Teaching Competencies Abbotsford School District BCSSA, August 2015 Marnie Wright, Carla Danielsson, Leigh Howard

Overview Demonstration: Hiring Without Competencies What are Hiring Competencies? Benefits of Using a Competency Model Phase II: Supporting Employees to meet the Standards, Performance Reviews

Demonstration: Hiring Without Standards Tell me about your approach to differentiating instruction?

What Are Core Competencies What Are Core Competencies? Defined as a combination of measurable and observable knowledge, skills and behaviours that a teacher requires to be successful

Core Competencies Specialty Competencies * All K-12 Teacher Require for Success Specialty Competencies * Specialty Teachers Require for Success Best Candidate

What are the Benefits? Clear, defendable hiring decisions Consistent hiring decisions High standards allow for a new level of rigor Create alignment of hiring and teacher support and development Hiring - not based on seniority

Who Will Define What We Value About Teaching -> Involving Stakeholders Principals Teachers Union Partners Senior Management

Defining Competencies: Table Time- 15 min Read through a deck competency cards. As a team, select the top 8 competencies you agree are most important for teachers Put those competencies on the top of your pile Competency Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Uses Assessment to Improve Learning - Assessment is partially aligned with instructional outcomes -Uses unclear criteria -May use results to plan for instruction of the class as a whole -Assessment is aligned with instructional outcomes -Communicates and uses clear criteria tied to outcomes -Uses results to plan for instruction of small groups -Assessment is fully aligned -Clear criteria -Evidence of student contribution to & use of criteria -Adapts innovative methodologies for individuals -Uses results in planning for individual students -Leads colleagues

Table Time- 10 min Find another other group in the room. Join them. In the new group, explain your top selections. Listen to the other partners and come to consensus on a new top 8 list When you have consensus, trade in one deck for your voting stickers

Building a Competency Model Using this process, we worked groups of teachers, Principals and union executive Clear patterns for competencies chosen by various groups Then the Principal working group defined each competency: “Hiring Standard” and the “Distinguished”

Principal Tools and Training: How to Use a Competency Model Trained Principals on effective hiring - particularly asking Behavioural Based Questions Requiring an example of based on recent experiences Training Principals on how to use the standards HR provided Principals with the training and a database of questions

Demo: Hiring using the model Think about a student you have taught in recently. Tell me about a time when you differentiated instruction to meet that student’s unique needs?

Phase II: Supporting Teachers to Achieve the Standard Onboarding: Providing candidates with their Interview Assessment Training: Develop customized resources for each competency, offer training Tie mentoring to competency model Performance Evaluation Tracking outcomes hiring and look for trends