For Critical Shortage Fields and to Support Diversity

TOP RECRUITMENT & SELECTION STRATEGIES

for Critical Shortage Fields and to Support Diversity

Purpose / This tool outlines strategies to recruit critical shortage area teachers and improve diversity. Recruitment teams can use this to develop ideas when planning for a new recruitment season.
Intended User(s) / HR/HC Chief Officers with Recruitment Teams

Recruitment and selection consists of three distinct, yet interrelated components:

A.  Building and expanding the quantity and quality of the applicant pool

B.  Cultivating the best candidates to keep them warm

C.  Selecting the best candidate for a particular vacancy

A. Building & Expanding the Pool / Current Strategy? / Strategy to Consider?
Building the Pool (Broad & General Strategies)
1.  Recruit from multiple pathways
a.  Partner/Create your own alternative certification program
i.  Consider Urban Teacher Residencies
ii. Partner with local universities to create new alt-cert programs
iii.  Partner with Teach For America (TFA)
iv.  Contact teachers not accepted by TFA for your program[1]
b.  Work with local universities to alter the supply of teachers to fit your needs
i.  Lobby universities to redirect those interested in Elementary or Social Studies into critical shortage fields (e.g., Special Ed)
ii. Lobby schools of education to infuse programs with double majors (e.g., Elementary and Special Ed; ESL and Spanish)
c.  Partner with Future Educators of America groups
i.  Create pipeline of middle/high school students interested in teaching
ii. Consider a magnet program at one high school for potential educators
iii.  Offer guarantees of employment for bilingual and/or diverse high school students from your district who return qualified to teach
2.  Forecast vacancies to ensure early hiring
a.  Analyze turnover and retention by school, grade level, and subject
b.  Revise policies to ensure earlier notifications of resignations/consequences for late resignations (after July 1)
c.  Lobby the state retirement system to limit retirements to two dates per year (July 1 and January 1, for example)
d.  Consider incentives for early notifications of retirements and resignations
3.  Maximize student teachers
a.  Contact principals mid-year to determine high-quality student teachers
b.  Offer early contracts in shortage fields or for high-needs schools
c.  Work with universities to ensure placements are at least 50% at high-needs schools
4.  Use technology to recruit strategically[2]
a.  Enhance the website to get to vacancies in two clicks
b.  Create an instant notification in Applicant Tracking when a shortage field candidate applies
c.  Use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and social media to market your district and advertise critical shortage vacancies
d.  Determine your district’s value proposition and build your online presence accordingly
5.  Improve retention (so there is less need for recruitment)
a.  Create a strong induction program and analyze new teacher turnover, especially by subject, grade, and type of school
b.  Conduct an exit survey
A. Building & Expanding the Pool / Current Strategy? / Strategy to Consider?
Expanding the Pool (Specific & Focused Strategies)
6.  Increase SHORTAGE AREA applicants
a.  Offer early contracts in shortage areas
i.  Work with Budget to create an empty fund code for early hire-processing
ii. Set goals to hire 75% of needed shortage fields by May 1
iii.  Consider over-hiring in shortage fields by 10% to cover vacancies that occur after the start of school
iv.  Use the USHCA Sample Teacher Offer Letter for early hires
b.  Offer differentiated compensation by subject and by hard-to-staff school
i.  Encourage current teachers to change assignments or subjects - consider tuition reimbursement/additional compensation for adding critical shortage field certification
c.  Revisit contracts with TFA [or other external providers] to alter supply
i.  Set a percentage of TFA that must be for critical shortages
ii. Consider placing TFA elementary teachers in middle school math and science (those with appropriate undergrad content)
iii.  Set a goal for diversity for TFA to reach
d.  Create subject-specific strategies for your unique areas of need
i.  Math & Science
·  Recruit non-education majors at local universities
o  Contact the university department chairs in the math and science depts.
o  Ask if you can present to classes of colleges Juniors in shortage field subjects about careers in education
o  Ensure your state is flexible on certification requirements to allow for talented non-education majors
·  Create Math and Science Immersion alternative certification program – focus on effective pedagogical content knowledge and provide at least 12 weeks of practice teaching[3]
ii. Bilingual and ESL/ELL[4]
·  Provide tuition assistance/routes to allow teachers to gain additional certification
·  Create a pathway to encourage paraprofessionals and/or parents to become teachers (Work with your state to ensure loan forgiveness)
·  Participate in Foreign Teacher Exchange programs or recruit globally
iii.  Special Education
·  Work with universities to dual certify every elementary teacher in special education or ESL
·  Provide tuition assistance/routes to allow teachers to gain additional certification
e.  Differentiate retention strategies by subject using research[5]
i.  Different teachers respond to different retention strategies
7.  Increase EFFECTIVENESS of teachers in the applicant pool
a.  Hire early, when possible (see 6.a)
b.  Call your highly effective teachers for referrals (ghSmart)
i.  Identify 100 highly effective teachers to contact, asking them for colleagues they can recommend in surrounding districts (ghSmart tactic)
ii. Develop marketing talking points and contact the highly recommended
iii.  Conduct an aggressive campaign to hire experienced, successful teachers within the state (so they don't lose retirement by moving)
iv.  If the referral declines, ask them to recommend others they know who might consider relocating to your district
8.  Increase DIVERSITY in the applicant pool
a.  Determine if there are local social or religious groups where HR or your Superintendent could attend and discuss opportunities in education (for example, churches with high minority populations)
b.  Require any provider (TFA, TNTP, local universities) to focus more on diversity as they recruit
c.  Offer scholarships to your local high school students of color to acquire certification while in college and return to teaching in your district
d.  Recruit at local community colleges - offer students of color the opportunity to work as instructional assistants/tutors or aides during the summer and provide alternative certification programs they can take when they transfer to a 4-year college
e.  Reach out to teachers of color currently in your district to ask for referrals for either those teaching in other surrounding districts or for college grads who might be interested in becoming teachers
B. Keeping Them Warm / Current Strategy? / Strategy to Consider?
1.  Support principals in high-needs schools in recruitment & selection tactics
a.  Offer training and tools to help principals “sell” their schools
b.  Provide support from the HR Partner on cultivating candidates throughout the recruitment season
2.  Use highly effective teachers to market the district and seal the deal
a.  Pair every critical shortage field candidate with a highly-effective teacher who sells the district/school and stays in touch with the candidate over the summer
b.  Allow principals with critical shortage field vacancies to fill much earlier than non-shortage vacancies
3.  Communicate with candidates and potential hires FREQUENTLY and proactively[6]
a.  Identify audiences, key messages you want to communicate, and timing
b.  Use social media to connect potential hires
c.  Consider hosting events for early contract hires
C. Selecting the Best / Current Strategy? / Strategy to Consider?
1.  Analyze routes that yield the most effective teachers
a.  Communicate these routes to principals through the HR Partner and by prioritizing applicants from these routes in applicant tracking systems
2.  Survey principals to understand their applicant needs
3.  Disseminate research to all district staff regarding what predicts an effective teacher (Consider using the USHCA Research Quiz and Selection Perspectives document)
4.  Stop screening on selection criteria with no evidence in research
5.  Define what a good teacher and good teaching mean in your district (Consider using the USHCA Sample Teacher Scorecard and your evaluation rubric as a starting point)
6.  Consider shifting the conversation from selection criteria to tenure criteria

Have a strategy to share? Let us know!

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Top Recruitment & Selection Strategies

[1] http://www.gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/docs/RtoP_Brief_TeacherRecruitment.pdf

[2] http://www.100kin10.org/system/uploads/files/000/000/079/original/Solution_Session_Digest_Chicago.pdf

[3] http://www.stanford.edu/~sloeb/papers/Math_Immersion_Article_27Oct2009.pdf and http://www.ate1.org/pubs/uploads/ingersollexsum.pdf and http://www.gse.upenn.edu/pdf/rmi/EL-May2012.pdf

[4] http://www.gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/docs/recruitingTeachersforSchoolsServingELLs.pdf

[5] http://www.gse.upenn.edu/pdf/rmi/MathSciTeacherTurnover.pdf

[6] http://colegacy.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Cultivating-High-Quality-Candidates_A-Handbook-on-Effective-Communication-Practices.pdf