A blockbuster report released this week by The New Teacher Project provides hard data on a problem that until now could only be described anecdotally. In Missed Opportunities: How We Keep High-Quality Teachers Out of Urban Classrooms, The New Teacher Project (a teacher recruitment organization servicing high-need districts across the US) documents the experiences of teacher recruits as they navigated through dysfunctional district hiring processes. Confirming what many of us have long suspected, districts are consistently losing the best candidates by any measure due to slow, inefficient hiring practices, delays in budget timetables, and rigid union seniority rules. The report paints a very accurate picture of district personnel offices, which are often the least functional office in a school system.

The study sent out surveys to teachers in four geographically representative districts asking them why they had chosen to withdraw their applications. Many teachers ended up teaching in neighboring suburban districts, not because they wanted to but because time simply ran out. By the time that urban school districts offered a contract, anywhere from one- to two-thirds of the recruits had already withdrawn with the most talented first to go elsewhere. The withdrawers tended to be the cream of the crop by any set of measures: higher GPAs, graduates of selective colleges, more education coursework, and a major in the academic subject areas.

The relatively short report is full of great data and should be read in its entirety.