Human Resources Administration

A School Based Perspective

Richard Smith

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781596670891
• eBook ISBN: 9781317927976
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Enhanced and updated, this Fourth Edition of Richard E. Smith's highly successful text examines the growing role of the principal in planning, hiring, staff development, supervision, and other human resource functions. The Fourth Edition includes new sections on ethics, induction, and the role of the mentor teacher. This edition also introduces "From the Desk of a Principal," a feature which connects the book's content and applications to the experiences of real school principals.

Introducing Human Resources Administration

Reasons for Studying Human Resources Administration

♦ In any school district approximately 80% of the budget is spent on the human resources function. This includes the salary, benefits, and training costs of the certificated, classified, and administrative personnel in the school. As such, it is clear that principals must have a comprehensive understanding of the human resources function if they are to be accountable for their school.

♦ When people fail at their job it is not always because of their lack of technical expertise, but more often because of their poor interpersonal relations.

♦ You cannot use yesterday’s skills for today’s job and expect to be in business tomorrow. The principal’s knowledge, skills, and abilities must be current for the school to be effective and accountable.

♦ The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is critical that the principal have an understanding of the interrelated parts of the human resources system in order to make an impact on teaching effectiveness and student learning.

♦ High-quality teaching matters more to student achievement than anything else schools do. Many experts say the current system for recruiting, developing, and keeping teacher talent in the nation’s classrooms is broken. (Olson, 2008).

Schools are, after all, a people business.

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview for the book. It briefly discusses the major topics and provides an overall framework for the more detailed chapters that follow. The principal should think of the spiral curriculum in which the topics are first introduced, and then explained in detail. This book discusses these topics from the perspective of the school principal and the school. Central office human resources specialists and superintendents will also benefit from this book because it will give them an understanding of the emerging role of principals in human resources administration so they can provide guidance to them.

Preceding each chapter are the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC), Standards (revised 2008) for school principals that are covered within that chapter. These standards give a national frame of reference and assist the professor and the student in meeting the standards. Each chapter concludes with comprehension questions, expanded learning experiences, and a case study. Many chapters include From the Desk of a Principal, where current and former practicing principals share some practical advice that has worked for them. In addition, technology and its practical application to the chapter’s topic are integrated within each chapter.

The chapter topics are:

♦ Planning

♦ Recruitment

♦ Selection

♦ Orientation and Induction

♦ Supervision and Evaluation

♦ Assisting the Marginal Teacher

♦ Staff Development

♦ Collective Bargaining

♦ Continuity and Legal Issues

♦ Technology and Human Resources

♦ A Glance into the Future of Human Resources

Figure 1.1 graphically gives the reader a template for this chapter as well as for the remainder of the book. But first some sample definitions of Human Resources Administration.

Figure 1.1 An Effective Educational Human Resources Management System

Definitions of Human Resources Administration

♦ It is the balance between the school’s need to accomplish its mission and the individual’s need to achieve and to perform useful, satisfying work.

♦ It is an attitude that people are of paramount importance in any organization, especially schools.

♦ It focuses on everything that influences the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of school personnel.

♦ It is doing what is bestfor teachers. Principals should adopt this definition much like teachers believe that they should do what’s best for students. Most, if not all of the time, doing what’s best for students is, for principals, doing what’s best for teachers.

♦ It is concern for people—all staff members and their needs.

The Major Critical Elements of Human Resources Administration

School-Based Leadership

One recent major change in education is the movement toward the importance of school-based leadership (SBL). Another related change is the emergence of Professional Learning Communities (PLC). The Annenberg Institute for School Reform reports that “[R]esearch demonstrates that the development of a strong professional community among educators is a key ingredient in improving schools (Fullan 1999; Langer 2000; Little and McLaughlin 1993; Louis, Kruse, and Marks 1996; Newmann and Associates 1996).” Many of the management functions that were previously centralized for control and standardization are now being decentralized to the building level where they become the responsibility of the principal and/or the school-based council made up of the principal, teachers, parents, and students. It is in this context that this section is included in a text on human resources administration. School-based leadership is the framework in which the human resources function is, and increasingly will be, implemented. Furthermore, Hess and Kelly (2005) recommended that school districts which are hiring new principals not to “assume that new principals are familiar with important skills like using data; managing with accountability; or recruiting, hiring, evaluating, or terminating personnel'' (emphasis added).

Given this context, it is incumbent upon the principal to develop knowledge, skills, attitudes, and the ability to be effective in this redefined role. The staff at the district office in small school districts is almost nonexistent (other than the superintendent who already wears too many hats). In larger districts the pressure to cut the administration and overhead has resulted in the cutback and/or elimination of the professional staff and thus, the services and support of the human resources department.

The principal’s ability to provide effective leadership to the human resources function of the school will, in large measure, determine the effectiveness of the teachers, the school, and the students. Whereas in the past, the principal was often called upon to be the instructional leader of the school, now the principal will be called upon to be the leader—of instruction, of human resources, of the plant, and of public relations. The ability to set up the framework for school-based leadership and to provide leadership within that framework is critical. Teachers, parents, students, superintendents, and communities are expecting that the “new” principal to be able to accomplish all this and more. School-based leadership is not a normal topic for a textbook on human resources, but things are changing. Principals must be proactive in developing new knowledge and skills within this new context.

Planning

This is both a short-and long-term focus on the future. Most schools have long-term planning for the curriculum and textbook adoptions but rarely focus on the needs of the teachers and others who will implement those plans. The failure to plan is to “plan to fail,” and especially evident when there is a crisis.

Almost all principals who are providing leadership in their school will fight any movement to reduce the planning time for teachers. Teachers need it and principals safeguard it at almost all costs. Furthermore, principals will also agree that planning is one of their key responsibilities, along with organizing, directing, and supervising. However, few if any principals have a designated time for planning during the school day and almost feel guilty if they are in their office planning for their school and the people in it.

Principals are excellent at daily planning as witnessed by their full calendars. However, most of the items on the calendar are activities and few are related to the goals and mission of their school or district. Chapter 2 helps principals to focus on monthly and yearly planning by giving examples and a format to accomplish the goals and mission of the organization. Being busy is not important to the role of the principal—accomplishing goals is.

Recruitment

The recruitment of teachers is a critical element of the human resources function, because no matter how sophisticated your selection process is, if you don’t have the right people in the applicant pool, it is impossible to select them. Many school districts and schools boast about the number of applicants for a position. However, the emphasis should not be on quantity, but rather on the quality of applicants who meet the preestablished criteria.

Often recruitment is done through college and university placement offices, professional associations, or regional school districts that notify teachers of the vacancy in a school district. Increasingly, districts and schools are taking advantage of the vast recruiting possibilities the Internet and World Wide Web can offer their human resources departments and the principal. Brochures are also an asset to the recruiting process. A major, usually untapped, source for the recruiting of teachers is the current staff. These individuals often may know of teachers who possess characteristics that would match the community, district, and school culture. There should be a systematic effort to seek referrals from the staff.

Additionally, districts that are attempting to diversify the teaching force will have to use special efforts to reach special groups of applicants. College or job fairs are also sources of potential applicants. Most often the recruitment element is neglected while selection of staff gets most of the attention. Good recruiting increases the possibility of good selection, whereas poor recruiting methods almost always lead to poor selection.

Selection

The selection process generally has three main components: paper screening, personal interviewing, and reference checking.

It is helpful to draw the parallel between the requisitioning of a capital purchase and teacher selection: for example, a $100 student desk and the selection of a $2 million-plus teacher (over a 30-year career). When ordering a desk, the principal will very tightly specify what is wanted: seven-ply top with medium brown plastic laminate, chrome legs, book rack under the seat, solid thermoset plastic back ¾-inch thick, all metal joints welded by 1-inch welds, 17-inch-high seat, and so on. This process is usual for the requisition and purchase order process. Now, contrast that with the usual personnel requirements: we need a high school mathematics teacher, or a fourth grade teacher. Clearly, it is incumbent on principals to be much more specific about the qualities of the teachers they wish to hire. As they review the completed files of teachers they need to make accurate judgments about applicants and make a match between the applicant and the opening.

Key Idea

Do not use teachers, students, parents, or community members on the selection team unless you train them in the selection/confidentiality process.

The completed files need to be reviewed according to the criteria of the certifi-cat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Preface
• Free Downloads for Professors and Students
• 1 Introducing Human Resources Administration
• 2 Strategic Human Resources Planning
• 3 Recruitment
• 4 Selection
• 5 Orientation and Induction
• 6 Supervision and Evaluation
• 7 Assisting the Marginal Teacher
• 8 Staff Development
• 9 Collective Bargaining and Contract Management
• 10 Continuity and Legal Issues
• 11 A Glance into the Future of Human Resources
• Index