Leaders diversify staff through hiring process

Some of the recently hired teachers have had little teaching experience, yet the school has consistently been highly ranked; US News and World Report stated it is 23rd in Massachusetts in 2013.

Headmaster Deborah Holman said the school, when hiring, focuses on the quality of the teaching by prospective teachers.

“We aim to hire the best teacher who is the best match for that program and that teaching position at the time.” She said that experience can range from one year to 20. “You have to think about the composition of the department already. Does the department have a bunch of folks in their 40s and older, and you want to bring in someone in their 20s, just to do some balancing?”

Holman said high-quality teachers can have varying degrees of experience.

“Sometimes a quite together, thoughtful, new teacher who maybe has one year of experience shows a ton of promise,” Holman said. “We might make a decision to say that’s worth it for us, because this person brings these different characteristics. Therefore, the department head would have to commit to supporting that person very, very heavily if they’re new to the teaching profession as well as new to Brookline High School.”

Mathematics Curriculum Coordinator Joshua Paris said his department’s hiring process, which he said resembles that of the other departments, starts with posting a position’s availability on the website SchoolSpring. He then goes through the applicants and chooses 10-15 out of 50-60, on average, to be reviewed by a committee of four to five teachers and himself.

The committee, according to Paris, then selects five to 10 teachers to interview, and to four of the remaining teachers usually asked to teach a class at the school. In the past, Paris said, he has seen videos of teachers or gone to visit them if they could not come to the school.

Holman said she wants to always be available to observe these teaching sessions because she will have a fresh perspective on the candidate, whom the hiring committee already knows from his or her interview and resume.

One or two of the candidates are chosen to be interviewed by Holman in the final step of the decision process, according to Paris.

“I won’t repeat the interview that the department interview committee had. I want to converse with the person and find out why they’re interested in Brookline High School specifically, who they are as a

person. I’ll talk to them about favorite books that they read, things in education that they’re particularly interested in,” Holman said. “I’m asking questions to see if they are a reflective teacher, or if my sense is that they think they have all the right answers.”

She also says she wants to get a sense of their teaching, the way they interact with kids, and their overall personality. She often asks about past situations.

Paris said he looks for regional, ethnic and experiential diversity when he hires teachers.

“I think more experienced teachers and newer teachers have different things to offer the school. I like to create a balance of those,” Paris said. “I might look at what type of person I think could enhance the department. Do they have a perspective that we don’t necessarily have that might push us in a certain direction?”

The school offers the Teachers Mentoring Teachers program to teachers new to Brookline, according to Paris. The program is currently run by math teacher Meghan Kennedy-Justice and social studies teacher Robert Grant. The program has new teachers discuss their experiences. In addition, they are given teacher mentors and they observe other teachers’ classes.

Holman said the program was created by the 21st Century Fund in the late 1990s.

“It was the idea of how you can get new teachers who come into the high school acclimated and oriented to not just teaching in a classroom, but the Brookline High School and Brookline community culture,” Holman said.

According to English Curriculum Coordinator Mary Burchenal, not all teachers are eligible for the program. Teachers who teach less than half-time and long-term substitutes who are not at the school for a full year are not included in the program. She said these teachers may have unofficial mentors, although overall, they do get less support.

Burchenal said this is a difficult place to be a new teacher.

“There are a lot of really great teachers here. Kids have high expectations, parents have high expectations, department heads have high expectations, colleagues have high expectations,” she said. “Although everybody is very understanding of a new teacher’s dilemma, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a challenge every day to plan every day, teach every day and have all these expectations surrounding you.”

Holman said she looks to hire teachers who strive to self-improve.

“If you get, collectively, a teaching staff, which we do not have, that is pretty self-satisfied, that’s not a lot of fun,” Holman said.

She said she will not hire a teacher who is not open to feedback from others or is not willing to help all of his or her students.

“Every kid who shows up in your classroom in September, regardless of who they are, what strengths and challenges they have, where they’re from, you support all of those kids,” she said.

Paris said there are benefits to hiring both new and experienced math teachers.

“To be a good teacher is a mix of an inherent energy and passion that you have for teaching, for math and for working with teenagers. Starting from there, I think high-quality educators learn how to take those ideals and implement them in the classroom. An experienced teacher has already figured out how to do that,” Paris said. “Their classroom management skills are usually excellent. The way they write lessons is well-defined. Newer teachers have to learn that, because that comes from experience, but what you get is that idealism and energy that I want all of our teachers to have.”