Hiring - An Important Component to Educational Success

Hiring instructors may be one of the most difficult procedures that an educational administrator and his or her involved stakeholders will go through to create an exceptional learning environment. The process of hiring is difficult for those involved and an important event for the school district. Hiring exceptional instructors beyond basic qualifications and experience may make a hiring manager look inward and how he or she wants curriculum and implementation to be in the school for today's and tomorrow's students.

A hiring manager's perspective, goals, and philosophy may have to be demonstrated through the interview questions in a hiring situation. If the hiring manager wants to know more about the teacher-candidate's values and philosophy, to create a fit within the school, then the hiring manager's interview questions must reflect the stakeholders' and school's needs. Palmer (1997) discussed that teaching can go beyond technique and that teaching can come from the heart. "Good teachers join self, subject, and students in the fabric of life because they teach from an integral and undivided self; they manifest in their own lives, and evoke in their students, a capacity for connectedness." (p. 16). Table 1, shows ten questions that may be used by a hiring manager to pull the teaching stories beyond technique from the teacher-candidate. The interview questions can search for values and philosophy beyond simple teaching technique and the hiring manager may be able to assess a teacher-candidate's experiences beyond basic qualifications.

Table 1

Explain how your life experiences have been connected to your educational and teaching experiences.

Can you share how a life experience was connected to grade level curriculum, which you shared with the students?

Differentiating the curriculum is important to the school district. If you have experience in this area, or would like to learn, how would you differentiate an important learning event in your life?

Student homework is important to the school district, yet the students don't agree. How have you connected curriculum objectives to a 30 minute homework assignment for the students to practice or master, with positive student feedback?

Student participation reflects levels of student achievement. What can you provide and what can the implementation provide that requires student participation?
Open ended questions foster critical and creating thinking and also seek higher level thinking skills in students. Explain how this method can be used in subject content and share any stories from using open ended questions.

What knowledge and skills do you have to offer that is parallel to the curriculum or to support the curriculum concepts?

What kind of student discipline techniques did you respond to as a student? What techniques did you not respond to? What is your student discipline philosophy for classroom management, behavior, homework, or any others you feel important?

Describe one of your previous achievements in raising standardized test scores. What could we do as a school (providing you with needed resources, for example) that would enable you to have similar successes?

Describe a positive professional development event you participated in. How did you follow-up with that experience and how did the students benefit?
If you could redesign student weekly/yearly assessments, what would that entail? How do you evaluate yourself and your daily/yearly teaching performance?

The evaluation of a candidate's interview may be as important as the actual interview. The evaluation of the candidate's interview may be conducted by the interviewer or a team of interviewers if a panel of interviews were present. If a panel of teachers or administrators were present, it would be important to get the stakeholders feedback on each candidate's interview. Involving stakeholders includes the perspectives and diversity needed in an interview procedure as well as, the autonomy factor that educators seek in the workplace.

Evaluations can be represented by a summative and formative rubric. Rubrics can offer a short, comparative assessment of the evaluation process and create a situation for administrative discussion on the candidates (Summative and Formative rubric, Table 2). The ultimate decision for the hiring of teachers and administrators is the up to the hiring manager or school leader, so a rubric may create a snapshot of each candidate.

Formative rubric, Table 2

Evaluation of: _________________________ (Candidate)

Name: _________________________

Date: _________________________

Explain how the candidate fits into the school regarding knowledge of curriculum, discipline procedures, communication skills, educational philosophy, and implementation strategies.

Comments:

How will the candidate's life and teaching experiences help our school and students?

Comments:

How will the candidate fit within the teaching teams and supporting staff regarding student expectations and existing teacher/school goals?

Comments:

Share one reason why you want to hire and not hire this candidate.

Comments:

Summative rubric, Table 2

Evaluation of: _________________________ (Candidate)

Name: _________________________

Date: _________________________

1 = Excellent

2 = Developing / Showing Growth

3 = Inadequate / Inconsistent

Explain how your life experiences have been connected to your educational and teaching experiences. Can you share how a life experience was connected to grade level curriculum, which you shared with the students?

Differentiating the curriculum is important to the school district. If you have experience in this area, or would like to learn, how would you differentiate an important learning event in your life?

Student homework is important to the school district, yet the students don't agree. How have you connected curriculum objectives to a 30 minute homework assignment for the students to practice or master, with positive student feedback?

Student participation reflects levels of student achievement. What can you provide and what can the implementation provide that requires student participation?

Open ended questions foster critical and creating thinking and also seek higher level thinking skills in students. Explain how this method can be used in subject content and share any stories from using open ended questions.

What knowledge and skills do you have to offer that is parallel to the curriculum or to support the curriculum concepts?

What kind of student discipline techniques did you respond to as a student? What techniques did you not respond to? What is your student discipline philosophy for classroom management, behavior, homework, or any others you feel important?

Describe one of your previous achievements in raising standardized test scores. What could we do as a school (providing you with needed resources, for example) that would enable you to have similar successes?

Describe a positive professional development event you participated in. How did you follow-up with that experience and how did the students benefit?

If you could redesign student weekly/yearly assessments, what would that entail? How do you evaluate yourself and your daily/yearly teaching performance?

The hiring procedure goes beyond filling a vacant position to implement curriculum and foster student progress. Today's instructors, as well as future instructors, need be become a part of students' lives and their learning achievements. Gunter, Estes, and Schwab (2003) discussed how important a quality education is for students and the important role a teacher plays in a quality education. "The quality of instruction in a classroom will be determined largely by whether the students have a vested interest in the instruction and in their own learning," (p.353). The hiring questions and rubric evaluations may help determine whether the teacher can vest students with an interest in learning.

References

Gunter, M. A., Estes, T. H., & Schwab, J. (2003). Instruction: A Models Approach.

Pearson Education. New York, N.Y.

Palmer, P. J. (1997). The heart of a teacher. Change, 29(6), 14.