Attracting and hiring great school personnel

 "Attracting and hiring great school personnel is one of the most important drivers of a well-functioning school building, a building that must prepare diverse students with complex needs to participate in today’s knowledge-driven economy." - Caston Binger

Recruiting and hiring excellent educators is especially urgent in schools serving concentrations of diverse students, because teacher attrition disproportionately impacts their schools. While there are many techniques to recruiting and hiring top talent, below are several recruitment and hiring practices I would embrace as school leader: 

Recruitment Practices

  • Rely on our reputation:  First and foremost, I believe the most powerful recruitment tool a school could utilize is the school's reputation itself. When the entire school community works collaboratively to create a diverse and rich learning environment, the school's reputation precedes itself.  Schools that are known for their academic achievements and excellence garners attention. School accolades and high achievement scores could influence potential teacher candidates. 

  • Beef up our online presence: Devote time and resources to intentional recruitment such as posting job openings online. Popular job boards and professional networks, such as Monster, Indeed and LinkedIn, are a good source to find candidates and reach out to people who are specifically looking for teaching jobs.  .

  • Job Fairs: Attending job recruitment fairs with my hiring team and other school representatives (parent liaison/ school counselor).  Meeting job seekers in person can be an effective candidate attraction tool. My team and I would have the chance to answer all their questions on the spot while promoting our school. 

  • Collaborate and rely on current staff: Teachers who currently work at our school are aware of our goals, priorities and vision. Therefore, I would depend on them to recommend teachers who will fit well in our school culture.

  • Connect with recent graduates: People who are just starting their teaching career are usually eager to get into the classroom. I wouldn’t want to let that enthusiasm fade away. Therefore, I would connect with college career offices and alumni organizations to build strong networks with future and recent graduates.


Hiring and Selecting 

  • Create a hiring committee: A leader should not embark on challenging missions alone, it would be equally unwise to make all of the decisions by oneself. Especially when those decisions directly involve others.  I would enlist individuals within the school community to be a part of the selection process. Participants I would consider include: competent teachers, knowledgeable parents, school counselor, and parent liaison.

  • Screening: Our committee would read through applications identifying top candidates to interview.

  • Social media check: Our hiring committee would check the candidate’s social media footprint to “be sure” what we see and hear reflects the mission, vision, and core values of our school.

  • Prioritize diversity: Since we serve and educate a diverse population of students, I would prioritize teacher diversity and work collaboratively with my staff to develop strategies to attract teachers of color.

  • Multistep selection process: The selection process would include performance measures and present candidates with real-life teaching scenarios in order to understand and evaluate each candidate’s decision-making skills when leading a classroom.  It would be a multistep selection process assessing the candidate’s teaching ability, presence in the classroom, and overall cultural fit.

  • Reference checks: After we meet with applicants and top choices are selected, references would need to be checked and rechecked.

  • Shared decision making: As a team, we will collectively determine the best candidate and offer the position within the guidelines of our district.

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