We’ve consulted the research and interviewed several teachers who have switched schools within the last 5 years to identify tactical changes districts can implement to attract the best-fit talent for their schools.

According to the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), which conducted extensive research on teacher retention, hiring and personnel management is one of the top 5 areas districts can examine to solve issues related to the teacher shortage.

So what changes can you make to attract the best-fit talent?

Start earlier than you think.

First, it’s critical that districts hire early, ideally by May 1. Research by TNTP has shown that as a district’s hiring process drags out into the later part of summer, they are more likely to end up with a pool of less qualified applicants as the most qualified candidates accept job offers elsewhere.

In one of our teacher interviews, Christina, a middle school STEM teacher, commented that she had waited over six weeks to hear back from a particular district she was interested in, and soon withdrew her application because of the lengthy wait time.

She’s not alone. A similar experience is cataloged across candidates interviewed as part of TNTP’s Missed Opportunities study:

“‘The timeline is what made me decide not to pursue a position [with you]. It got to be the beginning of school [and] I ended up taking another offer, but this was the one that I wanted.’ — Special education applicant”

This same study prescribes several ways districts can bump up hiring timelines, like revising teacher notification requirements, reforming collective bargaining transfer requirements, addressing budget barriers, and revamping the roles and systems of human resources departments. And many districts, like Shelby County Schools, have seen great results implementing incentives that allowed them to identify vacancies earlier in the year.

Use tools like Nimble, that boost efficiency.

Changing hiring timelines may seem daunting to many districts whose current practices have been in place for years. However, districts can also secure more of the strongest candidates in the short term by leveraging hiring tools that promote an efficient and high-touch screening process.

In the Missed Opportunities study, TNTP notes that to be successful, a district must create a well-defined applicant process flow with clear steps, requirements, and status change notifications for applicants. This means utilizing an applicant tracking system that can be configured to your district’s exact hiring workflow and that prompts action when candidates are stuck in the process.

By implementing more user-friendly hiring software, DC Public Schools increased their team’s capacity and boosted the % of new hires coming from their centralized pipeline by 16%. They also filled 150 more vacancies by August than they had in the prior year!

Feature your schools in the process.

Our teacher interviews also underscored the idea that candidates prefer a process that’s not only well-defined but allows them to get to know the school environment:

“For me, I accepted a position at a school that utilized video demonstrations and in-person teaching demos because I liked that they clearly knew the metrics that a good teacher passes. It is crucial to role-play scenarios in the interview to see how teachers will navigate roadblocks inside and out of the classroom, including student behavior, family engagement, and challenges with colleagues.”

As another teacher stated:

“One of the interviews that I still remember, even though it was three years ago, was one where I got to do a live demonstration at the school and afterward I shadowed several classrooms. It was a smaller school so I was impressed with how personalized the admin made the experience, even asking me about feedback on their interview process when we were done.”

These three tips are just a small dive into today’s proven best practices for hiring. For more on how to attract top talent, check out:

• To hire the best, UX is key (Nimble)
• Teacher Talent Toolbox: 450 resources from more than 50 great schools and districts (TNTP)
• National Best Practices: Teacher Recruitment and Pipelines (NAPCS)
• Hiring Good Teachers: The Interview Process (NAESP)
• What School Districts Can Learn from Google’s Hiring Practices: Mistakes and Successes in Employee Selection (K12 HR Solutions)

The right fit: what real teachers consider when choosing a job was originally published in Nimble on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In this post, we’ll highlight 3 benefits of recruiting more teachers of color for your district’s most important stakeholders: your students. We’ll also outline 4 promising practices you can adopt to increase diversity in your talent pool and help shape thriving classrooms!

Impact of Educators of Color on Student Success

Although the number of teachers of color staffed in classrooms has increased steadily over the years, they still comprise of less than 20 percent of the teacher workforce, while students of color make up nearly half of all public school students. Nationwide, not one state has a proportionate number of teachers of color to students of color, and more than 40 percent of public schools don’t employ a single non-white teacher.

These statistics reveal how a lack of teacher diversity can contribute to the student achievement gap. There are several ways that the presence of more teachers of color helps students thrive:

1. Student performance: Research has shown that having at least one teacher of color can drastically boost the academic performance of minority students. In fact, black elementary students taught for just one year by a black teacher had reading and math STAR test scores 3 to 6 percentile points higher than students not taught by black teachers. These gains in test scores accumulated with each year that students were in classes with a teacher of the same race. In addition to higher test scores, having at least one same-race teacher means that students of color are more likely to attend class regularly and attend a four-year college, and less likely to drop out of high school.
2. Self-esteem and well-being: There is also research evidence that teachers’ perceptions, expectations, and behaviors interact with students’ beliefs, behaviors, and work habits in ways that help to perpetuate the Black-White test score gap. The Brown Center and others highlight the common theory that the presence of more teachers of color in the classroom can inspire students of color to visualize their own success, boosting their chances of graduating and attending college.
3. Cultural Understanding: Research and theory also highlight the role teachers of color can play in fostering cultural understanding and culturally relevant curricula — which contribute both to closing the discipline gap and producing substantial gains in attendance, GPA and credits earned.

Promising Practices for Recruiting More Educators of Color

Given the many ways teachers of color enhance the learning environment for students, we’ve outlined 4 key practices (with examples!) that districts can implement to diversify their talent pipeline:

1. Hire earlier than you think you need to: According to a report detailing Boston Public Schools’ (BPS) Human Capital Initiative, a higher number of in-demand candidates of color may be available earlier in the year. BPS was able to recruit substantially more candidates of color earlier in the year — in fact, 40% of candidates hired between March and May were black or Hispanic while that number dropped to only 27% of those hired in August. To move hiring timelines up, districts can offer incentives for teachers to announce their resignations and submit their requests for school reassignment by early spring. For example, in 2014, Shelby County Schools began offering a $600 bonus as a financial incentive for teachers who submit their notice by April. As a result of this incentive, the district was able to identify around 700 openings — more than half of its projected vacancies for the upcoming year — by April 15th, and staff some of its highest-need schools by the end of April.
2. Offer the right financial incentives: Research by the Brown Center for Education Policy finds that offering financial incentives that include student loan forgiveness, relocation assistance, and bonuses for teaching in hard-to -staff schools is associated with increases of 2 to 4 percentage points in the number of teachers of color staffed at a school. Providing student loan forgiveness and relocation assistance can be particularly attractive to college graduates of color who are significantly more likely to have student loan debt. In recent years, companies like Landed have sprung up to help districts offer down payment support, homebuyer education, and financial wellness to their teaching force.
3. Partner with Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs): The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) recommends that districts partner with MSIs’ teacher preparation programs to vet candidates for hire before they graduate. Districts can work with these programs to streamline applications and identify top candidates. One study cited by the Learning Policy Institute showed that schools who partnered with MSIs and other colleges and universities with sizable black and latinx populations, and narrowed their recruitment efforts to clubs focused on students of color, were more successful in their diversity recruitment efforts. “Successful schools also formed informal relationships with ‘connectors’ who could help them communicate with communities of color. In many cases, these connectors were teachers of color already at the school site who could reach out to their churches, alumni organizations, fraternal organizations, and other networks.”
4. Partner with alternative certification programs: Alternative certification programs, which recruit and train non-traditional candidates to become educators, can be great sources for minority teacher talent. Most recruitment teams are aware of programs like Teacher for America (TFA), but many aren’t aware that about half of TFA’s 2017 recruits (3,500 corps members) identified as people of color. KIPP Los Angeles credits its partnership with TFA for nearly tripling the number of new teachers placed from one year to the next, and in the 2017–18 school year, 40% of KIPP-LA’s 368 teachers identified as Latino and 17% identified as African-American or black.

Although there are many factors influencing the diversity of the teacher workforce, district recruiters and hiring managers can play a critical role by establishing hiring practices that expand opportunities for talented teachers of color. All four hiring practices outlined above can be suited to fit any district’s recruitment style — and ultimately, they serve as important steps toward helping our schools provide high quality education for all students!

4 promising practices to recruit diverse teacher talent was originally published in Nimble on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Focusing on the User Experience (UX) for School Leaders

At DCPS we run a centralized, TeachDC teacher selection process — vetting candidates before they are in a “recommended pool” for school leaders to access. We’ve worked with our research partners for several years to create a selection process that is predictive of performance on IMPACT, our district’s evaluation and feedback system for teachers. In the early 2010s, we were gathering valuable data in the teacher application process, but “these measures [were] only weakly, if at all, associated with the likelihood of being hired” (Jacob, Rockoff, et al.). We were collecting the necessary information and implementing a rigorous selection process that was predictive of success on IMPACT; however, school leaders weren’t always able to use this information to inform hiring decisions.

To help school leaders better engage with our TeachDC recommended pool, we worked on both technical and adaptive solutions. All solutions were focused on improving the UX for school leaders in an effort to support them in making strong hiring decisions.

We overhauled the online portal through which school leaders can view candidate information.

• We increased the amount of information that we share with school leaders. This includes the notes and scores from phone interviews and teaching samples, access to candidates’ full teaching sample videos, candidates’ essay responses, and a short biography provided by the candidate.
• We improved and created new features to encourage school leader engagement with the portal. School leaders are able to “save” and “hide” candidates, as well as attach notes to candidates’ profiles. Additionally, school leaders can see which candidates have “liked” their vacancies — indicating interest in positions at their schools. School leaders can also filter candidates by a variety of factors: subject area, grade level preference, interest in part-time positions, interest in a high-need school, if the candidate is bilingual, etc. With this information, school leaders can hone in on which candidates are the best fit for school-level interviews.

Focusing on the User Experience (UX) for Candidates

Between the national teacher shortage and being in the middle of a highly competitive market, we have no wiggle room to lose candidates because of a hard-to-navigate application platform. Here enters a focus on the candidate UX.

Before sharing how we have improved the UX, I think it’s important to share some context on what the typical UX was previously like for candidates. Think of a bulky, buggy, cumbersome process that wasn’t intuitive, and involved a lot of emails. While candidates were receiving the necessary information, it was a time-consuming and manual process. Our team spent a lot of time fielding questions from candidates. This was a huge gap for us — we weren’t prioritizing the user experience for candidates in a way that was beneficial for our team and the district.

We wanted to create an application platform that mirrored interactions candidates may have been familiar with from past experiences using technology. We wanted it to be intuitive. The result is the Candidate Dashboard.

• We moved away from the page-by-page format and to a dashboard platform. The Candidate Dashboard has each stage of the application process presented as a “tile.” Tiles will only unlock, and go from gray to blue, once a candidate has advanced to that stage in the process. This means that a candidate cannot click on a tile until they reach that point in the process. Furthermore, a check mark in the tile indicates that the stage is complete, and our team is in the process of evaluating the submission. Candidates now know that there is no action needed on their part, and we don’t need to send an email confirming that they have completed that stage. This is a win-win!
• We moved away from long and detailed updates over email. Now, when there is a status update, candidates receive a generic email prompting them to log in to the Candidate Dashboard for more information. All necessary information for each stage of the application process lives in the corresponding tile on the Dashboard, as well as having a home base for all resources candidates need.
• We created new features to increase user engagement. Candidates in the recommended hiring pool have access to a vacancy list that updates in real time. Additionally, candidates can indicate their interest level in each vacancy (i.e., highly interested, moderately interested, not interested).

You might be asking, “Well, did any of this actually work?” and the answer is yes!

While it has taken time, we are confident that focusing on the UX for school leaders has resulted in many positive outcomes. The Candidate Dashboard is now 3 years old, and while we still have room to grow, we believe that the Candidate Dashboard has contributed to a number of wins for our team, and the district.

• The updates to the online portal have increased capacity for our team. School leaders don’t require as much high-touch support with identifying candidates who might be a good fit for their school, and candidates are able to access information easily on their own — like real-time vacancy information.
• Increased and more intentional information sharing (among other factors) have led to earlier hiring. So far, we have filled 150+ more vacancies to date than we did at the same time last year.
• We have increased the share of hires made coming from our centralized pipeline. In 2015, 45% of hires came from our centralized process. In 2017, 61% of hires came from our centralized process.
• We’ve heard from school leaders directly that they are able to better prioritize which candidates to contact using engagement features like the filters and vacancy interest levels; thus, saving them time throughout the hiring season.

Once we oriented our work around the importance of user experience, we’ve received more completed applications than ever before, and it has required less busy work from our team. School leaders are more empowered to making hiring decisions that are best for their school communities, and we’re able to carve out the time to think strategically about the hiring needs of our schools, to plan for long-term projects, and to ensure that our most important stakeholders, our students, have excellent teachers in every single classroom.

To hire the best, UX is key was originally published in Nimble on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

(1) Learn to listen

Listening sounds easy, yet for most of us requires a deliberateness and intentionality that takes much practice. Whether interviewing or investigating a complaint, effective listening helps us gain a deep understanding of the issue at hand, build empathy, and develop trust.

Questions that I have used to help support deep and empathetic listening are:

• I wonder if there’s an alternate way or lens to look at that?
• What do you think the other person’s considerations were?
• What can you do, or be done about this situation?
• Listening to you, I understand that the main issue seems to be… do I understand that right?
• What do you consider was a positive about how you dealt with that situation? What would you do differently?
• If you had a student who was in this situation, how would you support them?

I also try and remember that every time I feel like I want to jump in, count to five to give the person a chance to go into further detail.

(2) Be yourself

Just as a middle school student can tell in a matter of minutes if their substitute teacher will make it through the day, others around you are able to determine if you are being authentic with them, or only saying what you think they want to hear. In HR, staff and prospective employees watch and listen to everything you say and do with an extra level of scrutiny. I always try to remember that when HR meets with or calls a staff member, the general consensus is that it won’t be good news! Prospective employees look at you as being representative of the organization’s beliefs, values, and culture.

Staff appreciate consistency, straight talk and communication on a regular basis, not just when there is an issue to be addressed. Every time you have an opportunity to meet with others (interviews, trainings, visitations, evaluations, etc.), you have an opportunity to reinforce the kind of climate and culture that you wish to create for your organization. Be yourself. Do what you say that you will do. By being consistent and authentic, trust will be built.

(3) Get out of the office

About a year ago, I remember listening to one of our district coaches describe the challenges that their coachee was facing and how their staff members were being so unfair to them. The coach shared with me how often and long their coaching sessions were and everything that they were recommending for their coachee to do in order for them to be successful. Yet, real progress was not being achieved. At a break in their narrative, I asked, “How often do you just shadow your coachee as they go about their day?” “Do you listen to their interactions with their staff?” “Have you met staff to gain their perspective?” The coach paused and admitted that their sessions only took place in the coachee’s office.

I use this as an example of how we limit ourself when only listening to one person or not getting out to observe what is actually happening in the work place. That is where the real work is taking place! It is easy and sometimes seductive to stay in one’s own office more than you should. I regularly tell myself to “Get out of the office!” I have learned that it is such a benefit when HR puts a face to the name, and to have staff see you as someone who cares enough to visit them in their own work site/area.

Working in Human Resources provides both leaders and their staff with powerful opportunities to recruit and support their organization’s team members in a way that can either facilitate or create barriers to achieving their desired goals. Listening, being yourself (authentic), and getting out of the office have been 3 key learnings that have been of great support to my work over the years and continue to pay positive dividends.

Three Lessons Learned as an HR Leader in Public Education was originally published in Nimble on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

But what makes someone a great teacher?

If you ask ten different people, you’ll get ten different answers. Grit. Organization. Dedication. Classroom management. Cultural sensitivity. This is a question that everyone in education has tried to answer and yet, despite many strongly held opinions, nobody really knows for sure.

Over the years, researchers have examined quantifiable factors we might use to predict someone’s likelihood of becoming an effective teacher. Tens of millions of dollars later, the conclusion has essentially been an anti-climactic “GPA predicts teacher quality… sometimes.”

Living in Silicon Valley, it’s fascinating to me that companies apply advanced data science techniques to some of the most mundane problems of our time — optimizing dating profiles and saving us 5 minutes on our route to a pilates class — and yet, hiring managers in school districts, who make critical, life-changing decisions for millions of students, are using some of the most antiquated tools around to identify and hire talent.

What if there were a massive data set that contained rich information about prospective teachers — things like content knowledge, pedagogical approach, work experience, academic background, and more? Could we leverage this information to predict which of them would turn out to be those life-changing, highly impactful educators?

This 2016 study of data from D.C. Public Schools says yes.

At Nimble, we agree and we’re doing exactly that. We’ve built a modern K-12 hiring platform that matches application data with outcomes, giving schools insights into which prospective teachers will be most impactful in their classrooms. These insights will not only inform the way schools make decisions about which candidates to hire, but can also inform recruitment and professional development across the field.

In a highly-skilled profession like teaching, where talent can make or break a student’s life, the tools we use to inform our choices have to be the best. Advances in data science have helped us improve so many areas of our lives. It’s time we directed this toward one of the most important things we do as a society: determining who is going to teach the next generation.

Education’s most important question was originally published in Nimble on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.