In the realm of K-12 education, the hiring season is not just a mere routine; it’s a crucial process that shapes the educational landscape for the upcoming academic year and years to come. Schools are not just seeking educators but looking for educators who can lead high-quality teaching and learning for all students.
However, given the urgency of filling positions and the prevalent teacher shortage, district and school leaders looking for a quick fix often neglect or over-simplify equitable and inclusive hiring principles.
This article delves into the complexities of inclusive hiring practices in schools, emphasizing the need to go beyond simplistic approaches to ensure the best outcomes for educators and students.
The Current Landscape: Challenges and Realities
Across the United States, school districts are grappling with a severe teacher shortage, further exacerbated in rural communities. Rural districts must compete with their urban and suburban counterparts, who can offer more attractive pay and benefits. All districts find themselves resorting to emergency-certified teachers who haven’t completed all requirements or the requisite experience for a teaching license to fill vacancies.
Reasons for the Teacher Shortage
There are several reasons for this teacher shortage, which include the following:
Lower Pay
Teaching often offers lower salaries than other professions requiring similar education, training, and experience. This can deter potential educators, especially considering the profession’s demands. According to the National Education Association, teachers made 26.4% less than other similarly educated professionals in 2022—the lowest since 1960.
High Workload and Stress
Teachers often face high workloads, including administrative tasks, lesson planning, grading, a range of meetings, and extracurricular responsibilities. The stress and workload can lead to burnout and cause some teachers to leave the profession.
Lack of Support and Resources
Inadequate support and resources, such as insufficient professional development opportunities, nonexistent collaborative teaming, limited classroom materials, and a shortage of staff members to support them, can make teaching more challenging.
Retirements and Attrition
Many experienced teachers are reaching retirement age, leading to a significant number of vacancies. Additionally, some teachers are leaving the profession due to dissatisfaction, further exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic and the disproportionate impact on some communities and districts. According to a RAND survey during the pandemic, nearly one in four teachers said they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the 2020–2021 school year, compared with one in six teachers who were likely to leave, on average, before the pandemic. Black teachers reported that they were particularly likely to plan to leave the profession.
A Systems Approach to Inclusive and Equitable Hiring
Addressing the teacher shortage requires a systemic, multi-faceted approach, including efforts to improve teacher compensation and working conditions, increase support for educators, provide meaningful professional learning opportunities, enhance recruitment and retention strategies, and provide more pathways into the teaching profession.
The current situation underscores the urgency of comprehensive teacher hiring practices that not only address immediate staffing needs but also uphold and operationalize the values of equity and target the goal of high-quality teaching and learning for all.
Understanding the History of Equitable and Inclusive Hiring in Schools
Historic Legislation
Oppression and marginalization in education for educators and students are historical, structural, cultural, and systemic. Congress has passed significant legislation over the past 75 years aimed at addressing inclusive and equitable hiring practices. Starting with the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954), this case sought to advance civil rights in education and promote equal opportunities for Black students. Yet, the spirit and reach of this legislation has not seen its potential and intended impact fully actualized as tens of thousands of Black educators lost their jobs in Brown’s aftermath.
In addition, federal legislation such as Affirmative Action – created in 1961 and still hotly debated and challenged in court – and Equal Opportunity Employment policies were created in response to historical and systemic discrimination in the hiring process faced by certain groups, particularly people of color, women of all races, and people with disabilities.
As a result of various civil rights legislation, the student and teacher populations have become more diverse. Yet, in spite of decades of educational reform and federal mandates, schools have failed to make systemic changes to improve the conditions of teaching and learning for every child and educator.
Instead, the more diverse the student population became, the more schools, universities, and education companies responded with policies, programs, curriculum, and practices that resulted in segregation and marginalization. More specifically, as our school systems increased in diversity by gender, race, social class, language, and (dis)ability, educators created more ability grouping, tracking, and segregated programs under the auspices of “helping.”
With that, specialized teachers with specialized training have been hired to teach specific student groups in separate schools, programs, and classrooms, often contributing to inequities and widening opportunity and achievement gaps among students.
Recent Inclusive Hiring Practices
Research consistently underscores the importance of diverse educator backgrounds in fostering student success. More recently, various DEI consultants and professionals and research-driven organizations like the Harvard Business School have highlighted the importance of creating inclusive and equitable interviewing practices for hiring teachers and staff by utilizing the following strategies:
Inclusive Job Descriptions
Develop job descriptions that embrace diversity and inclusivity to attract a wide range of candidates.
Diverse Sourcing
Actively seek out candidates from various backgrounds by using diverse recruitment channels, including job boards targeting underrepresented groups, networking events, and partnerships with community organizations.
Awareness of the “Just Like Me” Bias
Provide training for interviewers on the advantages of diverse teams to mitigate bias towards candidates similar to themselves.
Video Interview Prep
Ensure fairness in video interviews to those who may not be familiar with the technology by providing video interview best practices ahead of time to candidates.
Structured Interview Process and Questions
Employ a standardized set of questions for all applicants to maintain consistency.
Shifting Questions to Capabilities
Opt for questions emphasizing candidates’ skills and capabilities rather than direct experience.
Skills-Based Assessments
Use practical assessments, simulations, or work samples to evaluate candidates’ skills and abilities rather than relying solely on resumes or on candidates to assess their skills.
These tips and others certainly are an improvement on traditional hiring practices that may have intentionally or unintentionally excluded certain groups. However, they represent an oversimplification of more significant and necessary changes and strategies in teacher hiring.
Our Take: Inclusive Hiring in Education Goes Deeper Than You Think
While fair and equitable hiring practices are essential, they alone are insufficient to maximize student learning outcomes. A genuine commitment to equitable hiring embodies a commitment to equity on a deeper, more systemic level, ensuring that individuals from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to learn, teach, and lead. But most schools and districts – while well-meaning and conscientious of the history – are still missing these two crucial points:
- Eliminating inequities begins with ourselves.
- The system – not the student – is responsible for student failure.
Oppression and marginalization are historical, structural, cultural, and systemic. As a result of that fact, any equity changes schools make must address the entire educational system and the people who lead and operate within that system. The historical and systemic nature of oppression often socializes educators to a white, English-speaking, able-bodied, middle-class, cis-gendered, heterosexual norm that simply doesn’t reflect the spectrum of intersectional identities and histories of this country.
For hiring to be inclusive, schools must adopt holistic strategies that encompass the entire HR system with other departments such as Teaching and Learning, Special Education, and Student Services. Doing so allows professional learning to be integrated and relevant to unpacking that aforementioned history, understanding identity development processes, and equity research about pedagogical best practices, just to name a few.
Here are the critical considerations for advancing inclusive hiring practices:
Creating Equity Non-Negotiables
Often, school districts’ inclusive vision and mission are aspirational without any set of specific guidelines for making decisions to achieve high-quality teaching and learning for all.
That is why a fundamental step in the journey towards inclusive hiring of teachers and staff is creating district-wide Equity Non-Negotiables. The Equity Non-Negotiables may also be called Principles of Excellence, High-Quality Teaching and Learning Non-Negotiables, District Principles, or simply Non-Negotiables, as examples.
The purpose of Equity Non-Negotiables is to interrupt a culture and history of educational marginalization and operationalize high-quality teaching and learning without any experiences of marginalization or oppression for each learner. Equity Non-Negotiables are the path to clarifying the district’s mission and vision and shifting the vision from aspirational to operational.
Experienced equity consultants should facilitate the creation of the Equity Non-Negotiables and develop them collaboratively with school leadership teams, school board members, district leaders, and staff in a structured, systematic, iterative process.
Fundamentally different from equity belief statements or district commitments as part of strategic plans, to develop Equity Non-Negotiables, school staff identify the challenges of the current school structures to students and staff and then create an inverse of each problem, which becomes a non-negotiable. Once they are finalized, they become the foundation for every decision in the district, from the classroom to the board room, serving as the road map and guard rails for the equity journey. The process of developing the Equity Non-Negotiables will help transform the hiring process beyond equitable and inclusive hiring practices.
The Non-Negotiable development process may take several months over an academic year to finalize. It is critical not to rush the process or simply “borrow” another district’s Equity Non-Negotiables because they need to be reflective of the specific work of the school and district to be operationalized. Most importantly, everyone must be involved in the discussions surrounding them and participate in the necessary professional learning leading up to their creation.
Aligning HR Systems with the Equity Non-Negotiables
Once you have established the district-wide Equity Non-Negotiables, the entire human resource system needs to be aligned with them. For example:
Position Postings as a Gateway to Equity
Position postings represent the first point of contact between prospective applicants and the district. By aligning postings with Equity Non-Negotiables, districts communicate their commitment to fostering high-quality teaching and learning for all students, thereby attracting candidates who share this commitment.
Crafting Purposeful Interview Questions
Generic statements about equity are insufficient; interview questions must align specifically with each Equity Non-Negotiable. The interview questions then operationalize the district’s commitment to high-quality teaching and learning for all, equity, inclusivity, and identity-affirming practices. By probing applicants’ understanding of equity and their strategies for addressing the spectrum of learning via the Equity Non-Negotiables, districts can discern candidates’ alignment with the Equity Non-Negotiables and their openness to learning and coaching.
Assessing Candidates’ Capacity for Learning
In addition to evaluating candidates’ qualifications, assessing their willingness to learn, grow, and adapt to the district’s Equity Non-Negotiables is crucial. Candidates who demonstrate a sincere interest in contributing to an inclusive, identity-affirming, and identity-relevant learning environment in line with the Equity Non-Negotiables are more likely to thrive in diverse educational settings.
Recognizing Potential Over Experience
While experience is valuable, it should not overshadow candidates’ potential to contribute to an inclusive school culture. Despite lacking experience in certain areas, new graduates may have a strong commitment to equity and a willingness to learn and collaborate in alignment with the district’s Equity Non-Negotiables.
Empowering Co-Plan to Co-Serve to Co-Learn (C3)(™) Teams
Collaboration and effective teaming are central to high-quality teaching and learning, necessitating the formation of collaborative teams focused on co-planning, co-serving, and co-learning. Purposely designed to develop educator capacity across areas of expertise, these teams can foster a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility for student success by integrating candidates into these teams from the outset.
Moving Beyond Simplification: Embracing Complexity
There are no quick fixes or one-size-fits-all solutions in the pursuit of inclusive hiring. It requires a nuanced understanding of equity and high-quality teaching and learning, a commitment to continuous improvement, and a willingness to challenge conventional hiring practices. By embracing the task of dismantling existing HR systems, schools can cultivate diverse and inclusive learning environments that empower every student and educator to thrive.
Conclusion: Navigating the Path Ahead
School districts must recognize the dangers of simplifying inclusive and equitable hiring practices as they navigate hiring new teachers and staff. It’s not enough to simply say you are an equal opportunity employer, seek diverse candidates, or seek candidates with a commitment to equity. Instead, by aligning HR systems with Equity Non-Negotiables, crafting purposeful position postings and interview questions, and prioritizing candidates’ humbleness and willingness to learn, schools can foster inclusive, identity-affirming learning environments where every student feels valued and supported. In the journey towards equitable and inclusive hiring, let us embrace the complexity, challenge the status quo, and champion the principles of equity, belonging, and high-quality teaching and learning in education.
Sample Questions for Inclusive Teacher Interview
Equity Non-Negotiable:
School District employees share responsibility for the prevention of student failure.
Interview Question:
Give examples of some instructional strategies you have used to provide high-quality teaching and learning with a range of students in the classroom setting.
Equity Non-Negotiable:
Our district provides high-quality teaching and learning for all learners in each classroom/course using a framework of engagement, representation, and expression.
Interview Question:
Learner variability is the norm, not the exception. What training, experience, or strategies do you have that prepare you to address learner variability in your classroom?
What to Look for in Applicant Responses
- A clear understanding of how the district operationalizes equity via the Equity Non-Negotiables.
- An ability to identify strengths and growth areas to align with the Equity Non-Negotiables.
- A sincere interest in wanting to work in such a district and a willingness to grow.
Importantly, new graduates may not have learned in their programs how to collaborate within Co-Plan to Co-Serve to Co-Learn C3 Teams™, and experienced applicants may not have any experience on such teams.
For example, when interviewing a speech pathologist for a high school, the principal could share: “In our school, we do not pull kids out for speech. If you work here, you will be a member of co-plan to co-serve teams to help students receive speech support throughout the day within their courses.”
A Speech Pathologist (recent graduate) might respond: “I was not trained to do this, but I am really interested and want to learn how.”
