Analysis Of Teachers Hiring Teachers By Mary Clement

In her article “Teachers Hiring Teachers,” Mary C. Clement (2013) describes the benefits of using teachers in the teacher hiring process, strategies and considerations while doing so, and moving past obstacles that may be encountered. She draws evidence from the principal at Berry Elementary and Middle School in Mount Berry, Georgia as she outlines their best practices. This article supports the idea of “cultivating leadership in others,” one of the five key practices of effective principals outlined by The Wallace Foundation (2013). In my opinion, this article provides a worthy example of the benefits realized through advancing teacher leadership.
Clement explains the benefits to involving teachers in the hiring process from writing position

descriptions to planning and conducting the interview and making recommendations. Teachers can help potential candidates gain a better understanding of the school culture while judging their content knowledge. This can be an outlet for a principal to develop teacher leadership, find the best fit for an open position, and support teacher collaboration all at once.
Clement goes on to outline best practices for involving teachers in the hiring process. She discusses the importance of setting clearly defined responsibilities and selecting the appropriate teachers for each interview. An orientation should be created to ensure teachers understand the legalities involved such as what questions they cannot ask and to ensure they receive training in areas of need. The author highlights the importance of creating a method to evaluate applicant resumes and interview responses based on the requirements of the open positions to ensure success of the interviewing team. She gives several examples of appropriate interview questions and response rating scales along with ideas for narrowing the pool of applicants by using online and phone interviews.
Finally, Clement discusses the potential obstacles to overcome in this process. Included in the discussion are time and pay issues, possible confidentiality risks, and pressures felt by teachers when they are away from their students. To ease some of these issues Clement suggests using student teachers from nearby colleges to cover classes and carefully training teachers prior to including them in the process. While this adds a significant amount of work, the author feels, and I agree, that this time and energy is well invested due to the benefits gained. She closes by quoting a hiring committee teacher from Mount Berry explaining the self-reflection and faculty cohesion gained by the practice of having teachers hire teachers – a process that supports effective school leadership.