From Intuition to Evidence in Teacher Hiring

The Talent Recruitment Framework, created by the Principals’ Training Center (PTC) and TIE,  encourages a systemic view of recruitment, connecting hiring and professional growth directly to student outcomes through four key domains: acquisition, acceleration, advancement, and assessment. When schools approach recruitment through this lens, hiring becomes less about filling positions and more about shaping the culture and future of learning.

Drawing on our recent Leading Recruitment in International School course, offered through the PTC, here are five evidence-based strategies that help schools identify, support, and retain the best educators, those who not only inspire students but also elevate the profession.

1. Hire for Demonstrated Impact, Not Interview Polish

Anyone can prepare for an interview, but not everyone can show authentic evidence of impact. The Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project found that combining multiple indicators: classroom observations, student feedback, and evidence of student learning predicts future effectiveness more accurately than any single measure (Kane et al., 2013). This aligns with global findings that the most effective teachers are those who can demonstrate learning gains across diverse and multilingual contexts (Grissom, Egalite, & Lindsay, 2021).

In international schools, where students often arrive with varied curricula, language backgrounds, and learning profiles, hiring must focus on authentic teaching impact rather than interview polish or familiarity with one system. Evidence of practice, such as annotated student work, lesson reflections, or short video segments offers a more equitable and accurate picture of how teachers support learning across cultural and linguistic boundaries.

In hiring, look for candidates who:

• Provide concrete evidence of impact to show student growth over time or demonstrate how they use data and feedback to improve outcomes.
• Articulate a reflective practice by explaining what worked, what didn’t, and how they adapted teaching for multilingual or transient learners.
• Align with international standards and connect their work to frameworks such as the Standards of Practice for International Schools or the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile.
• Demonstrate collaboration and cultural responsiveness and show how they engage with colleagues, parents, and students across diverse backgrounds.

Replace “Tell me about your teaching” with “Show me your teaching.” Invite lesson videos, samples of student work with teacher feedback, or brief written reflections that illustrate growth. Use structured rubrics to evaluate these artefacts consistently. A portfolio-based, evidence-driven approach ensures fairness, values diversity of experience, and focuses hiring on what matters most; teachers’ demonstrated ability to help all learners thrive.

2. Look for Teachers Who Hold High Expectations for All Learners

The Opportunity Myth (TNTP, 2018) highlighted a reality familiar to many international educators: too many students spend large portions of the school year engaged in work below their true level of ability. This gap is especially evident for multilingual learners and students from historically underrepresented or transient backgrounds.

In international contexts, where classrooms often include a wide range of cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences, maintaining high expectations is inseparable from providing responsive support. Research shows that when students, whether learning in a second or third language, adjusting to new curricula, or bridging academic transitions are offered access to challenging, grade-level learning with appropriate scaffolding, they meet and often exceed expectations (Grissom, Egalite, & Lindsay, 2021; Lucas, Dixon, & Owen, 2025).

In hiring conversations, look for candidates who:

• Plan for support and are able to differentiate instruction for English as an Additional Language (EAL) students, students with learning differences, and those needing enrichment, without diluting challenge.
• Use formative assessment strategically to identify misconceptions early and adjust teaching while maintaining ambitious goals.
• Model a growth mindset and express the belief that all learners, regardless of background or language proficiency can achieve at high levels with effective teaching and persistence.
• Collaborate with inclusion and language specialists and demonstrate an understanding of how co-teaching and integrated support can advance every learner’s progress.

Ask candidates to share a unit plan or example of how they move diverse learners toward mastery. Probe how they respond when a student struggles: do they scaffold learning through language and concept support, or do they lower the bar? Teachers who maintain high expectations while adapting instruction are those who help international school students of every background and language to reach their full potential.

3. Build a Faculty That Reflects Your Students

Diverse teaching teams don’t just bring representation, they bring strength. Research across education systems shows that teacher diversity enhances student engagement, belonging, and learning outcomes for all students, while enriching professional collaboration and innovation in teaching (Grissom, Egalite, & Lindsay, 2021; Lucas, Dixon, & Owen, 2025).

In international schools, where classrooms include students from many linguistic and cultural backgrounds, diverse faculties signal to students that every identity and perspective is valued. Teachers with varied cultural and linguistic experiences are often more adept at designing inclusive curricula, addressing bias, and supporting multilingual learners and students new to international education.

In hiring, look for candidates who:

• Demonstrate intercultural competence and are able to build relationships and communicate effectively across languages and cultures.
• Embed inclusive practices by designing lessons that draw on multiple perspectives and connect to students’ varied experiences.
• Collaborate across disciplines and cultures and work productively with local and international colleagues, EAL specialists, and inclusion teams.
• Reflect on identity and bias to show self-awareness about how their background shapes teaching and relationships.

To build such teams, broaden recruitment networks, use structured rubrics to reduce bias, and form diverse hiring panels. These intentional systems turn diversity from aspiration into practice, ensuring that inclusion is not only reflected in who is hired, but also in how schools grow, learn, and lead together.

4. Hire for Coachability and Growth

Even the most experienced teachers should be learners first. Research shows that sustained instructional coaching and feedback cycles lead to measurable improvements in teacher effectiveness and student achievement (Kini & Podolsky, 2016; Grissom, Egalite, & Lindsay, 2021). In international schools, where educators work across curricula, cultures, and languages the ability to adapt, reflect, and grow is often a stronger predictor of long-term success than prior experience alone.

In hiring, look for candidates who:

• Demonstrate a growth mindset and speak openly about learning from feedback and adjusting their practice.
• Reflect on evidence and data and use student learning outcomes or feedback to inform next steps.
• Show curiosity and humility and seek to understand new contexts, curricula, and cultures.
• Collaborate for improvement and value peer observation, coaching, and shared professional inquiry.

During interviews, listen for teachers who describe challenges as learning opportunities and can name concrete ways they have improved. Once hired, sustain that mindset by embedding short feedback loops, peer coaching, and structured reflection into the professional culture. In globally diverse schools, coachability isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s how educators continually refine their craft to meet the evolving needs of every learner.

In the end, evidence-based hiring isn’t just about better interviews, it’s about coherence, fairness, and collective responsibility for learning. As Peter Senge reminds us, “Vision without systems thinking ends up painting lovely pictures of the future with no deep understanding of the forces that must be mastered to move from here to there.”

Evidence-based hiring is systems thinking in action. It’s how we connect our vision for learning to the people who will make it real, our teachers.