Dr. William Clark

Superintendent’s Blog
May 2008

Teacher Selection Process

              For the 2007-2008 school year, the district has instituted a new screening process for potential applicants within the district.  It has been a tweaking of the current system in some manner, but a complete re-tooling in other areas.  There is a four (4) phase system:

            Phase I is the application screening process.  Once an application is received in the district, it is reviewed for a variety of areas such as, GPA, Praxis scores, certifications, Master’s or Doctorate degree, previous teaching experience, substituting, and multi-cultural experience.  Each particular category receives a score based upon a variety of point values.  Once the applications are scored, they are shipped out to the building level principal, Curriculum Coordinator, Supervisor of Special Education and/or Superintendent, depending upon the position.  Each individual application is reviewed by the administrator, and they determine whether or not to recommend that each individual continue through the process or not continue through the process.  Next, the applications are passed on to the next administrator.   This is done as applications arrive, as opposed to waiting until after the deadline.  The goal by doing this is to speed up the process of reviewing the applications in a timely manner so that the interviews can begin quickly after the closing of the application deadline.  Also, the application information is contained in a spreadsheet in a district drop box.  This allows all of the administrators to log on and add their scores into the spreadsheet. Teaching applications are separated based on novice teachers (fresh out of the university) or practicing teachers (individuals who may have been teaching or have filled a long-term substitute position for at least ½ of a school year).

            Phase II is a phone interview.  Once the field has been narrowed down, a phone interview is conducted for a wider pool of applicants to determine if the applicant should be called into the district for a formal interview.  The phone interview will be conducted by the building principal/supervisor and a teacher.  The idea there is to gain some initial information and determine if that individual should go to the next phase.  Once the phone interview is completed, a scoring sheet is completed to determine who will make it to the formal interview. 

Phase III is a formal interview.  The formal interview will be conducted in the school district central office.  The interview will include the building principal/supervisor, Curriculum Coordinator, and Superintendent.  The formal interview will have 13 directed questions that will be scored on a Likert Scale to determine the applicant’s response appropriate to questions in a variety of categories.  These scores are then totaled to determine which candidate answered the questions most appropriately as reviewed by the interview team. The top candidates in that category will be brought in for Phase IV.

Phase IV is a demo-teaching.  The demo-teaching time has been extended from 15 to 20 minutes.  The topic will be selected by the teaching candidate in the subject area for which they are interviewing.  Previously, a topic was given to the candidates to see how they would instruct in that topic.  The district will now leave it a little more open-ended to see what the applicant will try to present with respect to an area of interest within that certification.

A letter is sent, once a candidate has been formally approved by the School Board, informing the applicant that the position has been filled.  This letter is sent to anyone who has been interviewed either through a Phase II phone interview on up. 

The goal of the Milton Area School District is 1) to try to formalize the interview process to allow applicants to be scored in a non-biased manner and allow for an openness for candidates to apply to the district and receive a fair score and 2) to continue to add to quality teaching staff of the Milton Area School District by hiring the best teachers to work with the students of the community.