If you talk the talk, it't time to start walking

 If you talk the talk, it’s time to start walking.

 

It is the end of the school year.   Principals and school districts are beginning to hire up for fall.  What are principals looking for when they begin this process.  The results are interesting and depressing. The survey was conducted by the RAND Corporation.

According to this recent survey of school principals the number one thing principals are looking for in new hires is a mindset that aligns with the school’s vision.  What that means is the principal as the school leader sets the vision for the school.  New hires need to sign on to that vision.  No new ideas or outliers wanted.

The second area sought after is the alignment of the individual’s certification with the needs of the school.   So, if the school needs a first grade teacher, does the individual have elementary education certification?  Ditto for secondary education where certification in individual academic areas is important.   Certification is more important for secondary schools than for the lower grades.

And rounding out the top three is the applicant’s experience in behavior management. 

 

What is probably more telling than what are in the top three, is what is left OUT.

Job experience was a surprisingly low requirement. In fact,  less than a  quarter of principals thought job experience mattered.  Doesn’t matter if you  haven’t done this job before, what counts is can you keep the kids behaved and your willingness to follow the leader.

Educator diversity ranked pretty low too.  So in spite of all the chatter about increasing diversity in schools and about how that will be so much better for kids of color, this trait ranked low across all school types: urban, suburban, or rural.  Also didn’t matter if the school was majority white or majority non-white.

In all schools, talk was one thing, behavior was another.

One of the most remarkable omissions in the survey, an item that didn’t make the list AT ALL!  Was the ability to teach school!   This omission is incredible.

Politicians rail about the low-test scores.   Education leaders talk about what they are doing to raise test scores.  But when the rubber meets the road, no one seems to be looking for good teachers.

Clearly, we are best at talking the talk, but we sure aren’t doing anything to walk the walk.