase accountability. Currently, the late hiring numbers are only provided for the entire state.
Denn says the changes will address a number of problems caused by late hires. He notes that the arrival of new teachers after the start of the school year can cause disruptive reshuffling of students and classroom assignments. And teachers “who show up just days before school starts or in some cases after school has started have no time for orientation, no time for professional development before they start work.”
State Senator David Sokola (D-Newark), who was also part of the task force, agrees, adding that new teachers “are often our least experienced—the brand new hires right out of college” who need preparation time to make a strong start to the year.
Diane Donohue, president of the Delaware State Education Association, which represents public school employees, is “very pleased” with the task force report. She says waiting for the September student count to determine how many teachers are needed is “just awful.” She agrees that the addition of teachers after the year starts is disruptive to both students and educators. Donohue started her teaching career 20 years ago as a late hire in the Indian River school district. It was difficult, she says. “I missed all the [professional development] before school. I had no time to prepare my classroom. I just had to go in and do it on the weekends and at night to get myself prepared,” said Donohue. “It definitely has an impact.”
While Donohue says she believes the state already has great teachers and hates to hear “we’re just trying to attract better teachers” to Delaware, she concedes that the proposed change “opens the pool to far more qualified teachers—and why not have a wider pool?” She also hopes more funding certainty will mean fewer teachers being hired on temporary contracts. Raffel says about 40 percent of new teachers currently are hired on temporary contracts.
Lt Gov. Denn hopes to have a system in place for providing student population projections this spring. That means finding funds for it in the middle of a budget year.
“Our state funding for public education is over a billion dollars a year,” Denn notes. “So, when you’re talking about $50,000–$100,000 to solve a problem that’s preventing us from hiring the teachers we want, I think that is a manageable sum.”
The task force’s other suggestions require action by the General Assembly. Sen. Sokola says if he remains chair of the Senate Education Committee he will solicit additional ideas from legislators before crafting legislation to enact the recommendations.
