This recruiting season, K-12 recruiters are likely to feel like they鈥檙e the ones in the proverbial 鈥渉ot seat鈥濃�� during teacher job interviews.
Blame it on supply and demand. Last fall, 69 percent of K鈥�12 public schools in a national survey reported that teaching vacancies were their primary challenge, according to the . Now, well into the academic year, schools continue to face staffing hurdles.
鈥淭oo few [teaching] candidates is absolutely a concern,鈥� said Kelly Coash-Johnson, the executive director for the American Association of School Personnel Administrators. 鈥淭here鈥檚 only a fraction of the pool of applicants compared to five to seven years ago.鈥�
The mismatch between job openings and potential recruits gives teaching candidates鈥� leverage this recruiting season. As a result, recruiters might want to heed the advice they normally give to job candidates: Come to the interview prepared.
In keeping with this advice, we鈥檝e done some of the heavy lifting for recruiters. Earlier this month, our social media team asked teaching job candidates on Twitter and Facebook what questions they would ask a potential employer in a teaching interview. Below are some of their responses.
Retention rates matter
Retention numbers aren鈥檛 great at a lot of schools. But really poor rates, or ones that suddenly take a dive, can indicate a red flag to a job candidate that warrants further exploration. So it鈥檚 no surprise that some respondents said they鈥檇 ask questions related to retention:
鈥淲hy did this position open?鈥�
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鈥淲hat is your employee retention percentage over the last three years?鈥�
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Scoping out support for teachers
Teachers give a lot of themselves, but they report feeling less and less supported in recent years. In a 2019 report by the , half of teachers surveyed reported 鈥渘ot feeling a great deal of support or encouragement鈥� from administrators, and more than 70 percent reported 鈥渘ot having much control or influence on selecting the content, topics, and skills they will be teaching in their classrooms.鈥� And that was before the pandemic.
Since then, there鈥檚 been a growing awareness of the need to support teachers, many of whom feel burned out, stressed, and disrespected. It鈥檚 no wonder, then, that a lot of the questions from our polls鈥� respondents revolved around a broad range of supports that teachers hope to receive on the job. Here鈥檚 a sample:
鈥淚f I were a new teacher, I would want to know if they have a teacher mentoring program.鈥�
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鈥淗ow do you support new teachers learning and growing at your school?鈥�
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鈥淗ow did you support the mental health of your staff to avoid burnout?鈥�
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鈥淗ow do you support teacher professional learning? ... What are the procedures when parents question or challenge a book/resource?鈥�
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鈥淓xplain an example of how you have supported your teachers in interacting with difficult or challenging parents.鈥�
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What鈥檚 the leadership style?
Teachers may not work alongside administrators on a daily basis. Nevertheless, how their administrators lead matters. For instance, teachers respond positively when principals step into the classroom鈥攏ot necessarily to observe them, but to teach the students, according to input from educators whose administrators have done so on a regular or even intermittent basis. Some of the following questions from survey respondents reflect that sentiment.
鈥淒escribe your leadership style and visibility.鈥�
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鈥淗ow often do you teach students?鈥�
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鈥淗ow do you provide feedback?鈥�
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鈥淲hat is your knowledge of the science of reading and structured literacy and how do you implement it in your building/district?鈥�
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School culture counts
Every school has its own culture. And, have found that a school鈥檚 culture is tightly connected with teachers鈥� job satisfaction and school performance. This robust set of questions makes clear that culture matters to teaching job candidates:
鈥淲hat is the best thing about your school community? What is the one thing about your school community you鈥檇 like to see improved/changed?鈥�
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鈥淗ow do you build community? How do you support teacher leadership? What鈥檚 the best thing about your district?鈥�
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鈥淲hat is your approach to fostering a sense of community among staff and students? To what extent does teacher and student voice drive the decision making? What kind of teacher leadership, mentor and collaborative programs have you implemented in the school?鈥�
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Expectations inside and outside the classroom
Teachers often operate behind closed classroom doors, but they rarely possess the autonomy that this physical arrangement would suggest. School policies, procedures, and expectations affect job satisfaction and performance just as big-picture factors do. Here are some of the policies and procedures survey respondents said they鈥檇 want to know about:
鈥淲hat are district beliefs on assessment?鈥�
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鈥淲hat is your cell phone policy?鈥�
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鈥淲hat duties are expected of me outside the classroom?鈥�
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