RECRUITER NEWS

Dear Colleagues,

Search Associates has recently finished its 16th Annual Meeting, attended by 12 of our Senior Associates, in Cambridge, England. It will be no surprise that one of the major topics we covered was the question of recruitment. (We are pleased to report that in the past 12 months we placed 1,079 teachers, administrators, and interns -- the highest number in our 16 year history.)

Judging from the comments we have heard from some of our colleagues, however, there seem to be some ominous clouds on the horizon. Specifically, there is a continuing dialogue among school heads indicating that some schools--especially those in certain parts of the world -- are apparently having increasing difficulty in filling their openings. Those of us who spend our lives trying to identify outstanding teachers and administrators for international schools have followed these reports with interest. We believe that this dialogue is not complete without some commentary from organizations which provide recruitment services for hundreds of international schools. As the largest of these organizations, and with ten former international school heads among us, we feel qualified to comment.

Here are some thoughts about the difficulty of recruiting teachers internationally.

1. There are more and more new international schools springing up around the world and many existing international schools are getting larger. National schools with English streams and English language institutes are multiplying and enlarging. Thus, there is a growing demand for those teachers who may be interested in teaching internationally.

2. At the same time, the supply of teachers wanting to go abroad is declining.
1. The spread of terrorism around the world discourages many teachers from wanting to travel, live and work abroad--even in highly stable countries in Western Europe.
2. Fewer young people are entering the teaching profession, especially women, who now have so many more options to consider than in the past.
3. Because of teaching shortages in many English-speaking countries, salaries and benefits have had to be raised to attract more candidates in these countries, thus making opportunities “at home” seem more appealing in comparison to teaching abroad.
3. The inevitable result is that there is a much more competitive environment for teachers. Many comments have been made about actions which should be taken by school heads or recruiting organizations. While many of these suggestions have merit, Search Associates believes there are additional immediate and specific solutions which can be implemented if recruiters are willing to be somewhat more flexible in their approach. While not wanting to over-dramatize the recruiting issues, we quote Abraham Lincoln’s dictum: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” Bearing in mind that some schools may face a variety of restrictions which would make the suggested changes below difficult to implement, here are some specific ways we may want to think anew and act anew.

4. Is IB experience always necessary?

   Recruiter: John, I am desperate for a physics teacher. It is July and I can’t find anyone. JFM: I have just the person. Bill is a graduate of MIT, has an M.A. in physics from Yale, he has taught at Andover for six years, and was named physics teacher of the year in New England. He has great references.

   Recruiter: Gee, he sounds good, John, but he doesn’t have any IB experience. JFM: (after his blood pressure comes back down to 140) Well, I guess I forgot that the IB has its own laws of physics, and Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Einstein are no longer relevant.

   You may think this is an exaggeration, but it is not far from the truth. We have always had faith that bright and motivated teachers will learn whatever they need to learn, even how to deal with the intricacies of the IB. We have seen OUTSTANDING teachers turned away year after year by recruiters who are screening for IB experience instead of screening for TALENT. It is time to think anew.

5. A better way of looking at teaching experience

   One of the most highly respected school heads, now in a major school in Asia, frequently hires less experienced teachers even though he has at least 10 experienced applicants for every position. The yardstick by which he measures candidates is not experience, but rather it is talent. We have often seen first and second year teachers put in remarkable performances. There are thousands of good young teachers “out there” and they deserve a chance. It is a vastly under rated and neglected resource.

6. The question of certification

   Don’t we all agree that some certification programs offer a curriculum that neither challenges nor inspires our new educators? (Well, if you don’t think so, at least the President of Teachers College at Columbia University thinks so – and he ought to know.) Perhaps the most valuable thing about certification is student teaching and, while it is always valuable for new teachers to have had this experience, we have all seen that certification does certainly not, in and of itself, make a good teacher. Teach for America and various other programs have clearly established that carefully screened and selected teachers without certification can do a great job in very trying circumstances.

7. Teaching interns: perhaps the best-kept secret in education.

   The challenge here is that some school heads fear that they are taking a “risk.” However, for years many schools have placed non-certified and untrained – but carefully screened – interns right into the classroom, mainly in middle school and high school. On the whole they have often been more effective than the average teacher. They are extremely enthusiastic, bright, articulate and well educated. The kids love being taught by them. Invariably, parents have clamored to transfer their children into an intern’s class once the word has gotten out about his or her effectiveness. It has been proven many times that an outstanding graduate from a good university, who has had experience in working with young people (camp counseling experience, university Teacher Assistant experience, or tutoring experience) and who has the right personality, can walk into any high school classroom and succeed. The academic powerhouse New England boarding schools have been doing this for years with enormous success, as has the “Teach for America” program.

   A common strategy is to pay interns a half salary, travel and health insurance benefits, and shared housing or a modest allowance. In return they teach three classes a day, coach sports, sponsor clubs, chaperone school functions, and in general pick up a lot of extra duties for which the seasoned teacher has little enthusiasm. This is not only cost effective, but it injects great enthusiasm and energy into the teaching mix. (This approach also supports a deeper solution to the teacher supply problem. After their initial experience, many of these outstanding interns decide to make a career in teaching, and personally encourage other outstanding graduates to enter the profession.)

8. Full utilization of the Search Associates database

   We believe that all schools should take full advantage of the Search Associates interactive database. At present, our electronic reporting system indicates that our database is used with great effectiveness by some schools yet hardly used by others. The database provides an outstanding opportunity for schools to post openings for hundreds of eager and carefully screened candidates, and equally for schools to easily review the complete files of these candidates - including confidential references. We urge all schools to make full use of this invaluable recruiting tool and to ensure that their own database information page (in particular the listing of vacancies) remains accurate and current at all times.

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   While we understand clearly that some schools may not be able to implement all of the above suggestions because of host country laws or other restrictions, we feel that those schools which can do so will broaden the pool of candidates, give highly motivated young people the chance to enter the teaching profession, and in the end will make the recruitment work for international schools easier. It will also help bring more of the “best and brightest” into our profession.

   As we move forward vigorously to that end, Search Associates plans to implement several changes in the next few months, as outlined below.

1. Beginning in September, many of Search’s team of Senior Associates will be increasing the number of informational workshops held around the world for prospective teaching candidates.

2. We will also be increasing our advertising budget to attract more candidates who currently are unaware of the outstanding opportunities available to them in international schools.

3. We will conduct a survey of all international school heads to determine whether they are willing to consider an expanded pool of candidates to include CAREFULLY SCREENED candidates from some or all of the following categories:
• interns
• NON-CERTIFIED teachers
• teachers with less than two years of experience
• non IB teachers for IB schools
• outstanding, English-speaking, science/math/technology teachers from non-traditional sources

If the results of this survey are encouraging, we will move quickly to recruit candidates from some or all of these categories.

4. As attracting more candidates to the field of international education is an “across the board” issue affecting everyone, Search Associates will propose to AISH that it coordinates the placement of ads in national publications such as Phi Delta Kappa, ASCD, etc., extolling the virtues of independent schools abroad and detailing the multiple recruiting paths applicants may choose between to assist them. If AISH is willing to coordinate this effort, and our colleagues at other recruiting agencies are willing to collaborate and to pool resources, we are ready to contribute –and everyone will benefit.

5. To further encourage more teachers to apply for international teaching positions, Search Associates has decided to discontinue charging candidates any “candidate portion” of the placement fee effective from the start of January 2007.

We will charge schools one placement fee that covers both the old “school portion” and the old “candidate portion” for a total of $1,050. (This has been Search Associates’ per-teacher fee for the past seven years, unchanged.) For the many schools that have been paying both portions anyway, this will represent no change in the teacher placement fee. For those schools which have previously paid only the $750 “school portion”, we trust that school heads and boards will see the advantage of adding this incentive to the other strategies outlined above.

In closing, it is clear that we all see the need to increase the supply of excellent teachers as a mutually professional challenge. To that end, Search Associates believes that we have an obligation to collaborate with others to meet this challenge.

We are also asking school heads to offer any further suggestions about how Search Associates can contribute to enlarging the supply of quality teachers for international schools. We will welcome your thoughts.

On behalf of my colleagues at Search Associates, please accept warm wishes for another outstanding academic year. As always we stand at the ready to help you in what is perhaps your most important role as a school head, finding outstanding teachers. Thanks to each of you for your ongoing relationship with Search Associates. We'll look forward to hearing back from you and to seeing you at our 06/07 Recruitment Fairs.

With best regards,
John Magagna --and the entire team at Search Associates