It starts with a job post but it never ends there. Behind every international school hire is a complex web of decisions, emotions, and logistics. Entire lives are uprooted and relocated across continents based on interviews, instincts, and often inconsistent hiring practices.
More than a decade ago, I stepped into the role of Director of Learning and, along with the collaborative efforts of team members and/or other leaders, began hiring for a range of roles: educational technologists, librarians, curriculum coordinators, and later, coaches. In those early years, I felt the weight of each decision acutely. Yet despite the high stakes, I had no formal training in recruitment, no guidebook for evaluating candidates, and no shared system to anchor our efforts. The learning curve was steep, and mistakes happened. I became aware of my own biases creeping into decisions, and of the fact that, while we collaborated, we didn’t always share the same goals or priorities for a role. Over time, I developed more structured systems: clearer job descriptions, rubrics, and interview questions tied directly to the priorities of each position. Still, much was missing. Working largely in isolation, each colleague often ran their own process, with no school-wide framework to align our efforts. While things improved over the years, I cannot ignore that we lost time, struggled with misalignment, and didn’t always achieve the best hiring outcomes.
It’s a bold claim, but I don’t think most of us who are hiring teachers have had training. We’ve figured it out along the way, learning mostly through trial and error. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With some guidance, research-based practices, and feedback on our systems, we could make better decisions faster and with far fewer mistakes. Because let’s be honest, the cost of a bad hire is high. When someone turns out not to be the right fit, our students and organizations pay the price. The cost is felt monetarily, academically, and culturally. Schools lose out on flights, housing, and salary but the hidden costs cut even deeper: lost productivity, countless hours spent on supervision and support, and the ripple effects on team morale and school culture. For students, the impact can be even more serious: measurable dips in learning, lower test scores, and disruptions that carry over into the next school year.
Schools take hiring seriously because they know how much is at stake. But despite its importance, recruitment rarely gets the focused training and support it deserves. Too often, leaders are left to figure it out on their own, without the tools, structures, or guidance to do it well. That’s exactly why TIE, in collaboration with our sister organization The Principals Training Center (PTC), has created a course dedicated entirely to the recruitment process, designed to help school leaders build systems that support mission-aligned, strategic hiring. Recruitment is one of the most powerful levers we have to shape student outcomes, strengthen school culture, and ensure long-term sustainability.
By investing in recruitment training, international school leaders strengthen every stage of the educator journey, from hiring to onboarding and growth and appraisal. And in doing so, they ensure their schools are staffed not just with qualified educators, but with professionals who elevate teaching and learning across borders and cultures.
That’s why PTC and TIE have developed the Talent Recruitment Framework that serves as the organization principles of the new PTC Course, Leading Recruitment in International Schools.
Stacy Stephens is the Director of TIE.
