Anybody know about the Teacher Insight assessment?
August 23, 2013 2:39 PM Subscribe
Any Mefites out there have experience/knowledge/insight about the Teacher Insight assessment produced by Gallup?
As is apparently becoming more and more common, the school districts around me are relying on the "Teacher Insight" assessment to weed out job applicants for positions in the schools. This was designed by the Gallup Organization and is a timed test with both multiple choice and likert scale items focusing on 3 areas: teaching philosophy, relationships, and instructional approach.
If anybody on the green has taken this assessment, please let me know anything you can about it. Everything I read says the questions are strange, the expected answers unclear and easy to overthink. That would be okay if this were one item in the hiring process but it has become a make-or-break situation in that the applicants don't know their scores, are not allowed to see them, and without a passing score, they get no response from the school district and certainly no interview. And they are not allowed to retake the test for one or in some cases two years, and sometimes never.
Thanks for any help that is out there. Please help me find a way to pass this thing.
As is apparently becoming more and more common, the school districts around me are relying on the "Teacher Insight" assessment to weed out job applicants for positions in the schools. This was designed by the Gallup Organization and is a timed test with both multiple choice and likert scale items focusing on 3 areas: teaching philosophy, relationships, and instructional approach.
If anybody on the green has taken this assessment, please let me know anything you can about it. Everything I read says the questions are strange, the expected answers unclear and easy to overthink. That would be okay if this were one item in the hiring process but it has become a make-or-break situation in that the applicants don't know their scores, are not allowed to see them, and without a passing score, they get no response from the school district and certainly no interview. And they are not allowed to retake the test for one or in some cases two years, and sometimes never.
Thanks for any help that is out there. Please help me find a way to pass this thing.
I've taken this one time, and have been hired by the school district in question. What I was told is that only the top 15% were even contacted.
Here's what I know:
--there were multiple questions that asked the same thing in slightly different ways.
--there were tons of questions where I could honestly choose one of several possible answers.
--questions were mostly about how I would respond to situations, or what I believe about education.
I also know that when I was hired, the stuff that I believed was a pretty perfect match with what they said they believed. Now, the reality of how that looks in a classroom? Not so much of a match. The school culture vastly differed from the district mission statements, and a lot of what they said they believed did not impact their daily decision-making.
It was the worst district I've ever worked in. The reason? They didn't trust anyone. They thought that the "researched-based process" would give them people who would perform as expected. And if you didn't, they got rid of you...whether you were being successful with the kids or not. What that says is that they don't care about the students. They care about the appearance, and about having people who are scared of losing their jobs. And that is a shitty place to work.
On the other hand, the school district where I interviewed with the administrators and teachers in my department, and the interview lasted less than an hour, and they didn't ask me to do a demo lesson or see lesson plans or any of that crap...THAT district is amazing. When you have competent administrators trusted to hire people they believe are a good fit...THAT is the district you want to work for.
And seriously, the best advice I can give you is this: if you don't get that job, you might want to count your blessings. Often it covers over a place where they don't give a shit about students or treat teachers like human beings.
Memail me if you have more specific questions, and I'll try to answer them.
posted by guster4lovers at 11:20 AM on August 24, 2013
Here's what I know:
--there were multiple questions that asked the same thing in slightly different ways.
--there were tons of questions where I could honestly choose one of several possible answers.
--questions were mostly about how I would respond to situations, or what I believe about education.
I also know that when I was hired, the stuff that I believed was a pretty perfect match with what they said they believed. Now, the reality of how that looks in a classroom? Not so much of a match. The school culture vastly differed from the district mission statements, and a lot of what they said they believed did not impact their daily decision-making.
It was the worst district I've ever worked in. The reason? They didn't trust anyone. They thought that the "researched-based process" would give them people who would perform as expected. And if you didn't, they got rid of you...whether you were being successful with the kids or not. What that says is that they don't care about the students. They care about the appearance, and about having people who are scared of losing their jobs. And that is a shitty place to work.
On the other hand, the school district where I interviewed with the administrators and teachers in my department, and the interview lasted less than an hour, and they didn't ask me to do a demo lesson or see lesson plans or any of that crap...THAT district is amazing. When you have competent administrators trusted to hire people they believe are a good fit...THAT is the district you want to work for.
And seriously, the best advice I can give you is this: if you don't get that job, you might want to count your blessings. Often it covers over a place where they don't give a shit about students or treat teachers like human beings.
Memail me if you have more specific questions, and I'll try to answer them.
posted by guster4lovers at 11:20 AM on August 24, 2013
Oh, I guess here's one more practical tip.
Read the hell out of the district's website. What do they say the believe? What adjectives do they use? What, in all of the possible educational buzzwords get repeated?
Those are the things they set up the test to find. So be that. Or be yourself and be glad you don't get hired somewhere that's a horrible fit, as I said in my last comment.
posted by guster4lovers at 11:23 AM on August 24, 2013
Read the hell out of the district's website. What do they say the believe? What adjectives do they use? What, in all of the possible educational buzzwords get repeated?
Those are the things they set up the test to find. So be that. Or be yourself and be glad you don't get hired somewhere that's a horrible fit, as I said in my last comment.
posted by guster4lovers at 11:23 AM on August 24, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
I read a lot about this test before taking it, and have heard precisely zero responses from that school board even after applying for some very undesirable rural positions, so I suppose I have no advice on how to pass it, except that it is indeed very easy to overthink the questions.
posted by Acari at 10:48 AM on August 24, 2013