If you are recruiting teachers it's important to make sure you are using effective hiring practices. We are providing a free resource to help you ensure you are using fair and reliable hiring processes. As we discuss in our last strategy, hiring effective teachers is one of your best recruiting tools. This packet of resources provides: A best practice guide to managing perceptions of … [Read more...]
Onboarding New Members to the District: If Fast Food Restaurants See the Importance, Shouldn’t School Districts?
Each year school districts comb through applicants to find candidates who have the most potential (hopefully using effective selection tools for teachers) and the next step in bringing them on board through orientation and socialization techniques that support your broader school district goals. The process of selection, orientation and socialization is often referred to as onboarding. School … [Read more...]
What’s the Point of Training and Professional Development?
Teachers log more hours out of the classroom for professional development than nearly any other reason. In the current climate of PLCs, PBIS, Common Core, ways to use technology in the classroom and many other large scale changes occurring within education, effective training will drive effective teachers and effective schools. Training is the hinge pin that links teachers with past models and … [Read more...]
Are You Hiring Teachers who will Do Well in a Team Environment?
How important are team behaviors in your school? Do you assess your applicants' abilities to work with a team in your teacher interview questions? The movement towards team-based work began to catch on about two decades ago in the corporate world. Companies realized the benefit of creating teams to manage projects and selected members of the team and new employees for the company based on what … [Read more...]
Who Should Observe and Develop the Performance of Teachers?
Is a principal the only qualified professional in a school building who can evaluate teacher performance? Under most organizational models of education the answer seems to be, yes. It’s time to take another look at who can and should develop and help improve the performance of educators in a school district. When the current model of most schools began over eighty years ago, one of the … [Read more...]
How Do You Evaluate Teachers?
The question of how to evaluate teachers seems to draw more controversy than most any other professional occupation. You rarely read newspaper articles or hear pundits discussing on talk shows how a pilot, accountant, attorney, or physician should be evaluated. It is generally accepted that people in these professions should be evaluated based on the behaviors they exhibit that lead to or … [Read more...]
How to Evaluate Teachers
The question of how to evaluate teachers seems to draw more controversy than most any other professional occupation. Politicians seem to think they have it figured out but the solutions are not as easy as they would make it seem.You rarely read news paper articles or hear pundits discussing on talk shows how a pilot, accountant, attorney, or physician should be evaluated. It is generally accepted … [Read more...]
How to Write Job Postings for Teachers
"Help wanted: Classroom Teacher." This hardly qualifies as a job posting within a school district. Surprisingly, many job openings fail to reveal critical information that applicants need to determine if they are qualified and interested in open teaching positions. When trying to determine how to write job postings for teachers, you may consider the following tips. My Postings for Teachers … [Read more...]
What Every School District Should Know About Teacher Interviews
What is the purpose of a job interview for new teachers and staff members in your school district? Did you know a typical job interview and standard teacher interview questions are some of the most unreliable methods of identifying effective teachers? Think about your school district’s turnover rate and student performance. If there is room for improvement in both areas, your teacher interview … [Read more...]
Best Practices for Hiring and Recruiting Effective Teachers
I grew up in the country so a fishing analogy in reference to hiring and recruiting the best teachers for your school district seems fitting. When school districts need to fill open positions of teachers and administrators they often use one method, job postings. A job posting for a teaching position is one way to broadcast positions within the school district, but that doesn't make it the … [Read more...]