After significant research, partnering with leaders in international education, and "listening" to international educators, TIE (The International Educator) has just launched its upgraded services and website. Of course, the look, feel and user-friendly aspects have been significantly addressed and are a big step forward in the overarching goal of TIE, which is to help those who seek positions in international schools hook up with schools who have positions open.
But you will also find once you go deeper into the content that TIE is helping advance something much more significant than a refreshed, more user-friendly website. The whole resume process is now rooted in standards of practice for the international school context for all groups of educators including teachers, teacher leaders, heads, counselors, principals and school-wide support roles. There was a strong desire to uplift the profession of being an international educator through a more substantial representation of what an outstanding educator looks like. Those seeking positions can now showcase their candidacy through a standards-based lens, supported by evidence of their own choosing.
In these times of virtual recruiting, how valuable this resource will be for the candidate to present their candidacy in a strong manner. And how useful this tool will be for recruiters to gain evidentiary data, aligned to standards established for the international school context to help decide on who is the best candidate to fill the vacancy.
So the next challenge in the process is to determine how to encourage recruiters to take advantage of this significant new standards-aligned evidence. Recruiting is time consuming and with everything else that the head must deal with in these challenging times, it is often easier to just hire candidates without too much process.
Sometimes heads will contact a reference or two and be satisfied with what they get back from those referees, especially if the head happens to know the referee. While this is a step in the right direction, I would argue that with this new evidence-based data on teacher performance, there is an added cache of critical information now at the disposal of the recruiter to ensure that the teacher chosen is the right match for the position. TIE also provides a template for reference letters based on the standards so when heads are talking to each other about candidates, they can refer to these common international standards.
If the head does not have the time, she/he might ask the principals and/or department heads to explore the body of evidence on the candidates to develop shortlists and make recommendations for further consideration of a candidate.
TIE has built the platform and provided the opportunity for teacher candidates to present their candidacy based on substance related to what we now know about teaching and learning. Since getting the best people remains the single most important aspect of any head of school’s responsibilities, it seems like the usage of this new platform is the next logical step in creating and sustaining a high-quality school program.
I encourage you to take a look. You will not be disappointed.
Chip Barder is the Director of the Governance Training Center and served as an international school educator for 45 years in seven different countries, including 22 years as a head.
