Category Archives: Education News

How To Hire The Best Teachers

Posted on by

Teachers are the key

Student experience and learning

Research has shown again and again that the single most important element in student success is effective teachers. Additional research has identified behavior themes that are common to effective teachers.

See: Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Achievement

http://www.targetsuccess.biz/wp/the-impact-of-teacher-effectiveness-on-student-achievement/

See: Behavior Characteristics of Effective Teachers

http://www.targetsuccess.biz/wp/the-importance-of-hiring-only-the-most-talented-teachers-2/

Positive and effective school culture

Teachers are the backbone of a school so it follows that a culture of excellence and supporting excellence in teaching is driven by the teaching staff in collaboration with administration. Positive and effective culture depends on quality teachers and effective leadership.

Problems with traditional hiring approaches

The “traditional” approach to hiring can take any number of forms but generally includes ideas like

  • Hiring people you know
  • Hiring referrals
  • Extensive interviewing

Unfortunately, in most cases, these are very subjective processes and tend to focus on selecting for reasons that are not tuned to finding the BEST teacher candidates regardless of where they come from.

What most leaders don’t know, yet should know, is what happens in the traditional hiring process. Continue reading →

The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Achievement

Posted on by

Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Achievement

The work of Bill Sanders, formerly at the University of Tennessee’s Value-Added Research and Assessment Center, has been pivotal in reasserting the importance of the individual teacher on student learning.4  One aspect of his research has been the additive or cumulative effect of teacher effectiveness on student achievement. Over a multi-year period, Sanders focused on what happened to students whose teachers produced high achievement versus those whose teachers produced low achievement results. He discovered that when children, beginning in 3rd grade, were placed with three high-performing teachers in a row, they scored on average at the 96th percentile on Tennessee’s statewide mathematics assessment at the end of 5th grade. When children with comparable achievement histories starting in 3rd grade were placed with three low-performing teachers in a row, their average score on the same mathematics assessment was at the 44th percentile, an enormous 52-percentile point difference for children who presumably had comparable abilities and skills. Elaborating on this body of research, Dr. Sanders and colleagues reported the following: Continue reading →

Interested In A Better Way To Sort Applications?

Posted on by

Our mission is to assist organizations in identifying,
    selecting and developing the most talented employees.

 

 

Consider using the effective, efficient and affordable online screening Sketches created by TargetSuccess.

 

 

WHAT IS A SCREENING SKETCH?

A screening Sketch is a forced choice online survey taken by each applicant. Each Sketch measures an applicant’s fit based on a set of research based excellence attributes for each specific job category. A numerical score is produced and allows the hiring organization to easily see how an applicant compares to all other applicants for a specific job. Sketches are available for: Teacher, Administrator and Classified Support Staff. For more information and DEMO Sketch visit www.targetsuccess.biz

WHAT IS THE COST (annual subscription)?

Teacher and Support Staff Sketches each:

ADA up to 1,500= $400.00

Above 1,500 ADA = $400.00 plus .10 cents per additional ADA

Principal/School Leader Sketch:

Quarterly (90-day) Subscription: $300 plus $0.7 per ADA above 2,000

Annual Subscription: $400 plus $0.13 per ADA above 1,500, 0.05 10,000+

INTERESTED IN A BETTER WAY TO SELECT FINAL APPLICANTS?

WHAT IS TARGET INTERVIEW?
Target Interview is a structured interview that provides an objective means for the final
selection of the most talented applicant. Each interview is based on a set of attributes consistent with high performers in a specific job. When used by trained practitioners, in your district, these interviews produce data that create a foundation for making solid, objective predictions of how the interviewee will likely perform in a specific position.

WHAT IS THE COST ?
$950.00 per training participant (Includes all materials). Certified Coders (those who have completed the training) can perform unlimited interviews.
We offer training conveniently online.

 

For More Information Contact:

www.targetsuccess.biz
info@targetsuccess.biz
(831) 607-9478

TEN THINGS GREAT ORGANIZATIONS DO

Posted on by

What makes a company GREAT

            1. Select people who have the capacity to move the organization to greatness
            2. Clearly articulate the purpose of the organization
            3. Create a shared vision that is compelling for all stakeholders
            4. Embed purpose, vision and goals holographicly into the total system and its parts
            5. Relentlessly pursue goals while remaining flexible to changes in the environment
            6. Emphasize continuous learning for all
            7. Demonstrate empathy for all stakeholders
            8. Build a culture that is both tight (directed) and loose (autonomy)
            9. Disperse leadership into all levels of the organization
            10. Commit to helping improve the world

 

Copyright by TargetSuccess, Inc 2013

Letter To An Assistant Principal

Posted on by

 

Dear friend,

Thanks for the email letting me know that you’d been appointed as an assistant principal. Congratulations! I am not surprised that you’ve been given responsibility for discipline, and I was delighted that you asked me for some ideas as you start this new position.

As you know, I have been observing assistant principals and other school leaders for quite some time. It seems that assistants are usually given jobs like discipline and/or supervision of classified staff. In comparison with the bigger picture of educational leadership, being responsible for discipline or classified staff may not seem very important, and it’s tempting to take on the attitude that this lowly assignment is something that everyone has to endure on their way to being a principal–like an initiation or right of passage. This attitude blinds one to the leadership opportunities in these seemingly lowly assignments. I’d encourage you to avoid this “rite of passage” attitude and become a leader in the area of discipline. Don’t just endure—LEAD! Continue reading →

The Importance of Hiring Only The Most Talented Teachers

Posted on by

By Pete Pillsbury

 

What’s the single most important decision educational administrators make?  The answer, research tells us again and again, is the selection of a classroom teacher.  The classroom teacher, without a doubt, is the most critical element in a student’s growth and academic achievement.  Peel all the layers of administration and there would remain the core of the educational process—a teacher in a classroom with children.  Think of teacher hiring as the leverage for moving the development of youth and their performance upward to new levels.  The teacher is the lever, and the quality of the teacher will determine how much leverage our students get to positively affect their learning and growth.  Thus, in my mind there is little doubt that teacher hiring is the most important action an educational leader takes. Continue reading →

The Slippery Slope of Selection – What Leaders Don’t Know about Hiring that Hurts Their Organization

Posted on by

By Peter Pillsbury Sr.

Good to GreatWe would all likely agree with Jim Collins in his popular book, Good To Great, that selecting and hiring the right people is key to organizational success. The most important decisions organizational leaders make is who to hire—organizations don’t achieve greatness without great people; it is that simple! Yet, often, we find selection of talent a slippery slope. The story is all too familiar and goes something like this: Bob was hired six months ago after a rigorous application process including two interviews. In the interviews he appeared friendly and convincing about how his talents would add value to the organization. The members of both interview teams had a good feeling about Bob and liked his confidence and ability to express his beliefs that were consistent with those of the organization. The consensus was a feeling that Bob would be a significant asset to the organization. Everyone involved in the selection process was excited and confident to recommend Bob above all other applicants. Continue reading →

Only The Best: Hiring Outstanding Teachers

Posted on by

A great curriculum in the hands of a mediocre teacher—even one with a credential—is nothing more than a mediocre curriculum

Leadership,  Nov-Dec, 2005  by Pete Pillsbury (While this was written 8 years ago, it is still relevant in today’s search for hiring outstanding educators)

Most administrators would agree that hiring a teacher is the most important decision they make. This decision has a greater affect on children than any other administrative decision. What a teacher believes and does as a teacher will either open or close doors to learning for students. Continue reading →

Teacher Touching Hearts

Posted on by
As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth.
Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.
However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant.

It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X’s and then putting a big “F” at the top of his papers. Continue reading →

Cocoon to Butterfly – The Metamorphosis of a School

Posted on by

Cocoon to Butterfly cover smallIntroduction

Several years ago when I accepted the job of principal at Yuba Feather Elementary School, a K-8 school in Northern California, I was told by a colleague that I was crazy to take the job. She told me that the atmosphere was hopelessly negative, that the staff was demoralized, and that students’ pride and interest in school were dismally low.

Having been given this advice and background information, I guess I was a little crazy, for I took the job. Despite the poor condition of the school, I sensed a powerful reservoir of potential. I saw a butterfly inside a tightly closed cocoon and believed a metamorphosis could happen. The metamorphosis of Yuba Feather School is something of a miracle? Today it is a school recognized through Northern California for its academic excellence, positive climate, and innovative atmosphere. The school has an award-winning writing program, a successful mastery learning “levels” math program, intense peer collaboration, a peer observation program, a highly successful literature-based reading program, a staff trained in teaching critical thinking, and an adult learning and problem solving environment for the teachers. Teachers from our school are sought out to make presentations locally and for other districts through Northern California. Two video films which focus on the Yuba Feather Writing Project have been distributed nationally and won first place in the 1986 National Education Film Festival. In 1986 the school was chosen as a California Distinguished School as a result of our students’ improved performance on the California Assessment Program test and our outstanding pride in their school.

Continue reading →