Signal 1: Can you swipe right on a teacher? — A “Dating App” for Teachers and Schools Hiring Teachers

Teaching is a large profession in the US — the National Center for Educational Statistics projected 3.6mln full-time equivalent teachers in 2016. There is also high turnover and high demand in teaching resulting in a teacher shortage problem. For instance, the NYC Department of Education serves about 1.1mln students, with about 75k teachers, and hires about 6,000 new teachers each year. The tech start-up, Selected, capitalizes on this opportunity with a “dating app for job seeking teachers and hiring schools.” In May, TechCrunch reported that Selected closed on $1.2mln in seed funding. Schools signing up are a mix of public, charter and private schools from urban hubs like NYC and Newark. Seeing this, one must wonder about the potential biases that may arise from utilizing a “match-making” platform to hire teachers for schools, especially, considering the heavily reported racial discrimination in online dating platforms like OkCupid. Furthermore, to use a “match-making” platform for schools in resource-poor communities like the Brownsville where over 95% of students self-identify as Black or Hispanic and 90% qualify for free or reduced lunch ought to raise eyebrows. Given this, school leaders must be mindful of the underlying “matching” algorithm rather than believe it’s a panacea.