Interview Questions for Turnaround School Teachers

Based on the 4 Turnaround Teacher Competencies, Chicago Public Education Fund

#1 Driving for Results

Achievement

How do you set goals for student learning?
How do you ensure the goals are both high and achievable?
How do you prioritize classroom activities?
How do you monitor student progress? What do you monitor? Please share an example of changes you’ve made to your instruction based on monitoring student progress.
How do you engage all students in learning so that no student is left out?
What do you do if you see that a student is not being successful?

Initiative and Persistence

How do you work with others to improve student learning?
How do you make your instruction relevant and interesting to your students?
What are some of the barriers to learning that your students face? What is happening in your classroom and in this school to remove or minimize those barriers?

Planning Ahead

How do you organize your instruction to ensure that students receive a viable curriculum? How often do you check to see if you’re “on schedule” – e.g., every week, every month, once a quarter, etc.?
Please describe your thinking process when moving from broad, long-term learning goals to unit and lesson goals.
What classroom procedures have you put in place to help students know what they should be doing at all times?
How well do you think rules and expectations are enforced consistently in the school?

Impact and influence

What motivation strategies do you use to engage students in learning the material you are teaching?
How do you motivate students in such a way that a history of failure is mitigated?
How do you engage parents in conversations about their children’s learning?

Interpersonal Understanding

How do you find out what “the real problem” is with a student(s) who is struggling?
What are some of the personal issues you’ve had to address to help students stay as focused on school as possible? What did you do? What were the results?

Teamwork

In what ways do you demonstrate your willingness to collaborate with others in the school community around student learning?
What barriers, if any, do you see to collaboration in this school?
What have been the results so far of the work you have done with colleagues?
Who are the resources in your school that you turn to?
How are you and the rest of the school endeavoring to make parents partners in their children’s education?

Analytical Thinking

What tools and information do you use to determine student’s current levels of achievement?
How do you know what the next steps in students’ learning should be?
How do you use flexible groups and other differentiation strategies to meet different students’ needs?
What do you do to make sure that every minute of class/school time is used well?
What data do you routinely look at?
What process do you use for examining data and using the findings to influence instruction?
How do you know what should be the priorities in how class time is used?

Conceptual Thinking

How familiar are you with the learning requirements of the grades before and after yours?
What are some of the patterns in the learning needs of your students that you have noticed?
How do you go about teaching complex material to students?

Belief in Learning Potential

What do you believe are the inherent constraints to learning for your students?
What learning expectations do you set for students?
What expectations do you set for yourself?
How do you and your colleagues hold each other and support each other in your efforts to be as effective as possible?

Self-Control

How do you typically react to the stresses of teaching and being part of a school community?
What behaviors to you consciously try to model for your students? for your colleagues?

Self-Confidence

What do you do and say to demonstrate your level of commitment to student success?
Please describe a time when you admitted you didn’t know something, or how to do something, or a time when you had to reverse course based on your own new learning.

Flexibility

What are the kinds of things around which you have to be flexible?
What are some of the changes that have been going on in this school? What has been the reaction to these changes over time?
Are there ever any times in which you have to be a little creative or bend the rules just a little in order to enhance student learning?