Competency 10.  Human Resources Management

a. Demonstrate knowledge of effective personnel recruitment, selection and retention

b. Demonstrate an understanding of staff development to improve performance of staff members

c. Demonstrate the ability to select and apply appropriate models for supervision and evaluation

d. Apply legal requirements for personal selection, development retention and dismissal

e. Demonstrate and understanding of management responsibilities to act in accordance with federal and state constitutional provisions, statutory and case law, regulatory applications toward education, local rules, procedures and directives governing resource management

f. Demonstrate an understanding of labor relations and collective bargaining

g. Demonstrate and understand the administration of employee contracts, benefits and financial accounts

 

Reflection: Human Resources Management

Ruth Paisley, Spring 2011

 

In Good to Great and the Social Sectors, author Jim Collins puts forth strategies for getting the right people on the bus.  He discusses the tenure track as a three year interview for the position and finding the staff who has an undying passion for their work and drive to excel and in turn have students excell.

The competency of human resource management and its sub-competencies provide a list of detailed skills to be demonstrated for school leaders to hire, create, and support a high functioning staff.  In my work with the Saint Paul Public Schools as a lead teacher and supervisor, I have had experience in working closely with human resource personnel in interviewing for teaching, paraprofessional, and clerical staff.  Since I have changed positions frequently in my career, I have also had the opportunity to be interviewed as a candidate as well.  In the Leadership and Organization course we worked on interview questions that focused the candidate’s answers on student outcomes rather than teacher behavior.  I found this very interesting from both an interviewer and interviewee perspective.  At this point Most Human Resource departments have established questions but I find that I now listen for the student perspective in candidate’s answers.  When I interview in the future, I will frame my answers in student and family outcomes.

Several years ago I was able to serve on a committee of Early Childhood Special Education teachers in developing the rubric for performance reviews of non-tenured ECSE teachers.  At the time this rubric was a vast improvement from previous teacher evaluation efforts.  This rubric is provided as one of the artifacts attached. In my role as supervisor of the program several years later, I have another perspective of the tool developed.  Most Early Childhood Special teachers are no longer “classroom teachers”, but are co-teachers, collaborating consultants or itinerant teachers, home visiting teachers.  The specific skills of peer and family coaching are not reflected in most teacher evaluation tools.  As I observed and learned about secondary special education administration in my internship, I saw many of the same skills needed for secondary and transition special education teachers.  Building principals who collaborate with special education administrators on these staff performance reviews need to be assisted in understanding these unique aspects of the special education teacher role. 

Professional development is an important part of a school leader’s role in building a high quality staff which performs to District, special education department, and program expectations for the purpose of student achievement.  Over the past years, professional development in schools has been transformed from teachers selecting workshops of interest and requesting funds, a substitute, and time to attend the workshop to systematic, job-embedded professional development focused on student achievement.  Most schools and programs have professional development departments that create professional development plans with committee input based on school improvement plans and initiatives.  The actual professional development might take the form of targeted school-based training with follow-up data-driven professional learning community work and coaching.  It has been my experience trying to move this work forward is a challenge, especially for established staff who may find the change difficult. Special education has additional professional development for the requirements of Due Process, reporting, and third party billing.  One of my artifacts, the agenda for new teacher training, is provided as evidence for the professional development for new ECSE teachers in Saint Paul.  This training has evolved as a ‘support group’ for new teachers and provides the basic information and resources needed for due process compliance.

From late Winter to early Spring every year is budget and staffing time in school districts.  As a supervisor in the Saint Paul Public Schools, I had the opportunity to participate in the Special Education Department – wide discussion concerning budgets and staffing.  From these discussions, I learned that sometimes in special education “the right people on the bus” can also be about getting your people on the right bus.  With the variety of special education positions available, such as home visiting, classroom based, co-teaching, itinerant teaching, and the many matches of styles and personalities in a large district, special education staff have many opportunities for professional growth in various settings.  This is a blessing and challenge that large special education departments face.  My secondary experience in a smaller district fell during the time staffing was completed.  I found the same challenges in staffing matches, but a more intimate knowledge of each staff person involved in the decision-making.  Two of the artifacts attached show the two different tools or staffing grids used by the districts in which I have had Human Resource Management experience.

Collins, Jim.  Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great. Jim Collins, Boulder, Colorado. 2005

Artifacts:

Teacher Evaluation Rubric:

ECSE Teacher Rubric.pdf (160,2 kB)

New Special Education Staff Training Schedule:

ProfessionalDevelopment-NewTeacherTraining.pdf (62,5 kB)

Staffing Models / Grids:

2 Artifact - Staffing Grid.pdf (5,7 MB)

Staffing Model.pdf (74,4 kB)

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