School district human resources leadership and bias mitigation in the teacher selection process

Teacher selection is arguably the most important leadership task in education. School and district leaders are responsible for selecting teachers who can meet the demands of both school improvement and student learning. Ideally, school district human resources (HR) leaders would design and lead a selection process to meet these demands with research-based best practices. Researchers have previously explored this topic and found that all too frequently this is not the case. The complex nature of hiring and the contextual confines of existing research have revealed extant gaps in both knowledge and practice, limiting the ability of practitioners to draw conclusions or take action. Research has also revealed the scope and impact of these gaps. Well over 350,000 teacher selection decisions are made each year, yet many of those decisions are made based on candidate impressions rather than through a structured, information-rich process. As a result, teacher selection practices and decisions are subject to bias. This qualitative study seeks to advance the understanding of researchers and practitioners on school district HR leadership and bias mitigation in the teacher selection process by addressing three questions through a survey, semi-structured interviews, and artifact collection: 1) In what ways do school district HR leaders perceive their own influence over a teacher selection process that mitigates bias? 2) In what ways do school district HR leaders perceive that information-rich exchanges mitigate bias and raise decision quality in the teacher selection process? 3) In what ways do school district HR leaders perceive that structured interviews mitigate bias in the teacher selection process? The findings of this study reveal how school district HR leaders take ownership of the teacher selection process and how their beliefs inform and drive the process. HR leaders shared their belief that structured interviews were a single, yet important part of a multi-stage structured selection process with multiple opportunities for information-rich exchanges. HR leaders reported their confidence in the ability of structured interviews to make positive contributions to teacher selection process outcomes including enhanced standardization and consistency, increased effectiveness and reliability of teacher selection decisions, and greater bias mitigation. HR leaders also reported barriers to improvement including teacher shortages and insufficient data use. Recommendations include standardizing selection processes with structured interviews and other resources to align values, practice, and outcomes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Baker, Patrick M

Contributors dc:contributor

• Herrmann, Mary B
• Li, Jessica
• Roegman, Rachel
• Bruno, Paul

• Teacher Selection
• School District Hr Leadership
• Bias Mitigation
• Information-rich
• Structured Interview

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Patrick Baker

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120309

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120309