Sunday, January 22, 2012

Oakland schools try new way of placing teachers

Oakland schools try new way of placing teachers:

Oakland schools try new way of placing teachers

Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

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Mike Kepka / The Chronicle

Marian Marx works with her kindergarten students at Garfield Elementary School in Oakland, where she was placed after going through the district's proposed interview placement process "mutual matching."

In the world outside public education, people apply for a job they want, interview with their potential boss, compete against other applicants and are ultimately selected if they look like a good fit for the position.

It doesn't work that way in public education.

In schools, teachers do all the normal things to get hired, but when it comes to placement, seniority is what counts, not the perfect fit. The teacher with the longest tenure in a district gets first dibs on any available job at a school, with the principal - the school's boss - getting little or no input.

School district officials in Oakland want to change that, believing that it's in the best interests of students



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/21/MNRF1MRMTU.DTL#ixzz1kD6BrmWq
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