"By EMILY ALPERT
Part three of a three-part series.
NEW YORK CITY | The old rap on New Dorp High was that if you could send your kids elsewhere, you should. Its scores were below average in its stretch of the city, the working class enclave of Staten Island.
Yet the austere brick building was a destination for veteran teachers from the island who were tired of trekking to work in Brooklyn. They regularly bumped young teachers out of their jobs. Principal Deidre DeAngelis called it 'a grazing ground' for older teachers who only wanted to be there to shorten their commutes."
Such problems were endemic to New York City, which once forced schools to take teachers they didn't choose. San Diego Unified still does it today.
Principals can be handed teachers they never even interview. Teachers can be sent to schools they didn't pick. The system is driven by seniority and the need to find spots for teachers when schools shrink or close programs -- factors that can have little to do with what each school needs.New York faced similar problems. Then, four years ago, it overhauled its system completely.
It freed principals to hire whoever they wanted, allowing schools to ferret out the best teachers from across the city. New Dorp could also hang on to promising new teachers like Diana Composto, instead of seeing them shoved aside by others. Her glasses slide down her nose as she bounces around her classroom, encouraging students to imagine MySpace websites for the characters in a Steinbeck novel