The Crapshoot

Interviewing prospective teachers is a lot like trying to pick the chocolate in a box with the cherry inside. They all look the same on the outside, but some have a special something inside, that “something” that all school administrators look for. Finding that person who will become a special teacher someday is as much luck as it is science.

Most administrators I have worked with have certain things they look for in a candidate.
Some prefer experience and look for established teachers with known track records; others prefer young, inexperienced new hires that will be low on the pay scale. A friend that teaches in a local district sarcastically tells people that the district policy on hiring is to get the “cheapest person possible” for every opening. At my school, there is no set policy concerning experience. We will hire a teacher with experience, but generally give new hires credit for no more than eight previous years of teaching. In some cases, where the candidate has a special talent or skill that we want, more credit can be given. One teacher in my department, who has a special degree, was given extra years of experience in order to make our offer more desirable for him.

Our interviews for the new Biology teacher all took place last week. Two of the candidates were new teachers with only one year experience. The third was a teacher with 6 years experience. All three gave a very professional interview. The principal has a set of questions she asks all teaching candidates; what made you want to become a teacher, who were the major influences that make you who you are, what things do students do that “push your button?” My questions centered on their teaching style and how they felt about teaching a set curriculum. I am more concerned that the person we hire be a team player than they are a superstar. One department chair’s superstar is another’s pain in the ass.

One candidate we both agreed to reject, feeling that she might have discipline problems because of her inexperience. Of the other two I preferred one and the principal preferred the other. My preference was the other inexperienced teacher, an alumna who I had taught. The alumna is outgoing and confident, not afraid to speak her mind. The experienced teacher that the principal favored was meeker, her soft spoken personality hiding a quiet confidence. I was impressed with both.

As you can guess we hired the experienced teacher, and I feel this was because of her personality. I don’t mean to suggest that I am unhappy with our new Biology teacher, or that I think the other choice was significantly better. They were both very close in ability and potential, and I can live with either and be happy. My preference for the other candidate was subjectively based on familiarity not on any objective measure. Like I suggested, hiring a new teacher is a crapshoot at best.