Term Paper on "Recruiting Plan for K-12 Setting"

Term Paper 6 pages (1687 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Recruiting Planning for K-12

The first step in developing a plan such as this would need to be a creating a definition for what constitutes a "good faculty." What kind of people do you want in the classrooms of your district? The answer will not necessarily be the same for everybody so I am going to just pick an idea and see how it shapes the plan.

Recruiting

I am going to base this plan on a good faculty being a group of people that works together for the good of children and the good of the education of those children. This definition would mean I would be looking for a certain kind of person. I would be looking for a person who is a "team player." That's a real buzz word today so what does that mean concretely? Is a team player someone who just does what they are told without question: someone who doesn't rock the boat so everything can go along "smoothly?" Not really. A person who just goes along with the crowd or does what they are told is not really an active contributor.

Team players" means people who are less interested in who gets the credit than in getting the job done. It means people who aren't afraid to put in some extra time. This can be a tricky issue because while you don't want people who expect every extra minuet paid for, I don't think the really strong people will let themselves be taken advantage of either. A team player willingly puts their creativity into solving whatever problems need taken care of. A team player trusts that if this time she or he picks up the slack, that people will be there to do the same for them when it becomes necessary.

Once you have firmly in mind what kind of faculties you want to build, it is time to begin recruiting. Finding the right schools of education to recruit from is one consideration. Different schools of education have different philosophies and those philosophies shape curriculums. Further, what schools you recruit from could be decided by where your school district is. A school district, like one in Wyoming, out in the middle of the western Great Plains might focus more on the schools like Chadron, Black Hills State, Montana State and University of Montana besides the two universities in northern Colorado and of course their own University of Wyoming because they will have students who are familiar with the issues of distance, weather and ranching/farming culture. On the other hand, an urban school district would focus on the schools that are in their familiar surroundings. That doesn't mean that there would never be any cross-over, but it seems to make sense to try for people who are already comfortable and familiar with where they will be working. As far as finding the ethnic/racial mix and balance, this would probably require attending a number of recruiting fairs in a variety of settings, a mix of urban and more rural.

Recruiting literature for the more rural district would likely focus on quality of life issues that are particular to smaller communities: easy access to the outdoors, safer place for raising a family, sense of community and perhaps issues like the idea that in a smaller community you can a make a greater impact. The urban school district might emphasis the idea that here, in this city there are all kinds of activities -- perhaps professional sports teams and other "big time" things to do.

Other recruiting concepts would definitely revolve around the school district itself. Issues like class size, ancillary duties such as lunch room and playground duties. Prospective teachers will want to know how much support there will be for Special Ed. students in the classroom. They will want to know what the resources are for troubled students. They will also want to know how strong the support systems are for students who are not native speakers of English. These days, there are almost no districts in the country that don't have some population from other countries. Teachers need to know how much help they can expect with these students.

Candidates will want to know how your school district compares with others as far as pay scale is concerned. For example, schools down in Texas, start new graduates at higher rates, but the overall pay scale does not go as high as many school districts that start new graduates at lower scales. Over the course of a teaching career, this could make quite a difference in how much a person actually earns. Prospective teachers will also want to know about continuing education opportunities for themselves so that they can stay current with general education issues and with their own discipline.

Selection

At the same time the information is being provided to invite investigation by prospective candidates, there need to be mechanisms in place to identify those candidates who most nearly display the character qualities the district considers most important. It seems that standards for over-all GPA would be necessary. It also might be important to evaluate performance in education-specific courses separately from performance in discipline-specific coursework. There would need to be certain items that would be part of a resume that might point to that team player. What would those items be? Would HR be looking for people who belong to different organizations and are active as in holding office and making sure things get done? Would HR be looking for information as to how well the candidate got along with faculty during the education process? It seems there would have to be evaluation instruments to gather such information. Besides the qualities that make a team player, what else do school districts look for?

It seems that there would have to be other qualities that would make a good teacher that would be as important as what can be quantitatively assessed for: patience, a sense of humor, enthusiasm, the ability and willingness to obtain satisfaction from the idea that as a teacher, she or he can make a difference. Perhaps, the belief that teachers can make a difference would be an important quality.

The final consideration in recruiting is certification. This aspect of the recruiting/hiring process is controlled by the state through some sort of professional standards board. Some states have certification tests. All states have some kind of process to make sure that districts do not hire below a certain set of standards. This aspect of faculty building becomes even more critical as the effects of the federal No Child Left Behind Act become more strongly felt and schools are being held to the standards of accountability required by the act.

Retention

The retention of highly qualified personnel should be the top priority of any organization and certainly no less a school district. Even when a person comes with good academic and personal qualifications, there is still a training period and that training period is always considered more expensive for the organization than once the person hired has settled into the particulars of an individual organization.

Many of the same issues that are part of recruiting are elements of retention. The specific benefits and particular elements offered as part of recruitment: class size, amount of release time, support programs for students with difficulties, financial benefits such as paid sick days, hospitalization, dental and other medical coverage must be followed through with. If changes are to take place in classroom circumstances, it would probably work better if the teachers are allowed input to the change process. Making sure that the person in the classroom has as much opportunity to find job satisfaction as possible is an aspect of HR work that shouldn't be ignored. Another important aspect of creating a positive work situation is related… READ MORE

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