The first time we visited Pittsburgh to conduct our district
study, we were struck by a few things – the impressive Cathedral of Learning,
the number of picturesque bridges, and the amount of Steelers paraphernalia we
saw on everyone (no really, everyone).
As we dove deep into the data on teacher policies in the school
district, we were impressed by the thoughtfulness Pittsburgh has undertaken in
changing important policies affecting teachers in evaluation and
compensation. Pittsburgh’s teacher
evaluation system includes multiple measures, one of which is student surveys
(something NCTQ has long advocated for). This combined with their compensation structure, based
on experience and performance, made us downright giddy.
Like every district we study, there is definite room for improvement
in Pittsburgh– particularly in the area of staffing. The district is bound by
state laws requiring the use of eligibility lists (a list of eligible
candidates that are ranked – new hires must be chosen from the top 10 percent of
this list), and also force places teachers who have lost a position. Their
hiring timeline shows that most hiring of new teachers takes place in August –
far too late in the game.
Pittsburgh has made some bold moves in their quest for a
high quality teacher workforce and many of their efforts have paid off. In
other areas, like some career ladder positions and attempts to draw teachers to work in hard-to-staff schools, it’s time for adjustments to make sure their work yields
positive results.
Read more about our findings here.
Unfortunately we didn’t include any Pittsburghese
in the report, but we hope yinz will enjoy it anyways.
