Using Portfolios for Teacher Hiring: Insights from School Principals

Certify, Blink, Hire: An Examination of the Process and Tools of Teacher Screening and Selection

“…4 Braun et al (1987) and Ralph et al (1998) find that principals gave highest ranking to honesty of response or quality of performance during an interview. Theel and Tallerico (2004) find "substance of response" and "chemistry during interview" (p. 29) to be the qualities principals value most highly.…”

“…Delli and Vera (2003) find that more than 1,200 public school districts use the TPI, Administrators also consider teaching experience, recommendations, and assessments. Principals ranked a candidate's successful teaching experience the highest in the studies by Abernathy, Forsyth, and Mitchell (2001) and Theel and Tallerico (2004). In three other studies principals ranked experience second (Broberg, 1987;Braun et al, 1987;Dunton, 2001;.…”

“…Theel and Tallerico (2004) conducted a case study of a midsized urban school district to explore the use of portfolios. They found that portfolios were not a major factor in principals' decision-making process because there were no standard forms of assessment and because portfolios "did not provide credible evidence of candidates' teaching abilities or 'people skills'" (p. 29).…”

Improving the Outcomes of the “Prediction Problem”: A Framework Approach to Teacher Hiring

“…However, when direct assessments of classroom teaching effectiveness are not available by hiring authorities, the truth is that school administrators must rely on the above artefacts and proxy measures to try to gain some insight into an applicant's potential inclassroom performance [27,28,29,30,31].…”

Helping Districts Hire Better Teachers: A Case Study Evaluating the Effectiveness of a District's Teacher Hiring Practices

“…One study that looked at the teacher hiring process in a mid-sized urban school district found that principals relied on in-person interviews the most to make hiring decisions and felt confident about their ability to rate candidates based on interviews (Theel & Tallerico, 2004). Despite their prevalence and the reported comfort in using them, interviews provide information that is more subjective and requires rubrics or training to ensure consistency in rating candidates.…”