Staffing the Classroom: How Urban Principals Find Teachers and Make Hiring Decisions

Engel, Mimi; Finch, Maida A.

doi:10.1080/15700763.2014.983131

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…These contextual factors are important for constructing meaning in teacher selection. For example, states and districts with higher teacher salaries and greater resources for professional development will draw a wider pool of applicants (Borman & Dowling, 2008;Hendricks, 2015;Imazeki, 2005), but principals in lower achieving schools are more likely to hire teachers with fewer credentials like substitute or student teachers (Engel & Finch, 2015). While these contextual factors are beyond principals' control, it is critical to address limitations in principals' sensemaking of creative and transactional hiring practices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Principals hiring practices entail a set of activities (screening, interviewing, and selection) aimed at securing well-matched candidates. A group of qualitative studies conducted in Chicago Public Schools from Engel and colleagues outline a useful framework on principals' hiring practices (Engel, 2013;Engel & Curran, 2016;Engel & Finch, 2015). Engel and Curran (2016) used interview data with 31 principals across multiple schools to enumerate ten best practices or strategic hiring behaviors for teacher selection.…”

Section: Hiring Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tensions Between What Principals Know and Do: The Role of Labor Market Conditions on Teacher Recruitment and Hiring

Castro

2020

Leadership and Policy in Schools

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Teacher hiring is a critical lever for improving school outcomes. However, the availability of supply is a significant barrier that affects principals' processes for teacher staffing. Drawing on sensemaking theory and concepts of fit, this study investigates how principals make sense of recruitment and hiring in a local labor market with severe teacher shortages. Findings illustrate labor market conditions constrained principals' attempts to hire strategically and shaped new practices and hiring behaviors. By presenting a conceptualization of these hiring arrangements-strategic, creative, and transactional hiring-this study reveals the micro-negotiations principals make when recruiting and hiring in teacher shortage environments. Teacher hiring is one of several key organizational tasks proven to be a significant predictor of school accountability performance and teacher satisfaction (Grissom & Loeb, 2011). As a critical lever for improving human capital within schools (Donaldson, 2013; Tamir, 2019), some have argued that teacher hiring is "the single most important task of a principal" (Mason & Schroeder, 2010, p. 18). Teacher hiring is a multifaceted process of recruiting, screening, and selecting the best candidate for the school environment (Engel & Curran, 2016; Harris et al., 2010; Jabbar, 2018). How principals go about this process is the focus of a growing body of research. Studies explore the kinds of tools principals use, principals' perceptions of applicant fit, specific screening and selection procedures across schools (i.e., charter or traditional public schools) and school levels, as well as the impact of policy accountability on principals' conceptualization of teacher quality (

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hiring Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tensions Between What Principals Know and Do: The Role of Labor Market Conditions on Teacher Recruitment and Hiring

Castro

2020

Leadership and Policy in Schools

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…For classroom skills, principals look for teacher candidates with a strong grasp on classroom management (Abernathy et al, 2001; Engel, 2013), subject matter knowledge (Engel, 2013), and an ability to work with diverse learners (Abernathy et al, 2001). Many principals look for teachers with prior teaching experience (Abernathy et al, 2001; Giersch & Dong, 2018; Jabbar, 2018) and take recommendations from other personnel in the school or district (Abernathy et al, 2001; Engel & Curran, 2016; Engel & Finch, 2015). For new teachers without any contracted teaching experience, principals look for positive evaluations from mentor teachers (Abernathy et al, 2001).…”

Section: Preferred Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey of Rural Principals: Preferences Regarding Teacher Candidates

Diamond

Demchak

Abernathy

2020

Rural Special Education Quarterly

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Rural school principals continue to have difficulty hiring and retaining qualified teachers. Researchers have sought to determine the preferred type of preparation programs and the specific characteristics of teacher candidates, but few have specifically focused on the perceptions of the rural principal. The purpose of this study was to understand current rural school principals’ perceptions regarding various factors affecting the selection of teacher candidates. Using an online, cross-sectional survey of rural school principals, data were collected to understand their perspectives regarding various factors that may affect the selection of potential teacher candidates. Results indicate that rural principals prefer to hire applicants who have completed a traditional 4-year college/university preparation program. In addition, when reviewing applicant materials they look for specific factors such as experience, those who are known in the community, cooperating/lead teacher evaluations, and areas of licenses held among teacher candidates. Rural school principals specifically reported a preference toward hiring applicants who hold a dual license in elementary and special education.

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“…Recent studies suggest that the teacher hiring process is relatively decentralized in some contexts. In Chicago, for example, principals reported that first interactions often occurred at their schools or at district-run job fairs, and principals reported being the primary decision-makers with regard to teacher hiring (Engel and Finch, 2015). Similarly, principals in a mid-sized Florida district were found to be the primary decision-makers in the teacher hiring process (Rutledge et al, 2010).…”

Section: Principal Influence In Teacher Hiringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That teacher preferences may result in inequitable distributions of teacher supply across schools within districts, however, suggests that decentralization may have negative implications for equity in the distribution of teachers. Further, even if an ample supply of teachers exists, evidence suggests that principals' preferences and hiring practices can vary systematically in ways that have the potential to exacerbate inequalities across schools (Baker and Cooper, 2005;Engel, 2013;Engel and Curran, 2016;Engel and Finch, 2015). This is partly due to variation in how principals make use of newly available data on teacher effectiveness (Cannata et al, 2017).…”

Section: Constant Controls Odds Ratio Max Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Principal influence in teacher hiring: documenting decentralization over time

Engel

Cannata

Curran

2017

JEA

Self Cite

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Purpose Over the past decade, policy researchers and advocates have called for the decentralization of teacher hiring decisions from district offices to school principals. The purpose of this paper is to document the trends across two and a half decades in principals’ reported influence over teacher hiring decisions in the USA and explore how and whether principal influence varies systematically across contexts. Design/methodology/approach Regression analysis with secondary data using seven waves of nationally representative data from the Schools and Staffing Survey. Findings Principals report increased influence over the 25 years that the data span. While principals of urban schools were much more likely to report having less influence over teacher hiring compared to their non-urban counterparts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, their reported influence increased more than that of other principals. Research limitations/implications Empowering principals as primary decision-makers assumes that they have the best information on which to make hiring decisions. At the same time, other research suggests that local teacher labor market dynamics contribute to the inequitable sorting of teachers across schools. This study raises questions regarding the implications of the increased influence of principals in teacher hiring on equity of access to quality teachers across schools. Originality/value This is the first study to explore whether and how principal influence in teacher hiring decisions has changed over time.

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Staffing the Classroom: How Urban Principals Find Teachers and Make Hiring Decisions

Cited by 25 publications

References 52 publications

Tensions Between What Principals Know and Do: The Role of Labor Market Conditions on Teacher Recruitment and Hiring

Tensions Between What Principals Know and Do: The Role of Labor Market Conditions on Teacher Recruitment and Hiring

A Survey of Rural Principals: Preferences Regarding Teacher Candidates

Principal influence in teacher hiring: documenting decentralization over time

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