Interviewing Candidates for School Leadership Positions

[Richard Kassissieh]

Our school is interviewing candidates for Middle School head (we are a PS-12 school). What great interview questions have you used when interviewing school leaders?

 

When I think about IT and school leadership, two overarching domains come to mind:

 

1. Strategic use of IT to further the educational goals of the school

How well does the candidate guide the school's use of IT within the instructional, social, and professional programs of the school? What vision does the candidate have for IT in the school? How does the candidate approach misuses of technology by students and faculty?

 

2. Technical skills and knowledge

How efficiently does the candidate organize, communicate, create, and present information using technology?

 

I can't imagine directly assessing the second domain. We're not going to sit down a division head candidate for a typing or productivity application assessment. We may be able to pick up some clues from the candidate's presentations during the application and interview processes.

 

I would like to assess the first domain during the interview process. Do you have interview questions that have been useful for this purpose in the past? (Bonus points to actual candidates for the position who are reading this post! ;^)

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

[Jim Foley]

Richard,

 

I like the idea of using hypothetical scenarios, which can give you insight not only into a candidate's preferred methods, tools, or proficiencies, but also a sense of their guiding philosophies and a glimpse of how well you could "see" that candidate in the job.  Some examples:

 

A student and teacher have a conflict over paper submissions - the teacher insists on hard copies and the student is complaining that he/she can't just email them...

 

The English department does not allow students to cite Wikipedia in any paper submissions, but the History department does.  Students are confused...

 

You receive 3 "friend" requests on Facebook on the first day - one each from a teacher, a student, and a parent...

 

A teacher confesses to feeling "pressured" to using social media in their teaching, and worries about his/her upcoming review...

 

Each of the scenarios could be posed to a candidate with the question, "What would you do?"  I'm sure you could think of plenty of others that would address specific dynamics or hot-button topics within your own school community.

[Sarah Hanawald]

Jim, these are good.  They are hypothetical, but I'm sure we can all think of situations we've seen in the past few years that are nearly identical to these.  In fact, I allow WIkipedia, our history department doesn't.  

 

These are stealing-worthy ideas!

 

See you at NAIS! 

[Jim Foley]

Haha, steal away!  That's what all good teaching is anyway, right?

 

Counting down 'til Feb...

[Lisa Snyder]

Just saw this post and wanted to weigh in with a question that I like to ask anyone interviewing for a position at my school (teachers, administrators, development people, etc.)

How do you learn? Or, how do you learn best? Or, what was the most successful learning experience you've ever had?

The immediate response to a question like this often tells you a lot. Not only about learning, but about uses of technology for PLNs and PLCs, understanding of Web 2.0, and the answer can give you a window into the mindset of the individual, too.