Time is Ticking for Filling Teacher Vacancies

It’s June 24. Have you filled all of your vacancies for the ‘10-11 school year? If you haven’t, you’re not alone, but you should be concerned. The New Teacher Project studied the hiring practices of urban districts and found that urban districts are losing new talented teachers because they don’t make offers early enough. The data showed

• With aggressive recruitment, teachers apply to urban districts in large numbers
• But applicants withdraw because urban districts can’t make offers until mid-to-late summer
• So districts lose their stronger applicants and hire weaker ones
• And the teachers who did withdraw are committed to teaching in urban schools and many report they would have come to urban districts had they had an offer earlier.

Don’t become a statistic that further substantiates these findings. According to this study, it would have been best had you been able to fill vacancies by May 1. As summer ticks away, is it possible for you to fill them by July 15?