Education Week - March 6, 2019 - 23

PRINCIPAL

MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL
Nantucket Public Schools
Job Description
The Nantucket Public Schools is seeking an outstanding
instructional leader for Middle School Principal.
Experience working in Middle School Administration
required.
Masters Degree or higher
* Prefer 5 or more years of experience in Middle Level
Education
Position Type: Full-time
Positions Available: 1
Start date for the position is July 1, 2019.
Job Requirements
Responsible for curriculum development, scheduling,
assessment, modeling of a positive approach to discipline,
personnel management and budget management
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

*
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Demonstrate competence in staff selection, training,
supervision and evaluation
Require accountability for meeting high standards for
academic and behavior performance
Must demonstrate support for teachers in improving
instructional practice
Must be able to assess student learning and monitor
achievement progress
Experience in preparing and managing school budget
Must be able to maintain active relationships with
students and parents
Must be active in involving families and other
community members in developing the vision, goals,
School Improvement Plans, and programs for the
school
Demonstrate
excellent
interpersonal
and
communication skills, including strong public
speaking skills
Must promote partnerships amoung staff, families,
the business community, and other community
groups to enhance instruction and exemplify
excellence in all Standards of Leadership as defined
by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary &
Secondary Education

(Further job description details furnished upon request)
*
At least 5 years of relevant experience preferred
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Master degree preferred
*
Citizenship, residency or work VISA in United States
required
Application Questions
This employer has requested that all applicants answer the
following questions. It is highly recommended that you type
any essays in a word processing program, save them, and
then paste them on the proceeding job application page.
1. Research shows that high achieving schools support
a culture of collaboration and reflection, with a
focus on teaching and learning. If you were to
work in our schools, how would you contribute to
building and maintaining a high achieving school?
Short Essay (Answer limited to 600 characters,
including spaces)
Contact Information
Logan O'Connor, Superintendent's Office
10 Surfside Road
Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554
Phone: 508 228 7285 x. 1150
Email: oconnorl@npsk.org
NPS is an Equal Opportunity Employer
NANTUCKET - Nicknamed "The Grey Lady" and
discovered by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, it is a place
of incredible beauty and historic charm.
An island 14 miles long and 3.5 miles wide, Nantucket is a
haven 27 miles out to sea with something to offer everyone.
Once known for its thriving whaling industry, it is now a
world famous tourist destination. The population hovers
around 13,000 year-round residents and expands to over
50,000 people in the summer.
The National Park Service cites Nantucket, as a designated
National Historic Landmark District in 1966, as being the
"finest surviving architectural and environmental example
of a late 18th & early 19th century New England seaport
town." National Geographic says Nantucket is the Number
One Island of the 10 Best Islands in the World. Made up of
the towns Nantucket & Siasconset, it's the perfect place to
set sail towards and begin your new adventure.

TOP SCHOOL JOBS's K-12 TALENT MANAGER

7 Steps for a Balanced Recruitment AND Retention
Strategy
A growing body of evidence suggests that workplace diversity can serve as a key driver of organizational success. For instance, through an examination of various
data points from the National Organizations Survey of
more than 500 for-profit companies, Herring found that
a workforce consisting of both genders and a variety of
racial backgrounds was correlated with a number of
positive business outcomes, including increased sales
revenues, more customers, and higher profits relative to
other firms in the industry. One possible explanation for
these results comes from MIT research suggesting that
working in homogeneous environments may lead employees to assume their surroundings are more predictable and controllable than they actually are, which may
compel them to forego careful planning in favor of risky
or adverse decision-making.
Benefits of diversity are apparent in education research
as well, such as a study from Clewell, Puma, and
McKay suggesting that black and Latino students may
benefit academically from having teachers who are of
the same racial background. Similarly, an analysis of
data from Tennessee's Project STAR experiment found
a correlation between random assignment to racially
similar teachers and improved test scores for both black
and white students. This is not to suggest that students
should, as a rule, be placed with teachers who share
their racial or ethnic background--but rather that diversity among educators in a building could potentially increase the ability of that school as a whole to connect
with various types of students. In fact, diversity at all
organizational levels could also promote more strategic
decision making, an increased ability to build relationships with parents or other stakeholders, and a number
of other positive outcomes.
Organizations looking to attract employees from diverse
backgrounds have a number of options for enhancing
their recruiting and hiring processes. Following are a few
examples from school districts and education-focused
organizations around the country.
1. Growing Teachers and Leaders
"Grow your own" strategies may take many forms, based
on the premise that outstanding educators and highly invested community members should have opportunities to
grow professionally and increase their impact on their
school. These programs may involve support and tuition
assistance to help paraprofessionals or parent volunteers
earn teaching licenses, or help existing teachers earn
certifications for hard-to-staff areas (e.g., mathematics,
science, special education) or leadership roles. One program supporting this approach is the Idaho State Board
of Education's Grow Your Own Teacher Scholarship Program, designed to place Bilingual Education, English as
a Second Language, and Native American teachers in
classrooms serving historically underserved populations.
Another is the Grow Your Own Teacher Education Initiative in Illinois which develops locally-based teacher pipelines through partnerships between schools, institutions
of higher education, and community organizations.
2. Expanded Online Recruiting Efforts
New technologies offer several ways to connect with prospective employees. For instance, Education Week hosts
virtual job fairs that allow educators to chat with recruiters, receive career advice, and apply for jobs. Many employers are also posting career opportunities on social
media sites, such as LinkedIn. In fact, a 2013 survey by
Jobvite found that 94 percent of respondents were already using, or planned to use, social media for recruiting
that year. Respondents also indicated that social recruiting has contributed to significant improvements around
candidate quality and quantity, employee referral quality
and quantity, and time to hire.
3. Partnerships with Alternative Certification Programs
Alternative certification programs--which recruit and/or
train nontraditional candidates to become teachers, principals, and central office administrators--are helping districts around the country tap into new talent pools. Many
of these programs, such as Teach for America and New
Leaders, actively recruit individuals from diverse backgrounds. Others, such as Troops to Teachers, are more
niched, but help districts increase diversity by hiring veterans and other nontraditional educators. A major draw of

alternative certification programs for many districts is that
they often work closely with district leaders to address
local staffing needs (e.g., STEM or special education
teachers).
4. Employee Referrals
Well-designed employee referral programs can help organizations reach individuals who otherwise may not
have applied, while adding the peace of mind that comes
from selecting employees from a pool of staff acquaintances rather than complete strangers. Additionally, according to CareerBuilder, effective employee referral programs are among the most cost-effective recruitment
methods, often generate a plethora of high-quality résumés, and can help boost employee morale and brand
recognition. While a referral program may not be the
most effective strategy for increasing diversity in every
organization--especially if the existing staff is a relatively
homogeneous group--it offers a cost-effective option for
expanding the talent pool overall, which could support diversity initiatives in some cases.
5. Recruitment Stipends
Some districts have begun offering recruitment stipends
to teachers and building leaders willing to work in identified hard-to-staff schools and positions. Among these is
Houston Independent School District, which is using a
federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant to support the program.
6. Leadership Training
When building and district leaders foster a safe and inclusive workplace culture, they pave the way for increased
diversity. On a survey conducted by Cornell University
and the Society for Human Resource Management, 58
percent of responding organizations noted that they train
HR staff and supervisors on effective interviewing of people with disabilities. Nearly half (45 percent) of respondents believed this training to be very effective in recruiting or hiring people with disabilities, and another 37
percent found it to be somewhat effective.
7. Building and Communicating a Brand
Establishing a brand can be highly effective in increasing
an organization's visibility, boosting recruitment efforts,
and in turn, strengthening the odds of attracting a diverse
and qualified pool of applicants. The brand should communicate to potential employees about the organization's
culture and values. Finding internal champions--such as
high-performing employees who can represent the district
at job fairs or be available to answer applicants' questions--can help reinforce the district's brand and key messages.
8. Leveraging Partnerships
A handful of districts around the country have collaborated with local, state, or federal partners to offer housing
assistance for new teachers in an effort to boost recruitment efforts. For instance, communities such as Fairfax
County, VA and San Francisco, CA participate in the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development's Good
Neighbor Next Door program that provides financial assistance to help teachers purchase their first home.
Diversity should be a key focus of the recruiting and hiring process in schools. As the research has shown, attracting teachers, leaders, and other staff with a variety of
backgrounds can lead to better organizational decisions,
stronger relationships with internal and external stakeholders, and most importantly, improve the learning environment for students.
This article was written by Emily Douglas and Naima
Khandaker and first appeared in the May/June/July 2014
American Association of School Personnel Administrators
Best Practices Magazine on Diversity. Republished with
permission of the authors.
To read the complete blog post, visit http://blogs.edweek.
org/topschooljobs/k-12_talent_manager/.
The opinions expressed are strictly those of the author
and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education.

EDUCATION WEEK | March 6, 2019 | www.topschooljobs.org

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Education Week - March 6, 2019

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