The TLC Hiring Process
- We are committed to hiring new teachers with the intention of diversifying the workforce and hiring the highest qualified candidates. The partnership has outlined the recruitment and support strategies (see the Recruitment page and the Bridge Program). Recruitment strategies also include Portland Teacher Program (recruitment from high school into Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College and Portland State University (PSU) to prepare diverse teachers) and community outreach to diversify the workforce. Additionally, we seek to increase the diversity of PSU’s university supervisors and clinical faculty.
- The partnership will collaborate on the hiring process to ensure that all steps in the process are managed by people with equity training and we examine all our processes for bias.
- The Bridge program and early admissions in Portland State's Graduate School of Education will provide early advising and test preparation support. Additionally a scholarship fund is planned to support students in need of funding for tests.
- Districts work together to develop a set of best practices for hiring quality teachers. To continue to refine the process over time, we plan to create a feedback loop in which the evidence used to hire are compared with the teacher’s performance evaluations in their first years. In oder to provide adequate opportunities for a candidate to demonstrate his/her skills and evidence of each competency. The partnership seeks to consistently hire the best quality candidates and will incorporate a performance assessment into the interviewing process.
- The partnership is committed to excellence in teaching and diversifying our teaching work force to move us toward a teaching force that mirrors the population of our students. Part of this work is to ensure that diverse candidates are not encountering bias in the interview process. In order to address this we have begun to share practices that develop equity awareness in our interview teams and we are developing protocols that will help interviewers.
The TLC Placement Process
- In order to best match the candidate with a specific school community, we plan to work with the teacher’s associations and school administrators to develop a process supported by the contract that will allow for best matches to be made.
- The districts are committed to ensuring the schools with the greatest need have the best teachers and that all new teachers are supported to become great teachers starting their first year with support from the mentoring program and the school administrators.