Like top NFL draft picks, the best teaching applicants are snapped up early. However, school district hiring schedules rarely accommodate this fact, as shown in NCTQ's just-released study of the Springfield, MA school district's policies and procedures. Addressing two of the main delays—late notification deadlines for exiting teachers and a long transfer window for current teachers—would help districts like Springfield attract top talent.

As the timeline below shows, Springfield's hiring process does not begin in earnest until June. And because the process for placing teachers who wish to transfer within the district takes so long, principals can only begin to interview candidates from outside the district in mid-July.



By the time principals schedule interviews with new applicants, months have passed since teachers first sent in their resumes. Many of the best candidates will have already found jobs in other districts.