A Guide to Hiring and Evaluating Quality Teachers / Instructors

The reform efforts in America's schools center upon enriching the quality of teachers and aligning instruction with the academic standards established for students. The National commission on Teaching and America's Future (as cited in Samuels, Rodenberg, Frey & Fisher, 2001, p. 310) contend, "What teachers know and can do makes the crucial difference in what children learn." Hiring classroom instructors is one of the most difficult and demanding tasks educational leaders encounter (Coppola, Scricca, & Connors, 2004). Indisputably, classroom instructors are a valuable resource within educational institutions and have a profound and lasting affect on the education and learning of students. The time spent in the hiring process of classroom instructors is essential, yields results, and can have benefits beyond measure in the educational institution (Coppola, Scricca, & Connors, 2004). This treatise contains four sections and will include interview questions for hiring a classroom instructor and both summative and formative evaluation rubrics to assess performance once the classroom instructor is hired. Furthermore, this treatise will include reasoning as to how the instruments presented support quality instruction.

Interview Questions

1. What did you notice about the school upon entering?
2. In your past teaching experiences, how have you assessed your students?
3. What do you look for to evaluate that learning is taking place in your classroom?
4. What is your teaching philosophy and how do you individualize your teaching?
5. What is your plan to involve and communicate with parents in the learning process?
6. If you disagree with the curriculum, how would you plan and implement change?
7. What techniques do you utilize to ensure good classroom management?
8. What was the most difficult class that you have taught? Why was this class difficult?
9. What principles do you employ actively to motivate and connect with students?
10. How do you handle different ability levels of students in your classroom?

Summative Evaluation Rubric

Rating Scale
1-Needs Improvement: The classroom instructor's performance is consistently poor, substantial improvement is necessary to meet minimum expectations. The classroom instructor necessitates recurring guidance in his or her performance.

2-Satisfactory: The classroom instructor's performance is occasionally poor and sometimes does not meet expectations. The classroom instructor necessitates some guidance in his or her performance.

3-Good: The classroom instructor's performance is sufficient, meets expectations, does not need guidance in his or her performance, and exhibits professionalism

4-Very Good: The classroom instructor's performance is consistently beyond expectations and is competent in the position. In addition, the classroom instructor consistently exhibits professionalism.

Support in favor of previous information

The No Child Left Behind Act (2001) supports two essential goals: educating students with higher academic standards, and educators should be held accountable for student learning (Noguera, 2007). Therefore, classroom instructor evaluations constitute a vital element in education and may present a challenging task for educational leaders. Classroom instructor effectiveness is now linked to the classroom instructor's performance (Kyriakides, Demetriou, & Charalambous, 2006). The initiation of school reform and federal legislation concerning teacher accountability has prompted educational leaders to modify classroom instructor evaluation tools into performance-based tools that utilize research-based assessment standards (Kyriakides, Demetriou, & Charalambous, 2006).

Educational leaders within schools can review the effectiveness of their instructors by the outcomes of student achievement (Samuels, Rodenberg, Frey & Fisher, 2001). An effective classroom instructor is one who expresses knowledge of the curriculum, presents instruction in multiple methods to diverse students, and enhances student achievement. The best manner in which to measure this is with summative and formative research-based assessments (Markey, 2004).Evaluations aid in identifying an acceptable level of competency among classroom instructors, improve performance, validate strengths and areas requiring improvement. Summative and formative evaluations have different intentions. Educational leaders conduct a summative evaluation to make personnel decisions concerning the classroom instructor this includes promotion, tenure, pay increases and dismissal (National Education Association, nd; Morgan, 2004; Downes, 2007). Educational leaders conduct formative classroom instructor evaluations mainly to improve the teacher's performance by distinguishing the classroom instructor's strengths and weaknesses (National Education Association, nd; Morgan, 2004; Downes, 2007).

In an age of test scores and accountability, educational leaders need to look beyond the basic resume and the applicants' enthusiasm for the job, fondness of students, and capacity to fit into environment of the educational institution. In hiring qualified classroom instructors to improve instruction, educational leaders must consider the skills the applicant possesses to present quality instruction to the students (Trimble, 2006). Educational leaders can identify the applicants who possess the knowledge and skills to present quality instruction and therefore, increase learning outcomes. One method is to ask the right questions during the interview. The other is to follow the formative and summative rubrics. These assessments together will address the areas that are essential to support quality instruction and improve learning (Trimble, 2006).

Conclusion

In education today, attracting and retaining quality teachers for quality instruction is an important policy concern for educational leaders. A small number of individuals will disparage the fact that good schools require good classroom instructors; however, conformity about how educational policy can best assist in the hiring and preservation of effective teachers is far more elusive (Hanushek, 2007). The preceding interview questions and evaluation resources will enable educational leaders to assess the performance of classroom instructors and aid in the search for quality classroom instructors who provide quality instruction for students.

References

Coppola, A.J., Scricca, D.B. & Connors, G. E. (2004). You're hired! Principal Leadership, 4.
Retrieved June 30, 2007 from ProQuest database.

Downes, S. (2007). Stephen's web: Assessment. Retrieved June 30, 2007 from http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?topic=149#Formative_and_summative

Hanushek, E. (2007). Pay, working conditions, and teacher quality. Future of Children, 17.
Retrieved July 5, 2007 from EBSCOhost database.

Markey, T. (2004). Defining the effective teacher: Current arguments in education. Retrieved
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McGill (n.d.) Office of student teaching: Formative assessment rubrics guide. Retrieved July 1,
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Morgan, S. (2004). Workshop notes: Making classroom observations fair, effective, and
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National Education Association, (n.d.). Formative vs summative evaluations. Retrieved July 4,
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Noguera, P. (2007). Evaluating no child left behind. Nation, 20. Retrieved July 2, 2007 from
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Polansky, H.B. & Semmel, M. (2006). Hiring the best and retaining them. School Administrator,
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Samuels, P., Rodenberg, K. Frey, N. & Fisher, D. (2001). Growing a community of high
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Trimble, S. (2006). Hiring savvy teachers: Questions to ask about assessments. Prinicpal
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