Report Blasts Teacher Hiring in City Districts

Contract provisions that force principals to hire teachers they don’t want are hampering efforts to build a strong corps of teachers for urban schools, a report contends.

In a study of collective-bargaining agreements in five large cities, the New Teacher Project calls for revising rules that allow senior teachers to take their pick of job openings, while novices are the first to be cut and can be “bumped” from their jobs by colleagues with more seniority.

The New York City-based nonprofit group, which works with districts and states to recruit and train teachers, urges allowing principals to hire the teachers that best “fit” their...