East Tennessee School Interview Report

Introduction For this assignment I had to opportunity to interview an Associate Director of Schools for an East Tennessee School District. The interviewed provided insight and detailed answers to all questions. Each question was answered with scenarios and explanations that made the answers easy to understand. The interview took place in the Associate Directors office, and the questions were emailed before the interview in the interest of time. What follows is my paraphrase of the answers to each question, along with a personal reflection.

Interview Questions

1. How do you recruit and retain highly competent personnel?

In terms of recruitment, we send district personnel to job fairs, as well as utilizing our websites job posting section

How do you assess technology proficiency of recruits to advance academic and operational goals?

To be honest, technology proficiency is not a priority in our candidate searches. In my opinion, if technology proficiency became a priority we would eliminate some quality teachers, who may still be learning technology. Most of teachers we hire are of an age where technology has been deeply integrated into their own educational experience, and therefore their proficiency is not a concern. We are a district that utilizes technology extensively. In very few districts could you walk into every classroom and see a smart board. In our county you will.

Reflection: I agree that some there are quality teachers who lack technological proficiency. Many of the older generation of teachers in my school building struggle to keep up with the current technological advancements of today’s classroom but have test scores through the roof each year. Although I am a technology lover, and hobbyist, I rarely use technology in my pedagogy. This response was fascinating to me. I had never considered that placing expectations, or criterion, on potential teaching candidates can eliminate quality candidates from consideration. While technology, and other aspects of the teaching profession have their value, nothing is more valuable in a school setting than a teacher who knows how to teach. I hope to always hire the quality teachers, regardless of their technological

Each of these systems have specific purposes, but also work together to maintain the necessary technological aspects of the school districts. TN Compass maintains data regarding teachers such as evaluation scores, licensure information, value added, professional development hours, and salaries. EIS (Education Information Systems) holds all our student data such as transcripts, grades, and biographical information. Then, Aspen is our school level management technology which contains data regarding student contacts, online gradebooks, attendance, and discipline. Aspen has taken the place of STAR Student, after its collapse a few years back.

Reflection: As a teacher I am familiar with both Aspen, and TN Compass. I do not recall ever having heard of EIS. I also did not know that the three aspects were in communication and pulled information from each other. As a future administrator these three systems will obviously be very important in the day to day operation of my school. I also learned that Aspen, our online gradebook and attendance management system, was purchased with district funds and not provided by the state like TN Compass and