The Webster School District: Human Resource Administrator

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Job Description and HRM Practices
Teacher Evaluation and Professional Development
Human Resource Laws, Ethics, and Challenges
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The role of human resource administrators in the field of education is extremely important because their activities directly influence the quality of provided education in the concrete school district. When a human resource administrator cannot perform one’s functions effectively, the teaching staff is not selected and organized properly to address the strategic goals of the school district (Rebore, 2015). From this point, human resource administrators are expected to make significant efforts while selecting talented teachers among candidates (DeArmond, Gross, & Goldhaber, 2010, p. 323).

To achieve high results, human resource administrators in the sphere of education need to apply effective strategies and methods to attract, train, and retain the best talents during the recruitment, evaluation, and retention processes (Mertz, 2010, p. 185). Stacy Gaffney, Human Resource Administrator and Payroll Specialist of Webster School District located in Webster, Wisconsin, was interviewed in order to analyze the appropriateness of human resource management (HRM) practices used in the school district. This paper aims to provide the results of the interview with Mrs. Gaffney on HRM practices followed in the school district, on the application of policies and regulations to HRM processes, and on challenges observed during the implementation of HRM strategies.

Job Description and HRM Practices

Following the facts and explanations provided by Mrs. Gaffney regarding HRM practices used in the Webster School District, it is possible to state that recruitment and selection practices are of high importance for the quality of student education. According to Mrs. Gaffney, Webster School District uses the systematic approach to the recruitment and selection of the teaching staff while conducting both informal meetings and face-to-face meetings for applicants (S. Gaffney, personal communication, July 15, 2015). The systematic approach allows focusing on the candidates’ previous experiences, degrees, certification, confidence, and commitment (Berry, Petrin, Gravelle, & Farmer, 2011, p. 3). The preliminary analysis of candidates’ resumes is made by Mrs. Gaffney who invites candidates with the greatest potential for the school district for face-to-face interviews. James Erickson, District Superintendent in Webster School District, can also participate in the interviewing process when the discussed position is important to be held only by a high-class professional.

Mrs. Gaffney is responsible for developing and implementing strategies for orienting, compensating, and retaining teachers and other staff in the Webster School District. The development of the effective training, fair appraisal system, objective techniques for determining compensation, and approaches to improve retention is a priority for human resource administrators (Liang & Akiba, 2015, p. 376; Richwine, Biggs, Mishel, & Roy, 2012, p. 2). Therefore, Mrs. Gaffney pays much attention to developing training sessions that are effective for orienting new teachers, improving classroom management, and performance. Training sessions are correlated with qualification programs adopted in the state. Human Resource Administrator accepts the idea that effective rewards and compensation systems are important to attract talented employees. Therefore, Mrs. Gaffney proposed to use not only salary scales for determining compensation levels for new and experienced teachers, but she also integrated the system of performance-related bonuses developed with Mr. Erickson (S. Gaffney, personal communication, July 15, 2015). The implementation of the new compensation system allowed improving teachers’ performance in classrooms.

Teacher Evaluation and Professional Development

Mrs. Gaffney notes that in addition to the selection of teacher candidates, her main responsibilities also include the constant evaluation and monitoring of teachers’ performance (S. Gaffney, personal communication, July 15, 2015). Human Resource Administrator uses state standardized assessments for teachers, checklists approved by District Superintendent, classroom observation checklists, and scores of the standardized tests for students. All the data are collected regularly, and decisions on the teacher’s compensation and training are made with regard to these results. The constant monitoring of the teachers’ performance is important to predict problematic situations and difficulties associated with retention (Rockoff & Speroni, 2010, p. 262; Taylor & Tyler, 2012, p. 79). If problems are identified regarding the performance of the concrete teacher, Mrs. Gaffney initiates the face-to-face communication to propose the plan of actions.

There are cases when teachers need additional counseling, and progressive discipline strategies are used. Following the state standards, Mrs. Gaffney helps the person understand the problem and proposes several steps to overcome the performance issue. If the problem is not resolved, the Human Resource Administrator develops the performance improvement plan for the teacher, and she can also use the system of warnings. Mrs. Gaffney notes that she tries to terminate teachers only in the critical situations, when teacher’s performance and behavior do not address Wisconsin state standards, and when the teacher’s conduct can affect the quality of education and students’ emotional state (J. Gaffney, personal communication, July 15, 2015). As a result, the Standard of Just Cause can be followed for deciding on the employee’s termination (Jiang, Sporte, & Luppescu, 2015, p. 107). However, the Standard of Just Cause can work effectively only in those cases when the causes are fixed in written termination forms, and when the main focus is on failures in performance and ethical conduct of teachers.

Human Resource Laws, Ethics, and Challenges

In spite of the fact that cases of termination because of teachers’ failures in performance are rare in Webster School District, the Human Resource Administrator focuses on following all laws and regulations while evaluating the staff because of risks of unreasonable decisions. Mrs. Gaffney states that she follows the Wisconsin Statutes and state laws determining the standards and regulations for the teachers’ employment. Additional Webster School District performance standards are developed based on Wisconsin Statutes, guidelines, and education policies. Standards are important to help the teaching staff organize their work independently, and they are also helpful for school district administrators to coordinate the work of employees and compare the performance results with the goals set according to the followed strategy (Henry, Kershaw, Zulli, & Smith, 2012, p. 337). These Webster School District standards are the main source for teachers and for the other staff in the school district who organize their work in the most ethical manner.

Ethics in the teaching environment is an important factor because the activities of educators should be correlated with the main moral principles followed in the field of teaching. Mrs. Gaffney constantly monitors possible conflicts in relations between employees and between teachers and students (J. Gaffney, personal communication, July 15, 2015). The main goal is to prevent and determine the cases of non-ethical behaviors (Green, Donaldson, & Oluwole, 2014). This monitoring is effective to overcome challenges in the working and studying environments. The most typical challenge is the failure in effective collaboration among teachers. The main cause of this problem is the lack of time and strict schedules that do not allow teachers to set the time for communicating effectively and working at school projects (DeArmond et al., 2010, p. 323). Mrs. Gaffney works to improve this situation while adding teamwork courses to the training sessions and collaborating with administrators who are responsible for setting effective schedules. It is important for teachers to have perfectly adjusted schedules in order to collaborate and share experiences and to avoid exhaustion.

Conclusion

Human resource administrators play a key role in organizing the effective work of teachers in school districts. The primary tasks of a human resource administrator are to select the appropriate candidates, to stimulate their interest in working in the concrete school, to motivate them with the help of rewards, to evaluate their achievements to propose the effective training option and to retain the best talents. If all these tasks and duties are performed poorly, the quality of education in the school district can suffer significantly. Human resource administrators need to pay much attention to organizing the work of teachers, to evaluate their performance, and to develop a supportive and positive culture in order to create a team.

As a result, this team of high-quality professionals will work to educate students, and the most effective indicator of the human resource administrators and teachers’ work is the test score of students. The conversation with Mrs. Gaffney is useful to determine what HRM practices and activities play a significant role in influencing the performance of teachers, and consequently, students. These activities are the systematic approach to recruitment, the developed evaluation system of the teachers’ performance, the constructive approach to training, the employee-friendly approach to determining rewards, and the consistent approach to developing performance, ethical, and legal standards followed in Webster School District.

References

Berry, A., Petrin, R., Gravelle, M, & Farmer, T. (2011). Issues in special education teacher recruitment, retention, and professional development: Considerations in supporting rural teachers. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 30(4), 3-12.

DeArmond, M., Gross, B., & Goldhaber, D. (2010). Is it better to be good or lucky? Decentralized teacher selection in 10 elementary schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(3), 322-362.

Green, P., Donaldson, M., & Oluwole, J. (2014). An analysis of the policy, research, and legal issues surrounding the exclusion of charter schools from the teacher evaluation revolution. Journal of Law and Education, 43(4), 463-475.

Henry, G., Kershaw, D., Zulli, R., & Smith, A. (2012). Incorporating teacher effectiveness into teacher preparation program evaluation. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(5), 335-355.

Jiang, J., Sporte, S., & Luppescu, S. (2015). Teacher perspectives on evaluation reform: Chicago’s REACH students. Educational Researcher, 44(2), 105-116.

Liang, G., & Akiba, M. (2015). Teacher evaluation, performance-related pay, and constructivist instruction. Educational Policy, 29(2), 375-401.

Mertz, N. (2010). Teacher selection and school leader effects. Journal of School Leadership, 20(2), 184-202.

Rebore, R. W. (2015). Human resources administration in education: A management approach (10^th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Richwine, J., Biggs, A., Mishel, L., & Roy, J. (2012). The compensation question. Education Next, 12(4), 2-8.

Rockoff, J., & Speroni, C. (2010). Subjective and objective evaluations of teacher effectiveness. The American Economic Review, 100(2), 261-266.

Taylor, E., & Tyler, J. (2012). Can teacher evaluation improve teaching? Education Next, 12(4), 78-90.

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