Want to Hire a Good Teacher? Put Them in Front of a Classroom Full of Kids

In this series, professionals share their hiring secrets. Read the stories here, then write your own (use #HowIHire somewhere in the body of your post).

Last year, Success Academy opened 10 new schools, and next year we are on track to open eight more. That means we have a steady need to hire great teachers — as well as strong employees throughout the organization. Making good hiring decisions is key to any organization, but when a child’s educational well-being and future are at stake, that decision takes on more significance. Over the last nine years of opening and staffing 34 schools, I’ve learned to become quite efficient in how I hire.

My first basic question of any applicant is: Is she a learner? Does he have the drive to understand or the interest in mastering something new? When I'm looking to hire a teacher, that's what I want to know. To me, that's far more important than how much classroom time is on a resume.

Regardless of a teacher’s experience or capabilities on Day 1, we want to know whether he or she is reflective and open to — or better, even eager for — feedback. Will she study other outstanding teachers and adapt what they do to improve her own practice? Is he continually pushing toward betterment? We want teachers to become the best they can possibly be, and we’ve found that even talented people who don’t have that desire for excellence are eventually outperformed by peers who initially may not be as capable — but are motivated to improve.

Of course, candidates must be aligned with our mission. Success Academy has a dual mission: delivering a world-class education for our own students and improving public education for all students. We believe that to truly influence public policy and demand solutions to the education crisis in this country, you have to walk the walk. Our entire school community is engaged in advocacy. We have rallied in Albany and marched across the Brooklyn Bridge and demonstrated outside City Hall because children who aren’t lucky enough to win a seat in our lottery have just as much potential as our own scholars. We believe it is unacceptable that children, especially low-income, minority children, have to go to failed schools, and that it’s our responsibility to do something about it. If you don’t agree, Success Academy is not the place for you.

In the classroom and at our home office, we need people who operate with both confidence and humility. We don’t want shrinking violets who are afraid to ask the questions that will guide them to becoming the best they can be. But we don’t want people who are above feedback. We need people who are secure in their abilities while recognizing there is room to grow; who can set aside their pride and accept feedback, reflect on how to understand and implement it, and drive themselves forward.

This same openness is key to a teacher’s ability to build strong personal relationships. Success Academy is a collaborative place; we constantly work together, push one another, learn from one another. We believe we have to invest in the people around us because we are all in it together. Our teachers need to have good relationships with one another and with their principals, and especially with their scholars and their families. Our teachers are responsible for getting to know every family well; when there is a need for a difficult conversation, it is easier to broach the subject when there is already a foundation of trust. These strong relationships are essential to enforcing consistently high intellectual and behavioral expectations.

These criteria are extremely important, but for the most part, they are theoretical. The critical test is to put these theories into practice.

During our interview process, we expect to hear good answers to experiential questions:  Tell us about the time you got feedback you didn’t agree with — what was it, what happened, and what would you do differently? Or describe a time when you had to be successful in an ambiguous environment. Or how do you manage stress? And we want to hear the quality of the questions our applicants ask. Did they do their homework? Are they reflective enough to ask about more than just generalities?

One of the best tests, in my view, is when we put applicants in front of a bunch of kids, which we often do with prospective teachers. We have them plan a lesson and teach it to a class, and of course we expect them to set a high bar because we believe children are capable of outstanding work. We hope the candidate will also insist on 100% participation from the class. After the lesson, we give feedback and ask to have part of it done again. The benchmark is not how good the first or second attempt is, but how much improvement there is.

That’s the true measure of learning, and if it doesn’t happen, the kids will know. And they’ll tell us. We have the class give feedback, and they’re probably the best hiring committee there is. They know who can cut it and who can’t.