I haven’t read the article itself, but from the abstracts and reviews “it examines content knowledge, cognitive ability, personality traits (like conscientiousness and agreeableness), feelings of self-efficacy, and scores on a teacher pre-screening evaluation, which measured level of organization and planning, among other areas” correlate with student achievement.

Their measures seem traditional, looking at people’s background to predict their teaching ability. The model to have new hires provide evidence they can teach (and that they can reflect on and improve their lessons) makes sense.

Again I’m wondering, how does that evidence of actual ability correlate with training? How early can you realistically make predictions?

Though, after that, my school hired me with whatever paperwork they had from TFA and the basis of an interview. My question, “Where does the screening take place?” My instinct says the school that hires, but we keep talking about the programs that train.

Would you really limit yourself to (merely) asking questions? Or would you design a more far-reaching approach to screening. Those OTF kiddos you hung out with before did the following:

1) made it through a paper screen (essay/ resume/ etc)

And then came to an interview day, which consisted of

1) sample teaching lesson
2) group discussion on ed issues
3) writing sample on class/ school specific issue
4) individual interview

This is the process that TNTP/ TFA utilizes. If I had my druthers, I’d include an opportunity to solicit/give feedback on the sample lesson, provide time to respond, and then watch that person reteach the lesson with alterations.

If we’re screening for something that is a mix of fundamental ideology matched with a skill-set that is both present and potential, it can’t just be about questions.

I’d like to address principle, not practice, though, if for nothing else but for fun: assuming one had 100 applicants to select from, what interview questions would one ask, what kind of demonstration would one require, what education would one look for, etc.

Part of me suspects, given your self-aware assessment of your own practice, I’d walk out of an observation convinced you had the essential elements in place, if not yet fully formed.

As a first year teacher, I must say that my weakest areas are classroom management and formative assessment.

I have kids who draw on desks in my class (though I have managed to catch some…particularly those who write their names on their desk), and I’ve lost a bathroom pass. I want to do more formative assessment, but right now, after school tutoring and just day to day planning are pretty overwhelming. Right now, most of my relationship building and formative assessment only happens with those kids who come in for extra help.

If in 3-5 years I’m still finding the same problems, then perhaps this isn’t the job for me, but I’m optimistic that in 3-5 years I will have at least some of the things I’m struggling with down. Right now, there are just so many demands on my attention, including the fact that I’m teaching everything for the first time, that I’m really just trying to keep my head above water.

The reason I mention this is because I think it’s hard to “identify its precursors” when it comes to who will become less oblivious over time…it might be easy to spot who is already really good “having eyes in the back of their head,” but especially when hiring first year/relatively new teachers, I think it’s a toss up when trying to identify who will be really bad even after several years. Almost everyone I’ve talked to has said their first couple years were rough in this area (unless they are really just trying to make me feel better). They also say, that as you become more comfortable teaching and have fewer things that take up so much attention, and you start becoming more attuned to what’s going on in your class.

I think perhaps one of the only things that MIGHT help identify whether or not a teacher will be someone who is highly attuned to what’s going on in their class is if they are open to constructive criticism and have a desire for personal growth and change. The teacher who doesn’t know he or she is oblivious (and refuses to believe that he or she is oblivious) will never gain the sense of classroom awareness you’re talking about. The teacher who is aware of the need for more formative assessment, who sees his or her own weakness in classroom management, and who desires to change has some hope of growing in those areas.

Another side thought on hiring teachers: I think it’s just really hard to “screen” teachers thoroughly. Especially math teachers because there aren’t a ton to choose from. My school hired several teachers very last minute, some without credentials, simply because there was a need.

– Candace

Just give me a little head nod if I have you right.

Ken, you’re right – the bar must be set MUCH higher for graduating and hiring teachers.

Mike

You say, “Teachers are paid to be engaging.”

On that point, we are in complete agreement.

On a related point (working to avoid non-sequiturs), I have no memory of any pre-service teaching class ever going over this point.

On a slightly tangential note, I’m thinking poor hiring choices on the part of school districts is the unfortunate result of universities churning out poorly trained teachers by poorly designed curriculum delivered by ‘been-there’ educators.

My anecdotal evidence (gathered over the last 13 years) seems to indicate over and over again that my coworkers view ‘engagement’ as trendy a concept as ‘tech integration’.

So no matter what measurement, it comes down to at these issues: what answers/responses/data are given by the candidate, and what questions/measurements/data are requested by the interviewee [you meant “interviewer” here, correct? – dm] (the latter already heavily influenced by one’s own world view).

So I’m asking, given your worldview, what questions / measurements / data would you request of the interviewee to ensure the best possible applicants?

Or, alternately, you could explain why that question is irrelevant to the matter of selecting good teaching candidates. In all this are you suggesting that until we resolve issues of inequity across our respective nations, we can’t address the issue of teacher selection / preparation?