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We have been hearing a lot recently about the importance of teacher evaluation in ensuring high-quality teachers in every classroom. We have been hearing a bit, though it seems to me much less, about the roles of teacher preparation and professional development in ensuring high-quality teachers in every classroom. But until very recently, we haven’t heard much about the role of hiring decisions in ensuring that high-quality teachers are in every classroom.

To me, it seems like kind of a “duh” statement. If you are serious about raising achievement substantially, you need teachers who can hit the ground running. And also, as has been made clear of late, it can be difficult – and costly – to get teachers out of the classroom once they get there.

But in the past, it seems that some districts have not always taken a close look at their new hires. According to a recent EdWeek article, teacher hiring in some districts typically consists of submitting a resume, passing a background check, and a review of transcripts and licensing test scores. The candidate is then placed in a pool for interviews. The article pointed to one district where the only thing they could say definitely about their hires is that they did not have a criminal record – a low (albeit important) bar for those trusted to educate the next generation.

We need to do better in getting quality individuals into our classrooms. And there are models of more robust hiring systems out there. For example, a recent Harvard Education Letter featured the hiring system at Uplift Education, a charter school network in Texas, that recently developed (with outside consultants) new hiring tools based on the characteristics of successful teachers in their network. They now use a multi-step interview process in which candidates are scored on how they align with 29 key characteristics. This year, the hiring process included a phone screening, teaching a model lesson, and an interview with school leaders. In the future, it will also include an exercise in which candidates must respond to hypothetical e-mails (for example, from a parent upset with a child’s progress reports) and one in which they must review student data and write an analysis.

Traditional school districts are taking similar steps. For example, District of Columbia Public Schools is overhauling its hiring process, which will now include an “error analysis” exercise that demonstrates pedagogical content knowledge and recordings of teacher auditions that will help principals decide which candidates to ask for interviews.

Of course, there is no sure fire way to tell who will make a great teacher. While researchers have studied a number of characteristics for impact on student achievement, they have found most are only weakly correlated. Still, these types of hiring systems seem an idea worth exploring.

There are some complications with implementing these hiring systems, though. One is the ever-present cost and capacity issue. These systems take resources that many districts may not have, especially once this year’s budgeting season is over.

And of course, these types of systems only really work when there is a surplus of teacher candidates attempting to enter the district – something that is not guaranteed in many areas, particularly some urban and rural communities.

Still, there are other ways that such districts can move towards more strategic hiring. Edweek points out that officials in Denver and Tulsa have moved hiring timelines to earlier in the year to help them get promising applicants committed. Officials in Pittsburgh are sending “recruitment ambassadors” to highly ranked education schools and stepping up recruitment efforts at a local university that has produced many successful district science teachers.

So while reconsidering hiring procedures may seem like a “duh” moment, there are definitely things we can do to ensure that the best of the best get into the classroom. And once they are there, we can dedicate our resources to making them even better.

Update: Two days after this blog was first posted, The Washington Post ran an article highlighting the District of Columbia's new hiring process.