AFT Cites Hiring Policies as Hitches in School Staffing

Teachers’ unions are often criticized as standing in the way of school progress on the grounds that their contracts make it harder for districts to staff troubled schools with the most suitable teachers.

But in a in a report released today , the American Federation of Teachers calls on districts—along with the unions—to review their own hiring and placement practices as possible reasons for the delays in finding the best teachers for hard-to-staff schools.

“There’s an assumption that unions are the ones bringing the timeline [during the collective bargaining process], but actually it may be the school district that brings the timeline, and the union maybe just agrees with it,” said Richelle Patterson, an assistant director of educational issues with the...