Leading Recruitment in International Schools

Online 1/2 credit course
27 September to 18 October 2025
Time: Saturdays, 7-9am EST
2-3 hours per week asynchronous
4 synchronous sessions - 27 September, 4 October, 11 October, 18 October Facilitator: Stacy Stephens

The ability to hire high quality teachers is the most essential skill for school leaders anywhere. The international school context can make the recruiting processes even more complex. Yet there is hope!

New technologies, new learning science, and a new generation of potential and practicing educators open the doors to fresh ways of thinking and practicing. This course challenges some of the more traditional international school recruitment processes and offers a refreshed and innovative approach to this most essential leadership skill.

What will we learn?

How do school leaders: 

  • Align the whole recruitment process to the International Standards of Practice?

  • Use candidate-provided evidence to determine their quality of teaching?

  • Establish equitable processes and manage bias in the hiring process?

  • Use standards to support their hiring decisions?

  • Establish strong collaborative hiring practices?

  • Use standards-based reference letters?

  • Craft interview questions that reveal the information needed to support the concrete evidence collected?

  • Develop simple, clear documentation for the interview process?

  • Avoid the pitfalls of typical recruitment approaches?

SKILLS

  • Identify the indicators of quality teaching from a variety of evidence sources: teacher lesson the videos, teacher-made assessment, learning results

  • Develop a comprehensive hiring plan based on international standards of practice

  • Sharpen the ability to be ensure hiring decisions are unbiased

  • Create and lead a recruitment team

  • Discern when in-person engagement matters and when it it doesn’t

This course will be helpful to any leadership team members who are involved in any part of the hiring process. For the Certificate of International School Leader (4 courses) it counts as a half course and can be combined with another half course to count as one of the four courses for the full certificate.

The curriculum for all PTC courses is rooted in the ‘Standards of Practice for International School Principals’ and created using our design principles.