Hire Better Teachers Now: Using the Science of Selection to Find the Best Teachers for Your School

While it is clear that better teachers get better results with students, school leaders often put themselves at a disadvantage by not hiring the best teachers available.

In this groundbreaking book, three human resource experts show how even small adjustments can help school districts’ leaders, principals, and other human resource professionals hire more efficiently and effectively.

This book illustrates methods for hiring the best available teachers based on existing research and provides advice on how to adapt these tools to fit the needs of individual schools and districts.

Dale S. Rose is the president of 3D Group, a California-based consulting firm specializing in human resources assessment and development. He is an expert in measurement, leadership development, program evaluation, and employee surveys. Rose has authored more than a dozen commercial assessments for identifying and developing talent. Before founding 3D Group, he developed and validated many widely used selection systems for Ameritech and a test publishing subsidiary of National Computer Systems (NCS). While at Ameritech, he built and validated the Engineering Clerk Test, which was used for over a decade to screen employees in nearly every technical job at the company. While at NCS, he built and validated the Management Aptitude Test, the Customer Service Index, and dozens of customized hiring systems for Fortune 500 companies. Since founding 3D Group, Rose has applied his measurement talents to many educational institutions, including charter schools such as KIPP, Uplift Education, and Idea Academy. He also works in higher education, evaluating programs such as the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute and the Wharton School Leadership Program for the Girl Scouts. He consults regularly for foundations and nonprofit and public agencies such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Reading in Motion, Stagebridge, and the California Department of Education.

Rose earned his doctoral degree in industrial and organizational psychology from DePaul University, with a minor in organizational effectiveness technologies. In addition to his consulting and academic pursuits, he is the president of the board at Maybeck High School, a small private high school in Berkeley, California.

Andrew English is a senior consultant at 3D Group, a California-based consulting firm specializing in assessment of human resources. He has expertise in the implementation of 360-degree feedback programs, employee surveys, psychometrics, team consultation, and leadership coaching. English has coached clients across a wide range of industries, including technology/software, education, pharmaceuticals, government, and service. His personal management experience ranges from working as a mental health counselor and statistician for a nonprofit child abuse prevention center to working at one of the largest defense industry contractors in the United States. As the executive director for a nonprofit organization, he managed a team of staff and contractors that provided finance consulting and training for the finance industry. In both his work heading up a virtual team research lab and working as a research consultant for ThoughtLink, he studied how virtual teams perform effectively. English has authored several assessments for identifying and developing talent, and in the past five years he has worked with several nationally recognized charter schools to help them build better personnel selection systems and leadership development programs. He also taught at Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), where he supervised the 3T Research Group (Teams, Training, and Technology). In addition to teaching other psychology courses, he taught research methods for several years. He continues to publish and present research on team measurement issues, individual assessment, and 360-degree feedback.

English earned his doctorate in industrial organizational psychology from FIT. He has MSs in industrial organizational psychology and clinical psychology from FIT and a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University in psychology. He is a member of the Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association.

Treena Gillespie Finney is an associate professor of management at the University of South Alabama, where she teaches human resource management and organizational behavior courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Treena’s research interests focus on performance management, particularly improving management competencies through the use of effective appraisal and feedback. Her other research interests include employee perceptions of fairness, selection issues, and the application of human resource practices cross-culturally. Her work has appeared in such refereed journals as the Journal of Business and Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Journal of Management Education. Prior to entering academia, Finney led human resources research projects for Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and worked in organizational effectiveness for United Airlines, where she developed employee selection systems for customer-contact groups and managed corporate projects, such as 360-degree feedback and performance evaluation. She continues to work on consulting projects related to employee selection and performance appraisal, providing consulting services to public-sector and private-sector organizations.

Finney earned her doctorate in industrial and organizational psychology from DePaul University and her MS in applied psychology and BA in psychology, with a minor in marketing, from Clemson University. She is a member of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and the Society for Human Resource Management.