“Seniority out, right fit in for Providence teachers seeking to fill openings”

Seniority out, right fit in for Providence teachers seeking to fill openings

Posted: 25 Jul 2010 07:32 PM PDT

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, July 26, 2010

By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Goodbye, seniority. Hello, "criterion-based hiring."

The annual city "job fair," where teachers were ranked based on their years in the system and bid on classroom openings, is history.

Instead, teachers now create a job profile online and apply for vacancies the same way. Then they are invited to interview with a screening committee comprising a school's principal, four teachers and a teacher leader.

What began last year as a pilot project in six schools now includes the entire Providence district of 2,100 teachers at 40-odd schools. The district has effectively abolished seniority as the primary method of filling vacancies. Instead, openings will be filled based on whether the teacher is the right fit for that particular job.

The move to do away with seniority stems from a February 2009 order by former Education Commissioner Peter McWalters, who argued that seniority hampered Providence from putting the most effective teacher in any given classroom. Under the old system, the teacher with the most years in the district bumped someone with less seniority. In a large district such as Providence, bumping sometimes resulted in widespread dislocations, with smaller schools losing up to one-third of their staffs.

The district has developed a software program that allows teachers to upload all their information — resumé, job history, certifications — online. The teacher selects search words (math, special education, high school) that indicate his or her job preference. Whenever a vacancy that fits that description becomes available, the system, called Providence Applicant Tracking System or PATS, immediately alerts the applicant by e-mail.

To avoid any hint of favoritism, the School Department, working with the Providence Teachers Union, developed a common bank of questions that rely on concrete teaching scenarios and short model lessons. During the interview, the teacher applicant must conduct a 30-minute lesson, submit a writing sample and answer a variety of questions.

Although the principal has the final say, his or her judgment should reflect the consensus of the committee.

Carlton Jones, the district's chief operating officer, says the new application process is much more accessible and responsive than the former one, which resembled an auction because teachers bid on jobs.

There is at least a nod to seniority in the new system, however. According to Jones, the five most senior applicants are automatically invited to interview with the search committee, although there is no requirement that they be given preference.

Once a candidate is chosen, he or she is notified by e-mail and has three days to respond. The average time it takes to fill a position is 29 days, Jones said.

Of the 230 openings in May, the district has filled 165 vacancies.

Last summer, the union complained that more than 130 teachers were still waiting to be placed just two weeks before school started. (The district said the number was closer to 85).

According to Jones, "We're six weeks ahead of where we were last year."

The majority of teachers displaced by the recent closing of Perry Middle School and Feinstein High School has found jobs: 64 percent of Feinstein's staff and 81 percent of Perry's teachers, according to school spokeswoman Christina O'Reilly.

What happens to those teachers who either haven't gotten a job or haven't applied for one?

On July 12, the district paused in the criterion-based selection process, added up the vacancies and began matching them with the teachers who didn't have jobs. This group of teachers is allowed to select their top school choices and, in this case, teachers with the most seniority are given priority.

There are 74 teachers who were not "matched" to existing openings, Jones said. They go into the long-term substitute teaching pool, which is required by contract and contains about 200 teachers. These teachers receive full salary and benefits but instead of having a permanent assignment, they fill vacancies created by illness, maternity leave or sabbaticals.

"We will always need a long-term sub pool," Jones said. "But it's better if we don't have a large pool of regular teachers."

The district hopes to eventually replace "regular" teachers with teachers hired specifically to be long-term subs, whose pay is capped at Step 4.

lborg@projo.com

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