"To improve your school, put excellent teachers with kids every day."
-James Stronge, EARCOS Oct. 2024
This past October, I had the privilege of presenting at the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) leadership conference in Bangkok, Thailand. This event brought together a large group of international school leaders eager to explore how The International Educator (TIE) is shifting teacher recruitment practices and how our Evidence-Based Portfolios and Standards of Practice for International School Educators are driving important changes in the hiring process. It was an exciting opportunity to showcase our mission and the tools we are developing to transform this important field. To learn more, you can access the full presentation slideshow here.
As a mission-driven non-profit organization, TIE is deeply committed to advocating for practices that not only uplift our profession but also, critically, improve student learning. It's a privilege to lead an organization that is focused on one of the most critical aspects of leadership: putting the best teachers in front of our students. Who we hire truly matters to the outcome of student learning, and the data supports this. For instance, John Hattie's meta-analysis identified teacher collective efficacy as one of the most effective strategies for student learning, with an impact size of 1.57. That’s one of the highest effect sizes in his research. When teachers believe they can positively impact their students, that belief – combined with effective practices – becomes a key driver in improving learning outcomes.
During the conference, I was also able to attend an insightful presentation by Dr. James Strong and Dr. Leslie Grant on “Hiring the Best International School Teachers.” Their session reaffirmed TIE’s advocacy in rethinking how we recruit teachers. James shared a striking point, “If he had to put his money into one aspect of improving school, it’s this, [hiring].” His years of experience and the data he presented made it abundantly clear that our hiring practices in international schools need to be examined, critiqued, and improved. One of the most eye opening moments came when James polled the room of 60 school leaders, asking how many had ever received formal training in recruiting practices. Only two hands went up. This gap in knowledge is a serious challenge, one that TIE is actively addressing with its sister organization, the Principals’ Training Center (PTC). This summer, we will launch an online recruitment course through the PTC to help equip educators and leaders with the tools and strategies they need to make informed, evidence-based hiring decisions.
Another key insight from the conversations at the conference was how hiring practices often vary across schools – and even across administrators within the same school. This lack of cohesion and consistency can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities in selecting the best candidates. That is why the Standards of Practice for International School Educators are so important to us at TIE and have become a focal point for our work. These standards aren’t just guidelines; they are a unifying framework that helps us speak a common language and align our expectations. By grounding our recruitment processes in shared standards, we create cohesion, clarity, and consistency in what is often a complex and fragmented task.
One of the more notable data points shared during the conference was about the amount of time schools are spending on hiring decisions. Only 40 percent of attendees reported spending more than 15 minutes deciding who should be in front of their students. This was shocking. The quality of a teacher cannot be determined in a rushed conversation or quick decision-making process. At TIE, we believe that evidence-based recruiting offers a solution. By gathering more comprehensive data about candidates up front, schools can make more thoughtful, informed decisions about who to invest time in. For schools that have a multi-round interview process, aligning with standards can ensure that all the teams are working with the same playbook, allowing our time with candidates to be spent having more aligned, evidence-based conversations that focus on what truly matters – the impact a teacher will have on their students.
At TIE, we are not just advocating for change; we’re building the tools to make it happen. We’re developing rubrics, interview questions, and evidence-based guidelines to help schools create a robust, equitable, and effective hiring process. For schools using our services, this means they don’t have to navigate this journey alone. With 40 years of experience in international education, we are deeply passionate about the work that we do. Our Standards of Practice for International School Educators and Evidence-Based Portfolios are designed to help schools make better hiring decisions – decisions that ultimately impact student success in profound ways.
Stacy Stephens is the Director of TIE.
