ED6857 develops the human resource management competencies that school and district leaders need to attract, develop, evaluate, and retain the high-quality staff on which student learning depends. People are the most important — and most costly — resource in education, and personnel administration decisions are among the most consequential and legally complex that educational leaders make.
The teacher quality pipeline: key HR functions
| HR Function | Goal | Key Practices |
|---|---|---|
| Recruitment | Attract a diverse, qualified applicant pool | Proactive sourcing, university partnerships, equity-focused outreach |
| Selection | Identify candidates most likely to be effective teachers | Structured interviews, performance tasks, reference checks, tryouts |
| Induction | Support new teachers through the critical first years | Mentoring, reduced loads, professional learning communities, regular check-ins |
| Evaluation | Assess performance for improvement and accountability | Observation rubrics (Danielson/Marzano), student growth data, professional growth plans |
| Retention | Keep effective teachers in the school and profession | Competitive compensation, professional growth, distributed leadership, supportive culture |
| Separation | Manage non-renewal, dismissal, and voluntary departure | Progressive discipline, documentation, due process, exit interviews |
What ED6857 covers
Teacher evaluation has evolved significantly from annual administrative observations and ratings to multi-measure systems that incorporate classroom observation data (using research-aligned rubrics such as the Danielson Framework for Teaching or Marzano's Art and Science of Teaching), student achievement growth measures (value-added models or student learning objectives), professional practice indicators (attendance, professional growth, contributions to the school community), and stakeholder surveys. The shift toward multi-measure evaluation systems was accelerated by federal policy (Race to the Top, waivers from NCLB requiring student growth measures), but implementing high-quality evaluation systems is genuinely difficult: inter-rater reliability (do different observers rate the same teaching similarly?), validity (do the ratings reflect actual teaching effectiveness?), and workload (frequency of observations required for reliability) are all significant challenges. ED6857 examines best practices in teacher evaluation design and implementation, including how to use evaluation data for professional development rather than only for accountability.
Due process in teacher employment is governed by a combination of constitutional requirements, state statute, and collective bargaining agreements. Tenured teachers (and in some states, teachers who have completed a probationary period) have a property interest in their employment that requires procedural due process before termination — typically notice of the charges, an opportunity to respond, and a hearing. Non-tenured teachers generally do not have a property interest in continued employment and can be non-renewed without cause, though they retain constitutional protections against termination for exercising First Amendment rights or on the basis of protected characteristics. Effective dismissal of ineffective teachers requires extensive documentation of performance issues through the evaluation system, progressive discipline (a formal performance improvement process with specific, measurable expectations and timelines), and careful adherence to contractual and statutory procedures. Failure to follow procedures — not lack of cause — is the most common reason terminations are overturned.
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Key topics you write about in ED6857
- Strategic human resource management: aligning HR practices with school improvement goals
- Recruitment and selection: structured interviewing, bias reduction, diversity hiring strategies
- Teacher evaluation: multi-measure systems, observation rubrics, student growth measures, reliability and validity
- Collective bargaining: contract administration, grievance procedures, interest-based bargaining
- Employment law: Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FMLA, due process requirements, at-will vs. tenured employment
- Progressive discipline and dismissal: documentation, performance improvement plans, procedural requirements
- Compensation and benefits: salary schedules, step-and-lane systems, performance pay, benefit structures
Progressive discipline: the documentation chain
- Verbal warning: first notice of a specific performance concern — documented in the administrator's notes
- Written warning: formal written notice placed in the personnel file; specifies the problem, expected change, and timeline
- Performance Improvement Plan (PIP): detailed, time-bound plan with specific, measurable expectations and support provided
- Suspension: paid or unpaid, depending on contract and severity — escalation signal before termination
- Termination/non-renewal: final step; documentation at each prior stage is essential for defensibility
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Frequently asked questions
Teacher tenure (called "continuing contract" or "professional status" in some states) is a legal status that provides a teacher with a property interest in continued employment, triggering constitutional due process protections before termination. After completing a probationary period (typically 2 to 5 years depending on state law), a teacher who is granted tenure can only be dismissed for "just cause" and must receive notice of the charges against them, an opportunity to respond, and in most cases a formal hearing with the right to present evidence and witnesses and to appeal the decision. Tenure was designed to protect academic freedom and prevent politically motivated dismissals, and it remains important for those purposes. Critics argue it makes it too difficult to remove persistently ineffective teachers, which is the context in which many states have pursued tenure reform in the past two decades.
Research on teacher selection identifies several practices that improve predictive validity. Structured interviews — in which all candidates are asked the same questions and responses are evaluated against pre-defined criteria — are significantly more valid than unstructured conversations. Behavioral interview questions ("tell me about a time when...") based on specific competencies outperform hypothetical questions. Performance tasks — asking candidates to plan and deliver a brief lesson, analyze student work, or respond to a parent communication — provide direct evidence of relevant skills rather than self-reported claims. Reference checks conducted with a structured protocol by someone who can ask follow-up questions provide more useful information than form-based reference requests. Multiple reviewers reduce individual bias. All of these practices require more time than traditional "gut feel" selection, but the cost of a hiring mistake in a school — in student learning, in team morale, and in the eventual dismissal process — far exceeds the cost of rigorous selection.
Collective bargaining is the process by which a school district (as employer) and the recognized teachers' union (as the exclusive representative of all teachers in the bargaining unit) negotiate the terms and conditions of employment — including salary schedules, benefits, working conditions, evaluation procedures, class sizes, grievance procedures, and hours of work. The resulting agreement (the collective bargaining agreement or CBA) is a binding legal contract that governs employment for all teachers in the unit. In states with mandatory collective bargaining for public employees, both parties are required to bargain in good faith over mandatory subjects of bargaining. Administrators must become expert in their CBA because deviating from its provisions — in assignment, evaluation, discipline, or any other area — creates grievances and potential legal liability. Understanding the CBA and applying it consistently is a core competency for building and district administrators.
Hiring decisions in public schools must comply with federal and state anti-discrimination laws. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits discrimination against applicants 40 and older. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities and requires reasonable accommodation. The Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for equal work regardless of sex. Practically, these requirements mean that hiring criteria must be job-related and consistently applied, interview questions must not ask about protected characteristics (age, religion, family status, disability, national origin), selection decisions must be documented, and the process must be designed to minimize implicit bias. Affirmative action obligations (for districts with consent decrees or voluntary programs) add additional requirements to increase representation of underrepresented groups.