Hiring

How it Works

You can read our full overview and process in our Hiring Overview here.

Interviewing

The Role We Play:

In order to help make the hiring process as smooth as possible for you, we build and maintain strong relationships with school leaders across the region. This means we’ll be the people sourcing available teaching positions and you won’t have to! Based on your licensure and certification area and based on our schools’ hiring needs, we create schedules for each corps member and school partner during our interview weeks. Once you complete all interviews, both school partners and corps members are able to indicate their hiring and placement preferences through a ranking and matching system. That means that TFA does not “place” you in a school – instead, both school leaders and corps members will opt into a “match.” Our goal is that 100% of corps members are hired by the first day of school, and we have met this goal - with very few exceptions - for many years.

The Role You Play:

We want to work with you to make sure that we’re facilitating the best school match possible. Throughout Onboarding, you will:

  1. Create a resume that highlights your experience relevant to teaching with our support (we will have a resource that you are able to draw your TFA corps experience from directly).

  2. Learn more about our regional landscape through other required activities including a full-group webinars, completing interview prep sessions, and attending a mock interview.

  3. Follow all processes and procedures outlined below.

 

The Process

  • You will become interview ready by updating your resume, meeting the testing requirements outlined in the Hiring Overview above, and completing interview prep.

  • After completing the above actions, you will RSVP for Interview Week alongside our school partners. About one week before the Interview Week, you will receive your list of which schools you will be interviewing with, times of the interview, contact information with your interviewer along with some information about those schools.

  • Over the course of 1 week, you will interview with several different school leaders (usually between 4-6 interviews).

  • These interviews will be virtual via zoom or phone call.

  • At the end of the week, you will have to complete a matching forms that allows you to preference all of the schools according to where you think you are the best fit. School leaders also let us know if they are interested in you through a similar matching form.

  • At the end of the week, we aim to match you with a school based on your preferences, the school’s interests and needs, and our priority of clustering.

  • If you are "matched", both the school and TFA consider you hired - congrats! This will be your school placement for your two-year corps experience. If you do not match, no worries, as you will continue on in our hiring process until we find you a great position for impact!

 

Clustering

After spending some time reviewing data with the Boston Consulting Group, we’ve identified the ability to cluster at least two corps members at the same school as an impactful input to the experience of the corps member, effectiveness with students, and retention. Therefore, when possible, we will attempt to cluster corps members in school placements with another corps member. We will use this priority as a layer/lens as we pursue the matching process.

 

Matching Process

How It Works

  • You interview with schools.

  • CMs preference all schools by ranking them as high preference, medium preference, or low preference (low preference indicates a cut off where we will not place you).

  • School Leaders identify only the CMs they would like to hire through a similar ranking system.

  • We match each CM with a school (if possible) based on the highest possible preference, keeping in mind our priority to try to cluster multiple CMs at the same school.

Exciting Results So Far!

  • CMs who were hired via the matching process had higher retention in the corps, even while holding other factors constant. (This is better for CMs, school partners, and students!)

  • Almost all school leaders (more than 95%) were matched with their first or second choice CM.

  • Almost all CMs (more than 90%) were matched with their first, second, or third preference.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No. We work throughout the year to develop partnerships with schools in our region—there are many aspects of being a partner with Teach For America, which requires that our team develop a relationship with the school’s leader. If you are currently working at a school in the region in some capacity, reach out to Jessica Sullivan-Wilson to have a conversation about the viability of staying in your current school community.

  • It depends—our corps members have been hired at any point from April through August. However, our team has a long history of ensuring that every corps member is hired in time for the first day of school.

  • For the last few years, the corps has roughly been approximately 50% in charter schools and 50% in district schools. However, those percentages are approximate and may change year to year based on a lot of factors. If you are hired in Northwest Indiana, you will most likely be hired at a charter school. If you are hired in North Chicago, you will be at a district school.

  • It depends on two things: a) When you become interview ready and b) When you are hired. If you are matched with a school during your first interview week, then you will not need to attend any more interview weeks. If you are not matched, then you will continue to attend Interview Weeks or work 1:1 with Jessica Sullivan-Wilson until you are placed!

 

 Special Processes

There are three possible ways that your process can vary from the ways described here.