HOW RESEARCH-BASED SELECTION IS NOW THE ONLY TOOL LEFT TO DETERMINE COMPETENCY IN TEACHER CANDIDATES:  WHO TO HIRE?

By Vicky Schreiber Dill, Ph.D. and Delia Stafford Johnson

10.19.09

Starting with Research-based Selection.  The teacher shortage and the drain of qualified people out of the public schools at a rate of about 50% every three years has not abated.  Conversations like this are heard around the nation in site-based teams, grade level meetings, small schools where everyone is involved in hiring, and at all levels.  These conversations reflect a national recognition that, without better teachers, we will not have better schools.  Without better teachers, neither small schools, charters, nor vouchers will fix the problem.  Listen in:

Superintendent:  “They all look wonderful  -- all three of these at the top.  What do you think?

Master Teacher #1: “I want Marcos.  He can be a role model for the boys.  This class needs role models, especially with those boys being a little over-age for their grade.  Out of the 29 kids, 20 are boys.  Besides, look at his biology credits!  Marcos can help us do the Science Fair!”

Principal: “Yeah, he might work out.  But I don’t know.  Marcos went to all those high prestige colleges – YALE!  Have you been there?  The ivy!  The mousse café latte?  The academic regalia!  Some folks down here think “Yale” means to yell really loud! We don’t exactly have ivy on these walls.  This is Kansas City, not Boston.  How do you think Marcos will adjust?”

Superintendent: “He’ll learn soon enough, but will he stay?  That’s what I care about.  I get so sick of them coming in that door and going on out six, nine months later!  Every time we have to hire another teacher because one left, that’s another mentor, more professional development, more recruiting, falling test scores, and BIG big bucks out the window!”

Parent: “What about this woman, Gloria?  She might be real good.”

Superintendent (ignoring the parent): “And I hate trying to get rid of the bad ones!  The law suits, the documentation, the time. . . I mean, Gloria looks good – on paper!”

Parent: “She does!  Check it out!  Born in Wichita , baccalaureate from University of Kansas and a master’s degree and ten years of early childhood experience in Hickmon Mills.  Then she moved right back here to our district.

Principal: “She might stay a while, but I don’t know.  I got the feeling she’s going to teach just long enough to get her daughter through Princeton.  How do you think she’d handle the really challenging kids?  That’s who she’ll have!

Master Teacher #2:  “I can’t really tell.  I mean, she looks a little over-educated to me.  Myself, I liked Tomika.  She’s young and she has a lot of good ideas.  Did you read what the cooperating teacher said about her?  All the kids liked her so much.

Master Teacher #1: “Who cares about what the kids think?  Is she in control?  I don’t know.  She seemed nice enough.  What I ask myself is, ‘what will she be doing when nobody’s looking?”

Master Teacher #2: “Listen, they all looked fine to me.  But Tomika wanted the job so badly.  Oh, and by the way!  Her husband just joined a law firm here in Kansas City! That’ll retain her.  She’s hungry for a job!  So I vote for her first, then Gloria, then Marcos.  Or whatever you think.

Superintendent:  “Tomika.  She’s young.  She’d be low on the pay scale.  I like that!”

Principal: “Why in the world would we want to be picky?  We’ve got a shortage here!  I say, hire all three of them and when we go to job fairs, we show them the pay scale, talk about how teachers’ associations protect everybody, about the joy of living in exciting Anywhere,USA, the fine cuisine, fun shopping here and there, and we’ll take their pulse.  If they’re breathing, they’re ours!”

In order to know who to hire, each principal must have two requisite pieces of knowledge: what they’re looking for and how to know if the person they’re interviewing is telling the truth.

1)      These two seemingly simple stipulations are, however, mischievously, confounding.  On the first note, neither being certified, highly qualified, highly recommended, or experienced necessarily guarantees a principal that a teacher will be able to build relationships with students.  Trust, we now know, is a baseline quality of good teaching (http://www.nwrel.org/request/2003sept/teachers.html); where there is no trust either between teachers or between teachers and students, achievement suffers.  So selection and interview instruments that identify relationship-building skills are indispensable.  Where there is no trust, biology knowledge or math skills or reading fluency fly out the window!

2)      An effective interview tool must not be able to be “sniffed out” or second guessed so that the candidate can change their answers to meet the interviewers’ expectations.  If both of these criteria are met, a candidate might be well judged to enter the classroom as a learning, growing, relationship-building teacher.

Other qualities and competencies are also clearly indispensable for teacher success: content knowledge, pedagogy, classroom management expertise, stamina, technology expertise, and organization are but a few of the many characteristics that successful teachers must demonstrate.

Where might we get the number of qualified teachers we need? 

Accessing a Wide Pool of Candidates.  At one time, in the mid-80’s, alternative teacher certification was touted as the answer to accessing a wide pool of mature mid-career professionals.  During the late 80’s and early 90’s, well-structured and highly monitored programs did indeed work to produce cadres of effective mid-career switchers into the teaching profession.  Achievement data verified these teachers’ competence and retention figures were excellent.  As developers of these programs, the authors saw firsthand how effective they were (Dill worked at TEA during the initial wave of alternative programs and monitored them; Stafford ran the first and largest program in the state of Texas for ten years).  

In the late 90’s, however, states like Texas and Florida decided to save money by not monitoring programs and by allowing performance on a test to substitute for evidence of candidate effectiveness.  Sadly, deregulatory laws and policies, lack of monitoring, and a brigade of entrepreneurs who care less about the welfare of children than making money have deftly and terminally heisted the movement.  The line between alternative teacher certification and traditional certification has permanently blurred and now all candidates come to the potential hiring pool with equally ambiguous credentials. 

Deregulation and free enterprise are not panaceas.  Politicians and entrepreneurs have sabotaged an excellent movement that yielded effective answers at a time when the children need us the most.  Now all we have left is screening and interviewing well.  Happily, the prospects there are not so bleak.

Vicky Schreiber Dill is the Senior Researcher for The Haberman Educational Foundation and works fulltime at the Dana Center; Delia Stafford Johnson is President and CEO of The Haberman Educational Foundation (www.habermanfoundation.org