Insight Help Center
Hiring Process
Building a strong team starts with strong hiring practices. This Insight survey domain asks recently hired teachers about their experiences, with a focus on practices that are critical for successfully hiring top talent.
Recommendations
Based on our extensive experience, TNTP recommends the following as evidence-based practices for this domain:
- Create an equitable and rigorous selection process that helps you identify teachers who match your school’s needs, have the highest potential to improve student outcomes, and are able to make positive contributions to your school community and culture.
- Utilize a team to balance the workload, create stronger relationships between new and veteran staff, reduce the potential for individual bias, and allow prospective teachers to get a more accurate sense of your school community and culture.
- Norm selectors on the hiring process. Use clear rubrics that identify the specific, observable evidence you’re looking for in each of the selection activities, indicate how overall hiring recommendations are determined and train selectors on using these tools accurately. Continue to norm throughout the hiring season and have selectors co-rate together to ensure accuracy and alignment.
- Hire early. We recommend setting a goal of filling positions by May 1st if possible.
- Market your school to top candidates; be able to tell a story about what makes your school unique. Aim for mutual selection; candidates should be just as excited about accepting their offer as you are about giving it!
- Create a valuable onboarding experience so teachers start the school year understanding everything from the attendance systems to the professional development resources.
Resources
| Resource | Description |
| Teacher Talent Toolbox: Hiring | A collection of guidelines and samples for job descriptions, marketing, hiring system designs, interview questions, onboarding plans, and more |
| Avoiding Bias in Video Interviews Training | A short training on common triggers for bias in video interviews, strategies for mitigating this bias, and prompts for discussion |
| Best Practices for Virtual Interviews | A guide of best practices for conducting effective phone and video interviews |
| Conducting Strong Virtual Demo Lessons | Ideas for creating strong virtual sample lesson activities to use in teacher hiring |
| New Teacher Onboarding and Cultivation Guide | A guide for developing a remote teacher onboarding plan and cultivate new hires before the start of the school year |