Worst Schools

This is something I've seen as well. One district has a ridiculously high turn-0ver rate for teachers and administration, they struggle academically and I've heard horror stories about working there.

Their application:

1. The initial app is online and takes hours upon hours to complete. It's ten solid pages and wants three different essays detailing your teaching style, what you think defines a quality educator, etc..etc.. They throw out the application if there's any grammar errors in the essays. This isn't unreasonable except for the fact that their spell check doesn't recognize words like "differentiation".

2. In that online app, they want you to upload a minimum of five letters of recommendation, official transcripts from every college you've been at, a resume, a copy of your teaching cert, documentation of your CEUs for renewal and a letter of interest.

3. They also want you to record yourself teaching for twenty minutes and upload it to the application.

4. Most schools ask that you fill out paperwork asking for permission to run a background check. This district asks that you do that by yourself; get the paperwork, pay to get your finger prints done and then submit it to the school. Then they'll run the background check.

5. You also have to get their tb test paperwork, have the test done and mail it.

I find it to be true in big cities where the schools are are supposedly amongst the better schools

In my opinion this logic is flawed. Generally speaking the ones who are willing to jump through all of the hoops are people who are desperate for a job or at best desperate for a new job because they hate the one they have.

Plus these districts don’t generally pay an overwhelming amount of money so that’s not a draw. There is really no logical reason to have a more rigorous application process

My county has a common application that can be imported for new job applications, but it does take multiple hours to fill out the first time, and it is only for public schools (I think the charter high schools might use it too). Some neighboring counties use the same thing.

I've seen a mix in private schools - some of the Christian schools have huge applications but I also interviewed at a Catholic school that just wanted a resume and letter of interest.

Most of the charter schools have a huge application online that requires a bunch of time and you can't import...I have no idea how they choose their candidates because I didn't get called in for interviews for parapro jobs I was overqualified for. Probably dodged a bullet on that.

One district with poor test scores but average pay I applied at wanted you to record five 60 second video answers. Which is fine except you got 30 seconds to formulate an answer and could not re-record your answer. Obviously there had to be applicants who knew what was coming ahead of time.

You would also think some of these places who can not even get applicant for jobs would take a look at their hiring process and maybe make it easier to at least get people to apply and interview. The city of Chicago is killing a lot of the local elementary school districts as they pay a lot more. It hasn't hit the high school districts because they pay well.

That’s so true. I never even realized.

I applied for a teaching job at a very low-scoring district with turnstile administrators and they made me write 7 different philosophy of education statements (4-5000 words) for a middle school PE job

I'll be honest:  earlier in my teaching career, I probably realized after 5-6 days at a school I made a mistake.  But...I at least gutted through a semester and resigned at that point.  At least I told my principal early enough to where he didn't bother with evaluations!

at the worst school I was at (1-9, 3-7, 2-8, 1-9), we hurt for numbers but every sport struggled and we noticed it was a cultural thing within the school as well. Low expectations, passing kids through just because, kids thought it was acceptable to call teachers dude or by their first name. Just a strange environment that was too much for us to overcome. This is a rural, low-to-middle class school. We knew we were in a different place when there was stray cats in the hallways (no joke). Tough kids, many of them were appreciative of what we tried to do with the program, and several of them keep in touch with me which ultimately is what makes all the hard times special.

I took over as the interim HC that last year (when the first interim HC just randomly picked and choosed when to come to practice) and then applied for the job when it was officially posted and didnt get it. Thank GOD! I ended up as an assistant at a big successful program for 4 years, loved my time there and it led alot of knowledge learned and led to a Head Coach position in a great community.

coachriley

That is my thought as well. I did it once, used the video format that they asked for and they stated that they couldn't open it. I spent about three hours messing around with the formatting but they still griped that they couldn't open it.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Yes, Tuberculosis test. In the states, that's typically something that they'll require you to have done after you're hired. And, they don't generally have you to use their paperwork; you go into a clinic, get the test done and then hand the school the results. And, the school pays for the test..