Educator Effectiveness

Hiring

Spotlight on Racial Equity

  • Diverse and effective educators make a positive difference for all students, and data on the MA teacher workforce highlights the urgent need to intentionally build and implement a talent diversification strategy in service of achievement and equitable outcomes for students. DESE's MA Teacher Diversification Guidebook recommends that districts begin this work by:
    1. Understanding why teacher racial and ethnic diversity matters to your students and district: Naming your 'why' and aligning commitments, communications, practices, and policies to reflect that 'why' is key to building a coherent approach to building a more diverse workforce.
    2. Auditing your current talent management processes, understanding the experience of your stakeholders, and setting goals.

Best Practices

Using Data to Inform Hiring Goals and Strategies

  • Access the Educator Data Dashboard and the Race/Ethnicity and Gender Staffing Report to learn more about the current status of diversification in teacher pipelines.
  • Gather information about the experiences of students, families, and educators, including educators of color, such as through surveys, interviews, focus groups.

Leveraging Existing Pipelines

  • Invest in student teachers and paraprofessionals. These educators are already rooted in your school community, are more likely to stay in your school longer than other new hires and can be more effective with students than the average first year teacher. Consider developing a partnership with an educator preparation provider to support these educators and build this pipeline, and consider whether the Registered Teacher Apprenticeship Program may be a good option for your community.
  • Collect and review hiring data from the Edwin Teacher Preparation Partnership Pipeline Report to identify the preparation providers currently providing student teachers and/or new hires for your district. There may be opportunities to expand on and strengthen partnerships with these providers.

Early Hiring

  • Studies suggest that instituting earlier hiring timelines increases student learning, teacher diversity, and retention rates.

Building an Equitable and Comprehensive Hiring Process

  • Include a diverse group of stakeholders, including educators, parents, and students to ensure broad input and to reduce the impact of individual bias in the hiring process.
  • Create, review, and revise 'must-have' selection criteria and screening tools. Clearly defining the role and the qualities of a successful candidate and developing a robust hiring process based on those criteria will help hiring teams identify and mitigate bias, ensure that each candidate is being evaluated on the key criteria that position them to serve students and their school community well, and provide candidates with the information that they need to better understand the district and the position.
  • Reflect on whether your hiring criteria and selection process are targeting a "culture fit" (a candidate who fits into an existing organizational culture) or a "culture add" (a candidate who brings diverse experiences, perspectives, and ideas). Learn more in this blog post.

Supporting Job Candidates

  • Enhance recruitment efforts by partnering with local organizations that host job fairs.
  • Consider whether the language of your job postings is inviting. Some tips include explicitly welcoming members of marginalized communities to apply, translating job postings and application materials into multiple languages, narrowing the required credentials to what is most necessary to do the job well, and avoiding a "laundry list" of preferred skills.
  • Share interview questions with candidates in advance. This can support those who need additional time to process, and signals that you are taking a welcoming approach to hiring educators.
  • Share with candidates the tangible ways your school and district works to build a culturally and linguistically sustaining work environment. This can support candidates, including educators of color, to make an informed decision. For additional information about cultivating a supportive work environment, see the Guidebook on Recruitment, Selection, and Retention Strategies for a Diverse Massachusetts Teacher Workforce.

Sample Hiring Resource from MA Charter Schools

Current Considerations

Educators on Emergency Licenses

  • Launched in Spring 2020 as a temporary measure to counter pandemic-related short-falls in staffing, the Emergency license option allowed individuals to enter the workforce without completing testing and coursework requirements necessary under normal circumstances for Temporary, Provisional or Initial educator licenses.
  • As of November 8th, 2023, the Department is no longer authorized to issue any additional Emergency licenses. An educator who obtained an Emergency license prior to November 8, 2023 has the opportunity to extend their Emergency license up to two times so long as the individual is making progress towards obtaining a license. Updated information about the Emergency license can be found on DESE's Emergency Licenses webpage.
  • If you are currently employing educators on an Emergency license, there are numerous supports available to help them progress to Provisional or Initial licensure. DESE has selected five Regional Licensure Assistance Centers to provide targeted support to emergency license holders working in Massachusetts and to the schools and districts employing these emergency licensed educators. Located throughout the state, each center supports candidates as they work to convert their emergency licenses to a provisional or initial license. For more information and to locate regional centers in your area, visit our webpage.

Questions to Consider

  • What does our hiring process communicate to potential staff?
  • How does our hiring process reflect inclusivity and equity?
  • Whose voices are missing from the hiring process? How can we invite diverse stakeholders into our hiring process?
  • What intentional goals and actions has our team taken to hire and create supportive environments for educators of color?
Additional Resources

Acknowledgements

For their contributions to this module, we'd like to thank DESE's Office of Charter Schools and School Redesign and the Principal Advisory Cabinet.

*Folx (as opposed to its traditional spelling, "folks) can signal intentional inclusivity, particularly of transgender and non-gender-binary individuals.

References

Booker, Chaka. Mastering the Hire: 12 Strategies to Improve Your Odds of Finding the Best Hire. Harper Collins, 2020.

Bruno, Paul, and Katharine O. Strunk. "Making the Cut: The Effectiveness of Teacher Screening and Hiring in the Los Angeles Unified School District." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, vol. 41, no. 4, 2019, pp. 426-460.

Gleischman, Kelly. "A Guide to 3 Virtual Hiring Event Types." Nimble, 2020.

Goldhaber, Dan, Cyrus Grout and Nick Huntington-Klein. "Screen Twice, Cut Once: Assessing the Predictive Validity of Applicant Selection Tools." Education Finance and Policy, vol. 12, no. 2, 2017, pp. 197-223.

Jacob, Brian, Jonah E. Rockoff, Eric S. Taylor, Benjamin Lindy, and Rachel Rosen. "Teacher Applicant Hiring and Teacher Performance: Evidence from DC Public Schools." Journal of Public Economics, vol. 166, 2016, pp. 81-97.

Peters, Mark. "Womyn, wimmin, and other folx." The Boston Globe, 2017.

The New England Secondary School Consortium Task Force on Diversifying the Educator Workforce. "Increasing the Racial, Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity of the Educator Workforce ." 2020.

Superville, Denisa. "To Recruit More Teachers of Color, This District Posted a Unique Job Ad." EducationWeek, 2019.

Please contact us at educatordevelopment@mass.gov with questions, feedback, or for additional support and partnership around any of the practices and resources included in this guide.

Last Updated: March 7, 2025