Hartford Public Schools conducts spring and fall surveys of teachers with results aggregated by individual school.  The Connecticut Teachers Association conducts yearly surveys of teachers.  Teachers join Hartford Federation of Teachers Union President Carol Gale at monthly public school board meetings to inform the district on issues within their schools.  Similarly, HFT members often issue public opinion pieces through local media channels (“Hartford Teachers at the Breaking Point”) to inform the district and the public on teacher climate.  This year, the district held four forums with teachers, ostensibly to gauge their satisfaction and to hear their voice (“Superintendent Schedules For Employee Town Halls – Skips all Four”).

Apparently all this “engagement” with teachers was not enough for the district and Chief Talent Officer Tiffany Curtis to properly assess why nearly 250 teachers left Hartford Schools during the latest school year (“Thirty-two Teachers Will Leave Hartford Schools This Month”).  Despite all the “engagement,” Curtis issued the most ignorant statement from the district since the superintendent’s “I don’t’ see that” claim about the rise in student bad behaviors. Curtis stated that HPS “may not have direct insight or oversight in how to retain teachers in schools because we are not right there in every school” (“The Follies of the Folks with the Fate of 17,000 Students in their Hands.”).

Recently I came across an article in the June 7, 2023 edition of EducationWeek that relayed information which appeared common sensical to this educational layperson, but for the sake of amateur educational folks hand-picked by the superintendent at the Office of Talent Management (where little management of talent takes place), I will share the ground-breaking information from the article.

The article, entitled “Interview Educators After They’re Hired, Too.  Here’s Why.”  Can you guess why, Ms. Curtis?  According to HR experts, the “why” is that engaging teachers in “stay” interviews and “exit” interviews demonstrates support for and interest in the teacher.  HR experts say that teacher retention processes should include “conducting interviews – with both current and departing employees.”

The article states that in a “meta-analysis of over 70 studies…support from supervisors ranked as a leading factor contributing to employees feeling valued and cared about,” and that these employees “were more likely to remain with the organization.”

In addition to developing that support connection, simple mid-year interviews or “pulse surveys” are a means to “gauge overall employee morale.”

HPS spends millions on “tracking” students who are at risk of not graduating or even being able to spell ‘graduation.’  The EdWeek article mentions the thoughts of one human capital expert who says that school districts should identify teachers who are a “flight risk,” teachers who may leave the school for other opportunities.  These folks are identified through “stay” interviews...and it wouldn’t cost the district a million dollars.

Gladys Cruz of Castleton, N.Y. is one superintendent who ‘gets it.’  Cruz used the “stay” interview to target teachers who were in danger of leaving teaching and retiring.  After conducting interviews, “some decided to postpone retirement.”

Victor Diaz is one school district HR chief who ‘gets it.’  Diaz said, “it is about listening, responding, and elevating the voices of our best people.”  Diaz states that when teachers leave, “all that experience, insight, institutional knowledge, relational capital, and momentum just goes out the door.”

DUH!  Perhaps the superintendent should make an HR job offer to Captain Obvious.

All that being said, the documented and costly history of this administration leads one to believe that they would take this HR lesson and turn it upside down.  Following their pension for hiring outside businesses to recruit and hire teachers because apparently nobody in OTM can create an Indeed ad or put together a hiring event in the North End to recruit substitute teachers, it would not be surprising if this administration hired a group of former HR professionals who recognized a need, joined forces, and now operate a multi-million dollar business which goes into school districts with which they have no connection what so ever and use cookie-cutter interview questions to produce reports which they think Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez would want to read.  And a box gets checked while the retention issue is not checked. 

This HR lesson is also useful for the school board.  Rather than using Board Member Escribano’s “leap of faith” method of assessing the superintendent’s ability to lead, the board should regularly invite teachers to their subcommittee meetings to gauge the effectiveness of policies, practices, people and programs and to just ask the teacher, “what’s going on?”

The myth of management is that it exists.  The folks at HPS are no myth busters.

Post script: The Connecticut General Assembly passed bill HB6880 which states that districts are now required to conduct exit surveys of teachers leaving the district and teacher attrition rates must be added to the districts strategic school profile report.