Recruitment and Selection 2014

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Contents

Recruitment and Hiring Goals 5

Recruitment - Roles and responsibilities 6

Calendar for Recruitment 7

Recruitment Strategies 8

Competency Based Selection Model 9

Why use a selection model? 9

What is a selection model? 9

Stages of Selection Process 10

Why use a variety of selection activities? 10

Town Center Competencies and Indicators 11

Best practices for selection 12

Selection – Roles and Responsibilities 13

Selection questions & scripts 14

Rating candidates 16

Appendix 17

Unlawful questions 17

Templates 18

Town Center Selection Model 19

Question bank 22

Effective Probing Interview Questions 27

Candidate Evaluation Template 33

Recruitment and Hiring Goals

Insert an intro paragraph about Town Center Schools’ recruitment and hiring goals. This is only sample language, be sure to modify:

Town Center Schools’ recruitment and hiring plan will help you meet your school’s goals. As a school leader, it is critical that you set academic achievement goals for your students, then select an instructional team with the talent to meet those goals. You are tasked with selecting teachers who best fit your school’s design, needs, and expectations.

It will enable you to make decisions quickly. Smart hiring is critical, but can be a lengthy process. We want you to be well-positioned to make effective and efficient staffing decisions this year. The first step is having a written staffing plan for your school.

It will build investment on your team. Having a written staffing plan will ensure that your hiring team is on-board with the process and criteria you select, and ultimately understands the rationale behind your hiring decisions.

Town Center 2014 Hiring Goals

Recruitment - Roles and responsibilities

Intro paragraph about roles and responsibilities. This is only sample language, be sure to modify:

Delegated roles provide an action plan with clear responsibilities will help ensure that each Town Center school can take full advantage of the staffing process. This section will help you determine what you should you do now and what to plan for within the next few months. Your immediate next step is to introduce the Declaration of Intent process and confirm the intentions of those whom you are uncertain.

Date / Task / Goal / Person Responsible
By March 30 / Finish Declaration of Intent conversations with teachers / Retain as many high performers as possible / Principal

Calendar for Recruitment

Calendar needs to be edited so information is accurate

Recruitment Strategies

Competency Based Selection Model

Why use a selection model?

Teachers matter. The most important factor in student achievement is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Nothing matters as much as the person standing in front of those students – not where they come from, the resources they have access to, the building, the neighborhood. Nothing is as important as the teacher.

It will help you identify and refine what you are looking for. Using a high-quality model will help you zero in on the skills or traits your teachers need to have and plan how you will identify those skills and traits during the selection process. Having a detailed selection model will help you evaluate a large number of candidates effectively.

It will help you to establish and maintain a high bar for quality. Consistently utilizing a selection model will help you know what excellence looks like in each of the areas that are important to success in your school, even when interviewing and considering a large number of candidates.

It will help you to find teachers who are a strong match for your school’s needs and improve student outcomes. Up to 25% of a teachers’ effectiveness is driven by their fit at their school. Better matches between principals, teachers and schools also improves teacher retention.

What is a selection model?

A selection model is a formal rubric used to evaluate potential hires. See the graphic below for a full overview.

School Selection Model
Identified criteria are called “Competencies.”
Example of one competency: Teaching Ability
Each Competency has examples of specific behaviors called “indicators.”
Examples indicators of Teaching Ability
• Conveys ideas and information clearly
• Provides reasonable examples of effective lesson-planning, instructional strategies, and/or student assessment
• Possesses the ability to make content meaningful for students
Selection activities (application questions, interview questions/scenarios, writing prompts) are aligned with one or more competencies.
Candidates are rated.
Example of a four-point rating scale: (1) exemplary, (2) somewhat strong, (3) somewhat weak and (4) poor or ineligible.

Stages of Selection Process

Why use a variety of selection activities?

It will help you gather the evidence you need to make good decisions. Implementing a clear process will provide adequate opportunities for candidates to demonstrate the skills and evidence you are looking for in each competency. A well-designed process will let you view candidates through multiple lenses so that you make the best hires possible for your school.

It will invest candidates in your school. Through your selection process, you will be able to offer candidates an opportunity to learn about your school, their potential colleagues, the student populations and your expectations and working style.

Town Center Schools Selection Process

Town Center Competencies and Indicators

Essential Skills

Teaching Ability / • Makes content meaningful to students.
• Has a variety of strategies for engaging students and presenting content.
• Indicates confidence that all students should be held to high standards.
• Focuses on students’ academic success
• Presents content accurately and clearly
• Lesson includes a variety of components (visual, kinesthetic, auditory)
• Promotes participant persistence to get correct responses by addressing incorrect answers or confusion
• Allows ample time for student thinking and work
• Includes an accurate and systematic way to assess mastery (exit ticket)
• Creates a detailed lesson plan with scripted questions and/or checks for understanding
Classroom Management / • Lesson progresses at a quick pace, with no unnecessary pauses or wasted time
• Intentionally engages all participants actively in the lesson (through questioning, hand signals, note taking, etc.)
• Students are on task.
• Demonstrates ability to deal effectively with negative student behavior.
• Persists in offering viable and realistic strategies to deal with classroom management challenges

Essential Traits

Critical Thinking / · Analyzes data/situations thoroughly and generates multiple effective strategies.
· Understands and responds directly to questions.
· Organizes responses in a coherent manner.
· Supports responses or points with specific and relevant examples/evidence
Achievement / · Sets ambitious and concrete goals for teaching performance and/or student success.
· Has achieved significant, quantifiable success (with student learning or in another field/endeavor).
· Describes specific examples of taking on challenges or initiatives.
Reflective
Practice / · Regularly reflects on practice and thinks about how to improve
· Is receptive to feedback.
Commitment/ Persistence / · Conveys reasonable understanding of potential challenges involved in teaching in high-needs schools.
· Has high expectations for all students and believes all students are capable of going to college.
· Demonstrates persistence when confronting obstacles.

Best practices for selection

Selection Stage / Competencies / Best Practices
Written Application & Resume Review / · Achievement
· Critical Thinking
· Commitment/Persistence / · Review the written application and resume prior to the demo lesson and note things you would like to ask about specifically and follow-up on.
Phone Screen / · Achievement
· Commitment/Persistence
· Reflective Practice / · Review the phone screen notes prior to the demo lesson and note things you would like to ask about specifically and follow-up on.
Demo Lesson / · Critical Thinking
· Teaching Ability
· Classroom Management
· Reflective Practice
· School Fit / · Ask the candidate to prepare a 10 minute lesson on a specific topic, with a specific objective
· Give the candidate a lesson plan template and ask them to bring the completed lesson plan to the event
· Choose an “average” class for the candidate to teach
· If the candidate is presenting to students, prepare the class’ teacher for the sample lesson
· Create a set of guidelines for the candidate and define the characteristics of a good lesson; email this to the candidate at least 3 days before the date of the lesson
Demo Lesson Debrief / · Critical Thinking
· Teaching Ability
· Classroom Management
· Reflective Practice
· School Fit / · Spend 5 minutes after the sample lesson giving 2 pieces of feedback to the candidate.
· Check for understanding of the feedback.
· Ask candidate to discuss how they think they did and what they would change if they could.
· Stay focused. If the candidate starts to talk about other topics, remind him/her that the purpose of this conversation is just to deliver feedback on the sample lesson.
Campus Interview / · Critical Thinking
· Teaching Ability
· Classroom Management
· Reflective Practice
· School Fit / · Review your planned questions.
· Identify what you might hear in a strong response.
· Identify what you might hear in a weak response.
· Remember to consider different types of candidates.
· In some cases, the question may not change but the outline for a great answer does. What might you expect to hear in a strong response from an experienced teacher versus a new teacher?

Selection – Roles and Responsibilities

Stage / Task / Person Responsible / Timeline
Phone Screen / Schedule phone screen / HR / Within X hours/days
Phone Screen / Conduct phone screen / HR / Within X hours/days
Phone Screen / Update online candidate file with phone screen notes, ratings and areas for probing / HR / Within X hours/days

Selection questions & scripts

Sample question bank. Needs to be reviewed and updated to match Town Center preferences

Written Application Question

Why are you interested in teaching in a high-needs school?

Phone Screen Questions

What role does/will data play in your classroom? How does/will data inform your lesson planning?
Tell me about a situation where you identified a challenge and then did something about it.
Thinking back over your education (for recent graduates) or most recent teaching job (for experienced teachers) what are you most proud of and why?
Are there students who are not reaching your academic goals? If so, why aren’t they meeting them? What will you do to help these students meet your goals? What if a new student came into your class who isn’t meeting goals?
Why did you enter the teaching profession and how long do you plan to teach?
Are there any circumstances that would prevent you from finishing the school year?
A student is out of her seat talking in the middle of a lesson, what do you do? If the next day, she continues to talk, what steps do you take? If that doesn’t work, then what? (Note to Screener: Continue digging here to see if the candidate can provide 6+steps/attempts to correct the student’s behavior).
Tell me about the last time you learned something new? (Note: Teachers who are highly reflective will say very recently. This question tests for ongoing learning and self-development.)

Demo Lesson Debrief Questions

After the demo lesson, have the candidate review the exit tickets. Ask:

What do the results show you?
What misconceptions do you see in the data?
What would you do tomorrow?
What if you got the same/similar results on tomorrow’s exit ticket – what would you do then?

Note: If exit tickets are not available or not sufficient, the campus leader should provide some other data sample for the candidate to analyze.

Have candidate review exit tickets. Ask them to analyze the results and what they would do the next day to address student errors/misconception or build on their understanding. If applicable (i.e., if the candidate had challenges to classroom management), ask:

What challenges did you notice in student behavior or engagement?
What strategies did you use? Did they work?
What else would you try to address the behavior/engagement?

Provide praise and action step to candidate, ask:

What had you hoped to accomplish during the demo lesson and what steps did you take to reach this goal?
How might you do things differently the next time?
If necessary, have the candidate reteach a portion of the lesson.

Campus Interview/Demo Lesson

Our schools are in inner city DC and approximately 95% are on FARMS (Free and reduced lunch). Are all of these kids going to college? (Probe the answer)
Imagine that you’re teaching a lesson about X (subject appropriate topic), tell me three different ways you would assess whether the students learned the concept.
What is a common misconception in this content area and how would you address it?
How would you rate yourself as a teacher on a scale of 1 to 10? You rated yourself a ____. Please describe what a 10 teacher is doing that a ___ teacher is not?
We have 2 minutes remaining in the interview. What else do I need to know about you?
Campuses identify school fit questions

Rating candidates

Add TEXT here that explains how/where/when to rate each question in the campus interview. Also provide instructions on how to use the rubric to rate demo lessons. Lastly, provide a screen shot (or several) of the online candidate file illustrating where/how leaders should enter information; e.g.,