Louisiana's 'No Experience Necessary' Approach to Teacher Recruitment Undermines
Teaching and Learning in New Orleans
Report: Changes Are Essential for New Orleans to Compete for Experienced Teachers

New Orleans – As long as New Orleans continues with its dual and unequal school systems, students in the district of last resort—the Recovery School District—will be shortchanged because of policies perpetuating an acute shortage of experienced teachers, according to a new report from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) and United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO).

“No Experience Necessary: How the New Orleans School Takeover Experiment Devalues Experienced Teachers” chronicles the missteps made during the state takeover, including the creation of a Balkanized school system; the firing of virtually all teachers and other school district staff in December 2005, prompting a mass exodus of experienced teachers; and the refusal to restore collective bargaining rights. The report makes several recommendations for attracting and retaining teachers, especially veterans.

“By dismissing thousands of school employees, state officials have forced the Recovery School District (RSD) into a constant recruitment mode that is drawing resources away from programs needed to raise student achievement,” said LFT president Steve Monaghan. “Until the roots of the teacher shortage are addressed, these schools will be stuck in that mode.”

“The ‘No Experience Necessary’ sign must be taken down. Teachers and school staff can no longer be excluded from the dialogue on reshaping New Orleans public schools,” said UNTO president Brenda Mitchell. “With our classroom experience and fresh ideas, we can have a huge impact on the success of our schools.”

Today, veteran teachers make up less than half of the teaching staff in RSD regular and charter schools. “The post-Katrina education decisions made by Louisiana officials turned a pre-existing challenge—retaining experienced teachers—into a full-blown crisis,” the report says. The dearth of experienced teachers is especially disturbing given the research demonstrating the connection between experienced teachers and higher student performance.

The veteran teacher shortage is exacerbated by the existence of dual, unequal school systems. As long as schools in New Orleans operate in this manner, recruiting and retaining teachers will be difficult in RSD schools. “No Experience Necessary” also finds:

• The vacuum of experienced teachers casts serious doubt on state officials’ commitment to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires states to create a plan ensuring that poor and minority children are not more likely to be taught by inexperienced, unqualified teachers or those teaching outside their field of certification.
  
  
• The existence of dual education systems undermines the state’s obligation to provide an equally high-quality education to all students and hinders the RSD’s ability to accommodate midyear enrollment growth.
  
   
• Teacher pay does not appear to be the most significant factor in the shortage of seasoned teachers; the major issues are respect, working conditions and having a real voice in education decisions.
  

“No Experience Necessary” recommends making seasoned, experienced teachers full partners in the rebuilding effort. This would create an educational and working environment that retains those veterans who have come back to the schools and makes schools attractive to those who have yet to return.

Other recommendations for addressing the teacher shortage and improving school conditions include:

• Strengthen recruitment and retention of teachers, especially experienced ones, by enhancing New Orleans’ ability to compete with other school systems within and outside the state. The playing field should be leveled concerning application procedures, length of the workday and restoration of collective bargaining rights.
  
  
• Apply Louisiana’s “just cause” dismissal statute equally to all teachers in New Orleans.
  
  
• Provide appropriate incentives to encourage teachers who retired prematurely to return to teaching.
  
  
• Develop and implement a major nationwide recruitment and retention strategy, working with UTNO and its state and national affiliates to strengthen existing staff development programs to more effectively meet the needs of new teachers, as well as actively target and recruit experienced teachers from other urban school districts who have been laid off because of declining enrollments or budget cuts. 

LFT and UTNO leaders plan to present the report’s findings and recommendations to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). Mitchell explained, “We’re sharing this report at the beginning of the summer in hopes that we can start working on changes for the fall. We have a lot of solid, commonsense ideas that can be implemented in time for the new school year. We hope the members of BESE will agree to work with us to turn some of these recommendations into reality.” 

“No Experience Necessary: How the New Orleans School Takeover Experiment Devalues Experienced Teachers” is available for download at http://www.aft.org/presscenter/releases/downloads/NoExperReport_07.pdf

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