Another Major Element of the HR program : Selection Criteria For Teaching Staff and Interviewing

 

SELECTION CRITERIA FOR SCHOOL TEACHING STAFF & INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires "adequate yearly progress," a level of improvement school districts and schools must achieve to ensure all students are proficient in reading and mathematics by 2013-2014. The requirement certainly puts a big pressure on schools to find qualified math and language art /English teachers who will deliver quality education to stay complaint with requirements of the law. 

In this regard, we always hear and I know from my own hiring experience that school districts as well as public charter school never cease to aggressively look for qualified math teachers all year long due to the shortage of them in the supply line. Recruiters agree on one thing: Math teachers are in demand as never before. "If you are a math or science teacher right now, you can pick which part of the country you want to go to," said Cathy Seeley, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Reston, Va. School districts are encouraging existing teachers to take math and science courses so they can teach the subjects.

As a school leader I am so aware of the inevitable fact that the state test scores are the strongest indicator of academic success or failure in my school. This situation creates too much pressure when recruiting NCLB compliant qualified math teachers and language art teachers.  If my evaluation will fail me at the end of the school year when my school receives poor test scores from state tests, no matter how good I am at meeting qualifications of an effective school leader, why would I not definitely give a high priority to establishing a very thorough and neat hiring procedure that will in return bring me quality teachers who will meet my schools’ instructional goals satisfactorily?

Now, I need a very good math teacher for my high school kids and I have prepared a very detailed selection criteria and relevant interview questions.

CRITERIA I: EDUCATION AND HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHER REQUIREMENT
I certainly require that the candidate finish a math education program with a proper license to teach grades 7-12. It is important that the candidate comply with highly qualified teacher requirement set by NCLB.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) highlights the importance of staffing schools with well-trained math teachers. Studies indicate that students taught by teachers with mathematics degrees or mathematics education degrees learn more than students taught by teachers without these qualifications.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Where does your passion to teach math stem from?
2. What college courses did you enjoy the most? The least? Why?
3. Who influenced you to pursue a career in education?
4. What was the single greatest highlight of your college career?
5. Why do you think you are a good fit for a high school?
6. What is your GPA? What were your grades from major math classes? What are your Praxis II subject and PLT (Principles of learning and teaching) scores?
7. Do you take necessary steps to stay complaint with HQT requirement?
8. Why do you think being HQT is important?

CRITERIA II: SUCCESFULL TEACHING EXPERIENCE: PERSONAL/CAREER ACHIEVEMENT, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESMENT

I would like to see that the candidate has a relevant successful teaching experience in a high school preferably in an urban setting.  The candidate should have the ability to meet what the job description expects him/her to perform. I prefer experienced teachers to new teachers when it comes to teaching at high school.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What makes you a good teacher if you consider yourself as a good teacher?
2. What have been the biggest accomplishments so far in your teaching career? Please give me some specific examples.
3. Have you mentored any new teachers and what do you look for in a good teacher?
4. What is an effective teacher in your own terms?
5. Can you state your educational philosophy and give me some examples from your experience that proves your adherence to your philosophy?
6. Did your students improve academically in your previous schools? Give me some concrete examples.
7. What are your effective classroom management and discipline strategies that have yielded strong results for you so far?
8. Describe a very detailed effective lesson plan of yours on a math topic you previously presented. What are the essential components of a good lesson plan?
9. Give me good examples of using technology in your classroom. Do you utilize smart board technology in your teaching?
10. What assessment tools do you use effectively? How do you measure student performance in your classroom? What do you do to prepare your students for state or standardized tests?
11. What are your exceptional teaching strategies which you think produce quality student learning?
12. How do you incorporate mathematical manipulative, and hands on activities into your class?
13. What is your homework policy?
14. How do you use data in your class? Do you craft date driven lesson plans?
15. How important is it for you to do test analysis and come up with remedial work for students who are behind?
16. What kind of intervention strategies do you provide for students who are low achievers and need remedial work? How do you implement differentiated instruction in you class?
17. Do you comply with you students with IEPs? How cooperatively do you work with special education teachers? Please give me some examples.

CRITERIA III: PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS

I put a big emphasis on the candidate’s personal qualifications, quality attributes that keeps the passion for teaching still on. Successful teaching experience is well associated and partnered with being able to relate to students and building good report with students as well as effective classroom management. It is important that the candidate demonstrate ability to communicate, open to professionally improve, have strong work ethics, possess positive attitude and interpersonal skills, and have good organizational skills. I would like the candidate to provide me with some reference letters from former employers including supervisors, building principals, department heads, university professors, etc., as well as copies of past evaluations and surveys conducted on the candidate by the former employers.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1.     Please tell me about yourself.
2.     What are your greatest strengths? What are your weaknesses, areas of improvement? What have you done in the past six months to improve in these areas?
3.     Where do you see yourself five years from now? What are your future career goals?
4.     Why do you think we should hire you?

5.     What kind of qualities are you going to bring to this school?

6.     What do you know about this school?

7.     What are some of the objectives you hope to achieve in your first year if your get hired?

8.     What do you think your students like you as a teacher?

9.     Express a few things that are unique to you that contributes to your becoming a very good teacher?

10.  Do you easily build good rapport with you students?

11.  What kind of incentives and positive reinforcement do you use for kids? How do you praise them?

12.  What do you do to make your class attractive and fun to be in for students?

CRITERIA IV: COMPETENCY, CAPACITY, AND CREATIVITY

I would like to see the candidate to be competent and ready to execute his/her duities enthusiastically. I want the candidate to motivate others to learn and fulfill promises expected of them and disseminate a high spirit which will lead to a quality teaching and learning. I demand that the candidate be creative when faced with difficult situations. The following questions will help me understand the candidate’s competency, capacity and creativity.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1.     Give me an example of a time in which you had to be relatively quick in coming to a critical decision.

2.     Tell me about a goal that you set for yourself and the steps you took to reach it.

3.     Describe the most significant report/presentation that you have completed.

4.     Tell me about a time in which you had to change your scheduled lesson plans at a moment’s notice.

5.     Explain a situation where you had to go “above and beyond the call of duty” to complete a task.

6.     Give me an example of a time where you disagreed with a policy/decision of your employer/supervisor.

7.     Describe a time where your work/performance was criticized by a supervisor. What was the situation and how did you respond?

8.     Tell me about the most challenging classroom management situation you have encountered.

CRITERIA V: PROFESSIONALISM, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATION, DISCIPLINE, ETC.

It is important that the candidate display professionalism and improve himself/herself professionally, possess good communication skills and maintain employee discipline and open to suggestions and criticism.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How many days have you been absent from work?
2. Have you ever been terminated or suspended from work? Have you ever received any warning from your supervisors?
3. What should be the professional attire for a teacher? Do you find yourself consistent with that
4. Can you define “a professional teacher” in your own terms?
5. How do you promote diversity, acceptance, and tolerance in your class?
6. Tell us your communication strategies with students, parents, and staff members?
7. How do you involve parents in their kids’ education?
8. How do you keep yourself updated with new things in education?
9. What do you do to professionally improve yourself?
10. What are some motivational stories you have experienced so far? Can you share any with us?

There might be more questions to ask the candidate, but as an interviewer I am not able to cover all the questions during an interview. In this section, I only covered some of selection criteria and relevant interview questions that go well with those criteria.After conducting the interview I would perform the following tasks as well.

Calling References:  Reference checking is a common and familiar hiring practice. I find it so valuable to call all the references provided by the candidate. I make user the references are not friends, or relatives. They must be supervisors, principals, department heads, colleagues, etc. I have set of questions that I prepared for references and I make sure I get to talk to all references. I ask about the employee’s reliability, teaching ability, and relationship with coworkers, administrators and parents.  I won’t finalize the interview process without completing this part. There have been cases in which the references have not given me positive feedback about the candidates. This may be found quite surprising but it is true. I have eliminated some candidates through references as well.

Background Checks: This might be deal breaker.  It is required to obtain one’s background check information when hiring. For schools, it is one of the most critical information required from applicants. They are called FBI and BCI fingerprint check. Criminal databanks are available in most of the states. I have had to terminate several employment contracts due to bad records on staff’s background checks. It is a mistake to obtain background checks after hiring is done. It is advisable to get them before employment starts.

Rather than a license, a few test scores, and some other paper work about HQT, I would care amore about the experience the candidate will bring to my school and the quality of education he/she will offer. The interview questions I added under that section will give me a good hint about overall picture.  The questions aim to get answers about past accomplishments of the candidate, how he/she sees herself as a teacher, adherence level  to his/her philosophy, student academic improvement in candidate’s past teaching career, effective classroom management and discipline strategies that have yielded strong results for him/her so far, creative lesson plans, effective use of the technology, ways to measure student performance, exceptional teaching strategies, how the candidate uses data in his/her class, intervention strategies that the applicant offers for students, special education experience, etc.

Personal qualifications do matter a lot for me. I demand a continuous commitment from my teachers and never ending enthusiasm towards teaching. Passion for teaching button must be on all the time. Successful teaching experience also results from being able to relate to students and building good report with students as well as effective classroom management. It is important that the candidate demonstrate ability to communicate, professionally improve, have strong work ethics, possess positive attitude and interpersonal skills, and have good organizational skills. I use reference letters to feed me with more information on the candidate’s personal qualifications.

Competency, capacity, and creativity are all essential components that effective teachers must possess. After all, teaching career is not a piece of cake and it stakes a lot creative thinking, handling problems and difficulties in a day to day situation, resolving matters, making hundreds of decisions, etc. The candidates must possess high endurance and patience level to be able to cope with all obstacles and barriers that may stand in their ways. I would like to see the candidate to be competent and ready to execute his/her duties enthusiastically. Competency will result in self-confidence and sustainability for the candidate. I want the candidate to motivate others to learn and fulfill promises expected of them and disseminate a high spirit through which will lead to a quality teaching and learning. The interview questions target to know the candidate’s competency level, capacity, and creativity.

Professionalism, professional development, communication, and discipline are all important topics to touch on when selecting a candidate for any position. It is important that the candidate display professionalism and improve himself/herself professional, possess good communication skills and maintain employee discipline and open to suggestions and criticism. The interview questions focuses on the candidate’s ability to promote diversity, acceptance, and tolerance in his/her class, communication strategies with students, parents, and staff members, professional development strategies to stay up to date with the educational world and teaching profession, previous discipline data, employee absenteeism, work ethics and candidate’s own definition of being professional.

Reference

Interview Tips & Questions, retrieved from

http://www.ucmo.edu/career/students/edmajors/tips.cfm?print=yes&