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The Big Talent Hunt: How leading PublicSchool Districts Recruit Teachers. AnEducation U.S.A. Management and PolicyReport Prepared for School Administratorsand School Board Members.National School Public RelationsAssociation, Washington,693 2 P.National School Public Relations Assn.,1201 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C.20036 (#411-12446, $5.00 single copy,quantity discounts).

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EDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC Not Available fromEDRS.Audiovisual Aids, Boards of Education,Computer Oriented Programs, EstimatedCosts, Negro Teachers, *School Districts,*Teacher Recruitment, *Teacher Selection,*Teacher. Shortage

This report, designed specifically for

school executives and hoard of education members, containsinformation about teacher recruitment. According to theU.S. Office of Education, the nation's teacher preparationinstitutions now turn out about 145,000 graduates annually,but the need for additional teachers is about 196,660 peryear. This major supply-demand discrepancy causes schooladministrators and boards of education to be increasinglyrecruitment conscious. This report contains data fromselected school districts and university placement officeson such topics as reasons for increasing recruiting, campusrecruiting, and recruiting costs. The concluding chapterenvisions comFuters as an integral part of the placementoperation 10 years frcm ncw. (MF)

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How Leading Public School Districts Recruit Teachers

An EDUCATION U.S.A. Management and Policy ReportPrepared for School Administrators and School Board Members

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Permission to reproduce this copyrighted work has beengranted to the Educational Resources Information Center(ERIC) and to the organization operating under contractwith the Office of Education to reproduce documents in-cluded in the ERIC system by means of microfiche only,but this right is not conferred to any users of the micro-fiche received from the ERIC Document ReproductionService. Further reproduction of any part requires per-mission of the copyright owner.

Copyright 1969National School Public Relations Association

1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20036

Single copy, $5. Quantity orders: 2 to 9 copies, $4.50each; 10 or more copies, $4 each. Stock No. 411-12446. Postage free if prepaid. Address communica-tions and make checks payable to the NationalSchool Public Relations Association, 1201 SixteenthStreet, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

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ContentsPage

The Grand Safari 5Why fast-growth and quality-conscious school systems are step-ping up their recruiting operations. Who are the recruiters?Why inner-city and Negro teachers are hard to recruit. Teachernegotiations, a new recruitment obstacle. What are the newestrecruitment lures?

Teacher Recruiting's Sights and Sounds 12What's behind the sudden growth of posters, leaflets? Are fancyfull-color photos necessary? Some recruiters abandon audio-visuals. How important is paid advertising?

On the Road 20When is the best time to do campus recruiting? Use principalsand teachers as recruiters? Some new campus problems to con-front the recruiter. What placement officers say about recruiters.

Recruiting on Home Grounds 26How to cut down on the cost of recruiting Are too many recruit-ers spending too much time on too many interviews? Are highschool student disruptions hard on recruiting?

What Does Recruiting Cost? 29Is it $5, $50, $500, or $1,000? Why most school districts don'tknow recruiting costs. The built-in costs of recruiting point toan upward spiral.

A Look into the Future 31How to recruit from the desk with the computer and phono-vision. One pilot computer operation already in use. What todo until the computer arrives.

A Management and PolicyReport

by the Editors of Edneation U.S.A.You have in your hands an entirely new kind of report in the

field of public school administration. It is designed specificallyfor school executives and board of education members to meettheir special needs for in-depth information about ways in whichcurrent, pressing problems are being faced by school districts overthe country. This is another innovation in educational journalismby the editors of Education U.S.A., arising out of present-dayrequirements by those in positions of top responsibility to obtainaccurate, succinct field action reportsinformation not easily ob-tainable. The editors and their correspondents observe the samehigh standards established for Education U.S.A., WashingtonMonitor, Special Reports, and The Shape of Education.

Education U.S.A. is published weekly, September throughMay, and twice in the summertime. It is produced by the Na-tional School Public Relations Association, 1201 Sixteenth Street,N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. Subscriptions are $21 a year.

The Management and Policy Report, The Big Talent Hunt,was produced by the staff of Education U.S.A. with the assis-tance of editors and reporters in the field. Robert Olds, West Coastcorrespondent for Education U.S.A., served as coordinator for theeditors in the planning and preparation of this report. The editorsare particularly indebted to Mrs. Marjorie J. Lauer of Columbus,Ohio, and executives of the following school districts and univer-sity placement offices:

Akron, Ohio; Beaverton, Oregon; Bellingham, Washington;Beverly Hills, California; Birmingham, Michigan; Cleveland,Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; East Orange, NewJersey; East 'Whittier City School District, Whittier, California;Fairfax County Schools, Fairfax, Virginia; Ferguson-FlorissantSchool District, Ferguson, Missouri; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Indi-anapolis, Indiana; Los Angeles, California; Memphis, Tennessee;Montgomery County Schools, Rockville, Maryland; NewarkSpecial School District, Newark, Delaware; Omaha, Nebraska;Parma, Ohio; Placentia, California; Port Huron, Michigan; Port-land, Oregon; San Diego, California; Simi, California; Torrance,California; Warren, Michigan.

Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana; Bowling Green StateUniversity, Bowling Green, Ohio; Indiana University, Blooming-ton, Indiana; Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan;Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; University ofCalifornia at Santa Barbara, California; University of Kansas,Lawrence, Kansas; University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida;and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee.

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The superintendent of a medium-sizedcity school district has decided that his sys-tem must join the hunters. Because a stateuniversity is located nearby, the school sys-tem has never had to be concerned about acontinuing flow of applicants for teachingpositions. "I've had that uneasy feeling fora couple of years now," said the administra-tor. "We're simply not getting a look at thebest material any more. Let's face it! Thetop candidates don't go hunting. If we wanta chance at quality, we're going to have to gohunting for them."

Thus, for the same reason that hundredsof other school districts have been on theprowl for years, one more system this yearhas joined the great recruiting safari ofAmerican public education. Although recruit-ing planning and some related activitiesstretch around much of the calendar, thegreat hunt becomes in greatest evidenceshortly after the Christmas holidays.

Each year there are on the road morerecruiters who work harder to carry outmore intensive operations than in the pre-vious year. According to the U.S. Office ofEducation ( USOE ), the nation's teacherpreparation institutions now turn out an an-nual crop of abont.. 145,000 bachelor andmaster degree graduates, composing thelargest talent pool in the world.

But there is not enough talent to goaround. USOE estimates the need for addi-tional teachers in the nation's classrooms tobe about 196,660 per year. This major sup-ply-demand discrepancy causes quality-con-scious school administrators and boards ofeducation to be increasingly recruitment-conscious.

Where the teacher recruiter goes, for

The Grand Safari

how long, and to how many colleges andother school systems are determined by manyfactors, not the least of which is what kindof numbers express the school district'sgrowth and turnover. On the surface, atleast, finding the 39 teachers which theBeverly Hills ( Calif. ) Unified School Dis-trict must have in 1969-70 requires a verydifferent type of recruitment effort from thatof finding the 1,000 new teachers needed inCleveland, Ohio.

For example, William Jenkins, adminis-trative assistant to the superintendent, ad-mits frankly that Beverly Hills' "favorableposition" makes the system an exception, be-cause "the majority of candidates come tous rather than the other way around." ButBeverly Hills still recruits because, he said,the system is "extremely selective."

In Cleveland, by contrast, Darian Smith,the assistant superintendent for personnel,and his staff annually retrace much of the1967-68 drive covering 220 universities in 40states, culling more than 10,000 applicationsand interviewing personally 3,000 candi-dates. Along with the basic trips, said Smith,emphasis is placed on a "more intensive con-centration of recruitment effort directed atthose universities from which we have re-cruited the greatest number in the past fouryears.

The continental United States is the re-cruiting territory for the Los Angeles CitySchools which look for teachers in 48 states,on 500 campuses, with approximately 50 per-sonnel men on the job, according to CharlesL. Huddleston, head supervisor. This effortis needed to provide 2,700 new elementaryand 2,000 new secondary teachers needed fora year.

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The rest of the nation's systems lie inbetween the vast needs of the big urbanschool districts and the pick-and-choose ad-vantage of the top-drawer suburban sys-tems. One trend is clear, however, regardlessof size or geographical location: more re-cruiters, more campuses, more states. Typi-cal of the increased range of the currentrecruiting effort, Assistant SuperintendentPaul B. Koch of the Ferguson-FlorissantSchool District ( St. Louis County, Mo. ) ex-pects in 1969 to expand beyond the previouslist of 50 campuses in seven states. "We willbroaden the area in which we recruit andvisit more schools on the schedule," he said.

About 1,400 staff vacancies will awaitnew personnel in the Montgomery County( Md. ) Public Schools in 1969-70, demandingrecruitment efforts at 142 colleges in 26states, according to I. Edward Andrews, di-rector of professional personnel. Although headmits that in the future he may be "a littlemore selective" about the number of collegescontacted, Andrews reports that during onerecruitment drive 5,030 applicants were in-terviewed to fill 1,200 vacancies.

The scope of the Montgomery Countyrecruitment effort, seemingly, is not unusualamong the big school districts of the Wash-ington, D.C., complex. In nearby FairfaxCounty ( Va. ) Public Schools, Mrs. BarbaraMcBride, assistant personnel director, fansout with other personnel administrators inan area roughly east of Illinois to pick upthe 1,500 new teachers which the suburbandistrict needs annually. Closer cooperationwith "colleges and universities in our generalarea will help make our efforts more effec-tive," Mrs. McBride feels. For the school dis-trict's part, there has been a concerted effortto make the "in the field phase of teacherrecruiting coincide more closely with sched-ules of colleges and universities in our gen-eral area," she said.

There are variables in the recruitmentnumbers game which seem to be affected toa great extent by the selectivity and goodfortune of the school district. For example,the Bellingham (Wash.) Public Schools re-cently were required to fill 30 elementary

6

and 10 secondary school vacancies. To ac-complish this objective, Assistant Superin-tendent Richard L. Green reported that theschool district held 206 interviews ( from 307applications) on six campuses, largelywithin Washington. "Extensive interviewingwas also done in other school districts," headded.

Staff InvestmentClearly, the far-ranging scope of many

school district recruitment programs in-volves a large investment in school districtpersonnel expense. For a majority of the na-tion's larger public school systems, keepingthe classrooms filled with teachers is not apart-time job.

Within the big systems, recruitmentphilosophy seems to be sharply divided aboutwho are the most effective recruiters. Somebelieve the job should be handled solely byfull-time personnel men while others operatefrom a nucleus of central office staff mem-bers supplemented by various types of edu-cation and classroom personnel. At Memphis,Tennessee, for example, 12 staff membersfrom the personnel department do virtuallyall the recruiting, according to AssistantSuperintendent Lee C. Thompson. "To alimited degree," he said, "principals may beused."

This emphasis on the professional re-cruiter is seconded by Mrs. McBride who re-ports that, in 1967-68, Fairfax County usedsolely the services of eight personnel staffers.The need for expansion of the recruitingeffort, however, and "to reduce the out-of-office time" will force the school district intothe inclusion of additional staff members.

Dependence upon other staff members( largely principals) in the recruitment effortapparently is widespread, and forms thebackbone of the Ferguson-Florissant drive.According to Koch, 29 principals and as-sistant principals are used to augment thecentral office staff of assistant superinten-dents and directors of elementary and sec-ondary curriculum.

Some recruiting operations are now solarge that work in the field requires con-

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siderable administrative coordination and di-rection in order to maintain effectiveness.Harold Stetzler, who directs elementaryschool personnel services for the Denver,Colorado, schools, reports that out -of-statetrips for top personnel administrators arenow kept at a minimum for better coordina-tion of the recruitment effort. Denver has26 persons involved in its operation whichincludes about 3,000 interviews at universi-ties in 22 states.

Practices in smaller school systems varywidely. On the one hand, the Placentia( Calif. ) Unified School District uses 15staffers for the recruitment program, which,according to Charles Palmer, director of per-sonnel, also includes many principals "onpart-time or one-shot basis." More nearlytypical is the Green Bay (Wis. ) practice ofutilizing five central office staff members, ac-cording to Assistant Superintendent ReynoldA. Swanson. Those who do the recruiting arethe obvious top-level personnel: superinten-dent, assistant superintendent ( instruction ),elementary and secondary education direc-tors, and the director of special education.

Standard in numbers, but less typicalin category, is the Port Huron ( Mich. ) ap-proach which utilizes seven recruiters, butincludes members of the school district'splacement bureau and principals on a part-time basis, according to Robert C. Sloan, ex-ecutive director of personnel administration.

On the CampusThe heightened activity which charac-

terizes school district recruitment also is feltat the other end by the university and collegeplacement bureaus which generally reportincreased attention from school districtseach year.

Almost annually the number of school sys-tem contacts goes up, according to BowlingGreen State University's James L. Galloway,in spite of an already astronomical 92,000mail and phone inquiries which were han-dled in 1967-68. Galloway said that in a typ-ical recent year 684 school districts sent re-cruiters to the Ohio campus to seek out the1,250 teacher graduates.

Bowling Green's experience is not un-usual among the universities which consti-tute the nation's Midwest teacher bread-basket. In neighboring Indiana, both BallState University and Indiana Universityreport an upsurge trend yearly. Both uni-versities, which between them handled astaggering 125,000 inquiries in 1967-68,played host to about 1,000 school district re-cruiters vying for their combined 1,800 grad-uates. The pressure is so great that BallState's Charles R. McNaughton would liketo have recruiters schedule their visits oneyear in advance.

Much the same picture appears at Mich-igan State University which graduates about2,400 new teachers yearly. Patrick Scheetz,MSU placement bureau officer, reported that,in 1967-68, 40,000 mail and phone inquiriesresulted in about 3,300 interviews, conductedby 342 recruiters. As the senior classes ex-pand, Scheetz anticipates accelerated recruit-ment activity, along with increased pressurefrom additional teacher alumni who will beseeking new employment.

Strong competitive recruiting is alsoevident at the University of Kansas, whereHerold Regier, director, education placementbureau, reported that 225 recruiters arriveto cultivate the university's 540 teachergraduates. Regier, too, expects an annualincrease in recruitment due to "contacts bydistricts that did not visit our campus" inpast years. "Each year," he said, "the num-ber of recruiters increases."

Not all universities in the nation aresubjected to the high pressure competition ofthe Midwest. At the University of Miami,for example, in 1967-68 only 28 school dis-trict recruiters showed up to compete for theuniversity's 517 graduates. Only "a slight in-crease" is expected annually, according toBen E. David, associate director of careerplanning and placement. The same story istrue at the University of Tennessee, whereEvelyn Bales, placement assistant, reportsthat 82 school districts held 702 interviewsfor 438 graduates.

A clear contrast of where the recruitingaction is shows up in two seaboard universi-

7

ties, the University of California at SantaBarbara and Temple University in Philadel-phia. Both graduate teacher education classesof about the same size (560 and 800). AtUCSB, on the one hand, E. L. Chalberg,placement office manager, reports that 112school system recruiters were on hand whileTemple logged only 50 for its higher numberof candidates. However, Temple's placementdirector, William C. Gutman, does foresee

C Cmore activity in all areas" in the future.

Problems and ObstaclesYear-to-year adjustments in the physi-

cal handling of school system recruitment,both on campus and off, seem to be dictatedby the variables which occur in universityand school district programs and needs.

Changes in the recruitment calendar,staff involvement, and scope of the jobmany times are influenced by curriculum ex-pansion or inclusion of new students throughkindergarten or post high school programs.At Fairfax County, for example, a morethan twofold recruiting staff increase (fromeight to 20) in one year was necessitated bya new kindergarten program for 8,000 addi-tional students which required 170 teachers.

This kind of one-shot recruiting crisismerely accentuates the problems which allpublic school system recruiters face in deal-ing with traditionally short-supplied curricu-lum areas. From coast to coast, school dis-tricts report a severe paucity of special edu-cation teachers, industrial arts teachers,math and music teachers, and librarians.

Arrival of the computer era has addeda few new wrinkles to the traditional areasof teacher shortage. At Parma (Ohio) CitySchools, for example, Assistant Superinten-dent Arch S. Brown is laboring with thecomplexities of vocational teacher recruit-ment. "Our greatest problem here has beento locate individuals with a vocational back-ground who still would be acceptable asclassroom teachers, and to be able to paythese individuals a salary that would enablethem to leave industry and come into the edu-cational program," he said. An esoteric field

8

shortage, but one vital to the success ofParma's vocational program, is a need for adata accounting teacher, Brown said. Teach-ers knowledgeable about data processingprocedures are able to command salaries inindustry in excess of $12,000 a year," hesaid.

Added to the recruitment headachescreated by subject area shortages ( whichexcept for the labels are time-honored) arethe new ones of the 1970's: urbanization,teacher unrest, the inclusion of minoritygroup teachers, and the complications of in-creased federal and state regulations.

One of the most serious roadblocks forurban recruiters is partly psychological. "Itis the image and fear of inner-city schools,"reports Paul Turnquist, assistant superin-tendent of personnel for the Omaha (Nebr.)Public Schools. The same obstacle holds truefor East Orange ( N.J.) teachers, reportsSuperintendent Robert H. Seitzer, who saysthat candidates must be "convinced thatteaching in an urban community also hasadvantages."

One large Midwestern city exerts most ofits recruitment effort on the inner-city prob-lem. Said a spokesman: "We hope to attractfrom the colleges new applicants who havea positive feeling for the disadvantagedchild, hopefully who have done student teach-ing in the inner city and Niho have bothtraining and temperament to work withmulti-ethnic situations." The school district,he added, has been handicapped by a badimage resulting from the court-orderedtransfer of minority students to meet racialrequirements.

Not the least of the problems of the bigcity districts is meeting sharp salary com-petition. Cleveland's Smith describes his mostdifficult problem as the "higher beginningsalaries and fringe benefits paid by othercities." ( Nationwide, the National Educa-tion Association reports very little differ-ence among the top 10 large school districtsin their economic packages. )

Part of the cause for the dearth ofinner-city teachers is being placed directlyon the doorstep of the colleges. Observed

Louis B. Rutan, assistant superintendent forpersonnel administration, Indianapolis Pub-lic Schools: "Not a sufficient number of col-lege seniors are being placed in disadvan-taged areas for their student teaching." Thisview is seconded by Cleveland's DarianSmith, who sees some new approaches beingattempted on the college level.

Perhaps a little more of the Peace Corpsspirit is needed on campus, reports GreenBays Swanson, who has experienced "ex-treme difficulty in finding people interestedin the innovative program we have." How-ever, Swanson feels that some headway isbeing made in this area. "I think colleges aredoing something about stimulating interestin innovation among teacher candidates," soperhaps "the problem won't be as bad" inthe future.

Another specter which seems to dogurban recruiters is that of housing andtransportation. In Indianapolis, Rutan, re-ports, among the most serious recruiting ob-stacles are the problems of "convenience oflocation ( of the schools) and transportationto and from desirable housing in the elemen-tary teaching areas."

Pinning down accurate estimates ofstaff needs and then scheduling campus visitsat the right time are crucial problems, ac-cording to Lester G. Wahrenbrock, SanDiego's director of certificated employment.Said Wahrenbrock: "The most difficult prob-lem which any district faces involves sched-uling and trying to be on the right campusat the right time." He continued: "Unlessthere are unlimited funds for this purpose,there is usually some conflict in schedulingbetween those schools on quarter system,semester, or tri-semester plans."

Economic factors other than the com-petition over beginning salaries now con-front some recruiters. Typical of many Mich-igan school districts which now operateunder master contracts with teaching per-sonnel, Birmingham Public Schools antici-pate a hang-up in teacher recruiting duringthe years of contract negotiations. AssistantSuperintendent Kenneth F. Nagley fully ex-pects that "candidates will delay decisions in

accepting assignments until they have someindication about salary, fringe benefits, andgeneral conditions of service."

"The high cost of living in the Washing-ton area is one of our most difficult ob-stacles," according to Montgomery County'sAndrews. "We keep our salaries competitivewith other local school systems, but the costof living problem will deter some applicantswe'd like to have."

Shortages of teachers by sex and raceclassifications also plague teacher recruiters.Cited frequently is the need for more maleelementary teachers. "Male elementaryteachers are the most difficult to find, evento interview," reports Koch. 'We saw onlytwo last year." And at Bellingham, RichardGreen has found "an extreme shortage ofqualified administrators at all levels."

The Minority GroupsSchool districts of the nation are now

conducting intensive recruiting effortsamong minority group teachers. These ef-forts have been building in importance dur-ing the decade of the 1960's.

Predominately Negro colleges in theDeep South, which failed to rate Northernrecruiter itineraries until the mid-1960's, arenow covered routinely. The Birmingham,Michigan, schools, for example, interviewcandidates in four Negro colleges in order tostimulate interest in the school system. Ac-cording to Nagley, the district would "like toappoint more professionals from minorityraces, with specific reference to Negro teach-ers." Thus far, he added, "we have met withvery little success in receiving their applica-tions for positions in our district and I donot look for this situation to improve."

West Coast school districts, especially,seem to have difficulty recruiting Negroclassroom teachers, probably largely becauseof their geographic isolation from the mainsources of Negro teacher supply. BothBeverly Hills and Beaverton ( Oreg. ) schoolshave become "more active in seeking" mi-nority representatives, apparently withoutmuch success. Portland ( Oreg. ) PublicSchools also report that a 1967-68 recruiting

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drive for the first time into the Deep Southtended to be a washout. "Few candidateswere well qualified, and/or interested inmoving this far," according to Ralph Rands,administrator of personnel.

Yet even in areas of large Negro con-centrations, there is also a shortage. Mont-gomery County's Andrews has cited one ofhis most difficult recruiting problems as thelocation of "qualified Negroes for teachingand administrative positions." Obviously,that fairly rare commodity, the Negro ad-ministrator, will more likely be found inschool districts with a longer history ofintegrated staff. Those districts which havemoved lately into minority group employ-ment are caught up in an almost hopelesssearch. At least one solution is offered atAkron, Ohio, where the traditional practiceof competitive selection of administratorsfrom within the district has eliminated thesearch for the Negro principal and super-visor. "This is not a major problem when thestaff is already 12 to 14 percent Negro," saidD. Eugene Dominic, director of staff per-sonnel.

New WrinklesPublic school recruitment programs these

days are undergoing change and refinement.Occasionally changes are made to accommo-date specific problems within the school dis-trict, but most often the competition-con-scious recruiter is seeking new and betterways to do an old job.

For some school districts it is the expan-sion of the effort into new territory. Forother, it is a fundamental switch in approach.At Ferguson-Florissant, it was both. ReportsKoch: "Last year, we opened new territoriesfor recruitment. We went to Iowa and wereextremely successful in recruiting." In addi-tion, Koch found that young candidates were"more interested in the program of the dis-trict than even the area of salaries as such."Frankly, he said, "our program was our bestsales pitch." As a result, for the foreseeablefuture the recruitment drive will be geared to"the opportunity for a teacher to join a pro-fessional team and be involved in developing

10

innovative programs for instruction," Kochadded.

Montgomery County recruiters experi-mentally were permitted in 1967-68 to offer"a one-year 5 percent salary incentive topeople in areas that were approved shortageareas," Andrews said. The result for theteacher was not as large an increase the sec-ond year ( which places all second-year teach-ers together at the proper salary step ). "Webelieve it was an important factor in solvingsome of our problems," said Andrews, "butit's hard to prove. Last year we opened with15 vacancies in mathematics; this year wehad two more teachers than we needed."

Andrews says that the school district's"strongest selling point is that we are a qual-ity suburban district that has a long historyof citizen support for quality education." Hehad some misgivings about recruiting follow-ing a teacher strike last year. "We won-dered what effect it might have, but our ten-tative conclusion is that it doesn't seem tomake any difference as far as applicants areconcerned," he said.

The collective negotiation process alsocan have great impact on recruiting stra-tegies. The complication of the Michiganlabor laws forced the Birmingham schools toshy away from economic specifics during thenegotiation year. As a result, the district de-veloped "two or three fact sheets that pro-vided pertinent information about the schooldistrict" in place of a comprehensive bro-chure, Nagley said. While new contracts arenegotiated, he added, "we emphasize pro-grams and innovations that were adoptedduring the past year or two and the teachers'involvement in these programs." Said theBirmingham recruiter: "Since we do notknow salaries, fringe benefits, etc. during therecruitment season, we will need to gener-alize in these areas."

Recruitment experiments are often moredifficult for the big urban recruiter to try.Cleveland, however, succeeded recently inusing several new teachers to recruit attheir alma maters. It had "positive results,"Smith said. Basically, however, Cleveland'scurrent pitch is toward its "innovative pro-

grams to solve the problems of inner-cityschools, opportunities for advancement,large building program, and dynamic lead-ership," he said.

The lure of innovation and experimentalfinancing is also used by East Orangeschools, Superintendent Seitzer said. "Wehave about $1 million of experimental moneyand a reputation for experimenting in urbaneducation. This has a sales appeal to thekids with commitment," he said.

Where it applies, school districts sell sta-bility and status quo. At East Whittle':( Calif.) City Schools, for example, the lureis the "fact that parents are interested in

children and schools. Ninety-eight percent ofour parents come to parent-teacher confer-ences," according to Leland S. Woodward,assistant superintendent. We tell the stu-dents "we've never had a defeat in a bondor tax election, our turnover of personnel islow, and 70 percent of our teachers aretenured," he said.

For some school systems it is not soeasy. In one district with a troubled history,the sales pitch is the state's extensive collegeand university system and the cultural and,3ducational advantages of big city living. Asone of the administrators put it privately:"We really don't have much else to sell."

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Teacher Recruiting's Sights and Sounds

ne of the most dramatic changes to takeplace in recent years in teacher recruiting isthe literature. A great outpouring of mate-rials, including the fanciest, most expensivepublications of the school system, are partof the recruiting effort. The content, tech-nical quality, and quantity of the materialsare the subject of controversy and dividedopinion among both recruiters and placementofficers.

"The amount of recruiting literature re-ceived by placement offices creates real filingand storage problems," reported James L.Galloway of Bowling Green State University."These brochures, leaflets, flyers, and an-nouncements are costly and are many timeslost in the thousands of such received an-nually." Galloway would eliminate all bro-chures as being too costly and generally in-effective. He would simply have each schoolsystem submit to the placement office a stan-dard notebook containing the school districtstory and photos.

Galloway's suggestion is not likely to befollowed. Some placement officers seem to beblessed with more filing space and bulletinboards for recruitment information thanothers. Those who have the space seem tohappily accept the deluge.

The Minneapolis packet sent by Corydon0. Nichols, director of personnel, to place-ment officers, for example, contains a dozendifferent items, the largest of which is Min-neapolis, All American City, a beautiful 108-page four-color pictorial book by the Min-neapolis Chamber of Commerce. In additionto the recruitment brochure itself, an ex-ceedingly modest eight-page booklet, thereare annual reports of the school district and

12

city, copies of employee newsletters, a 24-page booklet about scenic Minnesota pro-duced by the state government, employeehandbook, big broadsides which show whatspecific curriculum and other innovationshave been adopted at each elementary andsecondary school in the district, and half adozen job applications.

A portfolio containing 18 different itemsis sent by the Memphis, Tennessee, schools touniversities. Most of them are publicationsproduced by the school system for employees,parents, and the general public.

Memphis also produces a campus bulle-tin board poster to which is attached a packof tear-off postage-paid business reply cards.Interested students are invited to request anapplication and more information about thesystem. It is a technique used frequently byindustry recruiters.

A special Memphis poster, shaped like abig red apple and announcing that "MemphisIs Coming," gives the date when AssistantSuperintendent Lee C. Thompson or othersamong the 12 Memphis recruiters will be onthe campus. Interested persons are urged tosign up for interviews. A lapel identificationbadge ( also a red apple in shape and color )is worn by the Memphis representative onthe day for interviews.

"These materials are necessary," ob-served Thompson, whose recuiting team lastyear visited 60 campuses in 14 states, a pro-gram which is being expanded. "Both routineinformation and material for promotionalimpact are essential," he said. "Differentpeople have different reasons for being in-terested in something."

Sloan, of Port Huron, Michigan, believes

that school system materials are vital in try-ing to win the attention of students and topave the way for the more than 1,000 inter-views conducted by the Port Huron team at43 colleges and universities.

"We have found that the placementbureaus typically have very little interest inthe material which we furnish except tomerely make it available to candidates," heexplained. Not only must materials be color-ful and arresting to gain attention, he said,but also they should contain much helpfulinformation. "We also find that the use ofregular system publications is extremelybeneficial in our recruitment procedures andwill continue to use them. These includestaff bulletins, informational bulletins, per-sonnel policies, master contracts, etc."

Does the material on school systems inthe placement files get use? "You bet itdoes," said one Western placement officer."You'd be surprised, for example, how mucha teachers' handbook gets examined. Thekids are sharp. They want to know whetherthey can be assured of that 30-minute lunchperiod duty free or whether there will beplayground aides.

Many school systems limit their recruit-ment literature to a booklet and a poster.Those who follow a maximum informationstrategy are hopeful that the plentiful schoolsystem materials on file will eliminate manyof the run-of-the-mine questions during theinterview period.

"You can't tell everything in a 20- to 30-minute interview with candidates," said PaulKoch, of Ferguson-Florissant. "We feel it isbetter for them to talk."

Those who are waiting to be interviewedby a Ferguson recruiter ( 33 staff memberscarry out some 1,200 interviews on 50 cam-puses) have an opportunity to glancethrough high school yearbooks and a pic-ture album of buildings, the community, andclassroom scenes. At the close of an inter-view, the Ferguson recruiter presents thecandidate with a personal copy of the dis-trict's annual report and a pamphlet de-scribing the school system. When new teach-ers sign a contract they are placed immedi-

ately on a mailing list to get copies of parentand staff publications.

The Warren ( Mich.) ConsolidatedSchools' kit of recruitment materials in-cludes a unique 16-page booklet, Your In-terview Appointment Booklet. This not onlyis a record book for students to fill in basicinformation and dates about contacts withschool systems but also offers tips about howto contact and evaluate prospective em-ployers, how to prepare for and take part inan interview, how to visit a school system,how to examine a contract, etc. The backcover shows the location of the Warren sys-tem and highlights some of the district'splus features.

Some alteration in the pattern of usingprinted materials may be forced by changingcircumstances. Assistant SuperintendentArch S. Brown, Parma, Ohio, has been pro-ducing a recruitment brochure for the past15 years. A main concern has been to keepthe publication simple and uncluttered, yetcontaining information to indicate some-thing about the size of the school district andits philosophy. "I doubt very much thatprinted brochures can do very much in termsof recruiting teachers to a school system,"said Brown. "However, I do believe that theyare an important way of providing pertinentinformation to the candidates."

Brown also confirms Galloway's fearsthat some universities cannot handle largerquantities of school system materials on re-cruiting. "The only printed materials that wehave used in the past several years are thebrochures that describe our schools and com-munity," reported the Parma recruiter. "Wehave been somewhat discouraged by place-ment directors from sending posters inas-much as they indicate there is a problemlocating space in which to display these ma-terials." The Parma recruiting, which in-volves filling more than 200 positions yearly,takes place on about a dozen major univer-sity campuses in the Ohio area. Some arevisited several times during the year.

At Michigan State University, there ap-pears to be adequate space for recruitmentinformation. If one poster is received, it is

13

placed in the lobby of the placement bureau.When additional copies are sent, accordingto Patrick Scheetz, head of the bureau, aneffort is made to send the posters to appro-priate departments on the campus. Bro-chures and other take-away informationabout a school system or firm are placed inracks at the MSU placement bureau twoweeks prior to scheduled interview dates.

The daily campus newspaper, The StateNews, lists campus recruiting dates for aweek in advance of the visit. More compre-hensive information is distributed earlier ina weekly bulletin which the placement bu-reau distributes to campus departments andstudent residence areas. It has a circulationof 3,000 copies.

Recruiters should be aware that uni-versity placement services may vary greatlyfrom campus to campus in the way they areorganized and the facilities they have avail-able, said Scheetz. This will have some bear-ing upon the way brochures can be stored,audiovisual materials accommodated, andinterviews held.

The Peacocks of School PublicationsSchool system information publications,

traditionally, have been low budget affairs.The best are a tribute to what can be createdby publications talent with two colors of inkand medium quality paper stock; the worstare atrocious amateur productions whichmay violate all standards of legibility andgood judgment.

Teacher recruitment literature hasachieved astonishing heights, budget-wiseand quality-wise among school publications.Four-color photos, the finest quality papersand presswork are not at all unusual. Thenewest Los Angeles poster is in four colorsand embossed. The original stimulus for full-color, slick school brochures undoubtedlycame from materials sent to the campus byindustry recruiters.

School system recruiters who distributethe fancy, colorful folders say they are neces-sary these dayssimply to gain the atten-tion of young people and to make an initial

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favorable impression. "The more colorfuland interesting the materials are, the morereaction we will get," said Portland's RalphRands. "The traditional and formal mate-rials just will not 'turn them on.' " Said PortHuron's Sloan: "We feel that the color photo-graphs and brochures are effective to gainthe attention of the potential recruit. The in-formation supplied in the brochures is of ex-treme importance, once the attention of theindividual has been gained."

The most conventional use of color pho-tography in teacher recruitment brochures isscenic shots of the area and communitywhere the school system is located. Increas-ing numbers of the brochures, however,now contain full-color shots of school build-ings, classrooms, students, and teachers.

Magnificent scenic views of the SanDiego area have long been a fixture of SanDiego schools' recruiting materials. "In ourexperience the one major factor which in-fluences teachers in the selection of a schooldistrict involves a knowledge of the commu-nity in which they will live," observed LesterWahrenbrock. "If we are to satisfy this re-quirement, it is imperative that we preparesome type of informational literature whichcan be made available to interested appli-cants."

Like some other systems, San Diego hasbeen able to eliminate some of the cost byborrowing appropriate color plates fromlocal commercial firms and agencies. A largernumber of school districts put out a colorfulwelcome mat very economically by addingto their own modest two-color recruitmentbrochure a four-color leaflet produced bysome other agency. "We feel elaborate, full-color brochures from our school system areunnecessary," said Green Bay's Swanson, "butif we did not supplement our material with afull-color Chamber of Commerce pamphletwe might need to produce more elaboratematerials."

Full-color scenery in printed literaturedoes not have the unanimous approval ofteacher recruiters. "We are hiring teachers,not skiers," declared one Michigan districtrecruiter. Said Palmer of Placentia, Cali-

ri

fornia: "Teachers are more interested inwhat your programs are than hoopla aboutthe community." Assistant SuperintendentBoyd Applegarth, Beaverton, Oregon, said:"Our brochures aim at the teacher candidate,not the placement officer or professor."

Robert Morton, Torrance, California,assistant superintendent for personnel, be-lieves that prospective teachers today areprimarily job-motivated. "Young people arefar too sophisticated to be impressed by theseashore or the mountains," he observed."They really want to know: ( 1 ) how thecommunity supports its schools, (2) thekinds of help the district provides its newteachers, and (3) the freedom they will begiven to use their own successful methods."

On the other hand, one major school dis-trict switched from a modest two-color folderinto full color as a matter of basic recruitingstrategyafter seeking the reactions of morethan 150 old and new teachers, plus prospec-tive teachers at a variety of colleges anduniversities.

"They felt overwhelmingly that sellingthe city was more valuable than selling theschool system, and they felt color pictureswould make a more attractive piece and sellharder," said the brochure designer. "We'rethe biggest city in a state of small towns. Wehave to sell city living. That's what we tryto stress. We use color shots of the commu-nity, teachers, and pupils. We have tried topick models with whom prospective teacherscan identify.

"We try to be cold-blooded about it. Re-cruiting teachers is a selling job. Soap is soldwith the most attractive advertising that anagency can devise. We're not cynical enoughto equate signing a contract with selling abox of detergent, but some of the techniquesare the same."

Despite the increased emphasis uponquality printed materials, most recruitersand placement officers view the literature asan attention-getter and auxiliary aid. "Theliterature can lead to an inquiry and a per-sonal interview," said Beverly Hills' Jenkins."It can reaffirm points made during an in-terview. It might constitute 25 percent of a

recruitment operation. In the final analysis,it is the recruiter who scores. If he does agood job, the candidate will be more inclinedto consider the district. If he 'turns off' thecandidate and 'leaves him cold,' the districtdoesn't stand much of a chance."

Beaverton's Applegarth said the bro-chure cannot provide answers to particularinterests of candidates or details about theeducational program. "If you have a sciencecandidate, you have to be prepared to givehim more information about the science pro-gram than candidates in other fields," hesaid.

"Brochures should tell the tiny detailsthat need not occupy the time of an expen-sive assistant superintendent," observedSeltzer, of East Orange, New Jersey. "Theyshould tell the 'Peter Rabbit' stuff about aschool system how far it is to town, howmany schools, recreation facilities, churches,etc."

Both recruiters and placement officersare generally in agreement that the contentemphasis should be on the educational pro-gram. "We get questions about recreationand cultural opportunities, but I believe thatkids in college are more interested in whatkind of school system you have and whatprofessional opportunities exist," said An-drews of Montgomery County, Maryland.

"Brochures which have proved most val-uable are those which include informationabout types of curricula offered, number ofteachers employed in the school system andaverage pupil load, salary schedule, descrip-tion of physical plant with illustrations,short discourse on district philosophy of edu-cation, innovative programs, and fringe bene-fits," say Fay Arganbright, director, IndianaUniversity Bureau of Educational Placement.

At the University of California, SantaBarbara, teaching candidates seem to beparticularly interested in information aboutliving costs, proximity to graduate schools,the cost of renting or buying homes, andnew educational programs in the district, ac-cording to UCSB's Chalberg.

In fact, the demand for such specifick.isso great that Chalberg has developed a one-

15

page questionnaire for school districts to fillout which is kept on file at the placementoffice and updated periodically. Specific in-formation sought includes such things as thedate and fate of the last school bond issue,approximate monthly rental of an unfur-nished three-bedroom house, whether localfunds are being used experimentally for pro-gram improvement by teachers, particularsabout the inservice training program, etc.

One of the major hazards of recruit-ment publications is that they tend to getout of date easily. Salary schedules, figureson enrollments, numbers of buildings, andother data change from year to year. Thelow-budget, two-color brochure publishershave the advantage in this respect, becausethe cost of publishing a revised edition is notas great as for the full-color publications.

Some systems use design devices to keepa booklet timely. Most frequently school sys-tems solve the problem of up-to-date salaryschedule information the way it is achievedby the Portland, Oregon, schoolsprintedseparately on a small slip which is tucked inwith other information. The Mobile, Ala-bama, system updates the salary schedulepage in a four-color recruiting folder byprinting it separately on pressure sensitivepaper which is then attached before distribu-tion. At Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the schedule isprinted on one half of a card inserted in thebinding of the recruitment booklet ( like asubscription form tucked into a magazine ).The other end is a postal card which thecandidate can use to obtain an application.

Showcases in the Market PlaceIn general, the printed recruitment ma-

terials of school systems exceed in qualityall other information publications which areproduced by school districts. They reflect thecompetitive atmosphere in which they areused. Even though some recruiters back awayfrom the term "selling" as though it mightbe a dirty word, they willingly admit thatthe objective of recruitment literature is togain attention and interest and to establisha favorable "image" of the school system.

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There are some personnel officers whoinsist upon developing their own materials,but it is obvious that increasing numbers areusing the talents of information specialistsinside and outside the school system. A fewdesign and copy ideas are bizarre; a few areclever. Most materials tend to be conserva-tive in concept; color, size, design, and illus-trations are relied upon to win attention.

Some are unique. "Who Would Want ToTeach in the Desert?" is the come-on head-line on the cover of the Palm Springs, Cali-fornia, brochure. The Grosse Pointe, Michi-gan, recruitment portfolio, which has un-usual dimensions, includes eight separatesmall folders, letter, and application. TheTamalpais High School District, Larkspur,California, and the New Orleans, Louisiana,publications feature illustrations of localscenes. An Alice in Wonderland "Throughthe Looking Glass" theme, with simulatedsketches from the book, was used in the 16-page Alpena, Michigan, booklet. "Make aBeeline for Fremont" is the theme of thebooklet by the Fremont Unified District, Fre-mont, California, which makes heavy use ofcartoon illustrations and photos.

Very few recruiters have ventured intounorthodox media areas common to otherfields of sales promotion. The Berea, Ohio,schools make wide distribution of a "LookAhead" book mark which urges that teachingopportunities be investigated in that schooldistrict. Promising prospects for positionsin the East Orange, New Jersey, schools re-ceive a nice-looking pen ( orange in color, ofcourse ). "The response has been great," saidthe superintendent.

Show-and-TellThe idea of using audiovisual materials

in teacher recruiting sounds dandy. Althoughthere are hopes for the future, the show-and-tell techniques generally have not been wellreceived. The principal handicap appears tobe that the entire current recruiting systemis stacked against the successful use of theseaids.

Although universities may promote the

use of audiovisual techniques in the curricu-lum, those who design campus placement of-fices would seem to be opposed to the wholeidea. Many recruiters who have used slides,filmstrips, and motion pictures for this pur-pose have abandoned them because so fewplacement offices have proper facilities.Some recruiters have discovered that thescarcest item in a placement office interviewarea is an electrical outlet.

"I generally persuade recruiters not touse audiovisuals if at all possible," reportedGalloway, of Bowling Green State Univer-sity. "We haven't used audiovisuals in recentyears," said Evelyn Bales, University of Ten-nessee. "At one time people had group meet-ings and used some form of movie or slides,but now it is impossible to have group meet-ings. All are individual interviews."

Some attempts at audiovisual presenta-tions fail simply because many efforts areamateurish and are shown to a generation ofyoungsters who have grown up under theconstantly improved technical standards ofmotion pictures and television. "A few re-cruiters are using visual materials," saidRegier, of the University of Kansas. "Thesecan tell the story quickly and effectively ifthey are well done."

"Audiovisuals are cumbersome, unreli-able, and often of inferior quality," saidKingsley Sears, assistant superintendent forpersonnel, Wairen, Michigan. If they weretruly portable and of excellent quality, theywould assist greatly."

Long-range recruiters who travel by airdo not like to wrestle the equipment. "Wehad a slide projector which was hard totransport and difficult to get into the handsof applicants," recalled Rands of Portland."We discontinued its use about nine yearsago. I see few audiovisual aids on the roadthese daysonly the beautifully done colorpictures such as those used by the San Diegoschools. San Diego's Wahrenbrock confirmsthat it is much simpler to show color printsand pictorial brochures. "We have experi-mented with slides, motion pictures, etc., buthave abandoned them in favor of the printedmaterials," he said.

When used as part of the interview it-self, the audiovisual aid may be an intruder."A-V presentations too often mean that theinterviewer has to talk too much unless heis quite skilled and uses the media to moti-vate the interviewee to ask questions," ex-plained Indiana University's Fay Argan-bright. "It is time-consuming and, when oneconsiders that most interviews last only 20to 30 minutes, conferral time may be cut toolow."

"Audiovisuals are time-wasters," saidEast Orange's Seitzer. "I want to spend thattime telling them about what we can and willdo for them in response to their questions."

The big future for audiovisuals in re-cruiting is likely to be imaginative accom-modation to the many restrictions whichhave been imposed. The Green Bay, Wiscon-sin, schools used to employ slides butdropped the idea because it became too dif-ficult to arrange group showings and to workthem into interviews. Slides are going to berevived, said Assistant SuperintendentReynold Swanson, but this time Green Baywill provide individual viewers for candi-dates to use while awaiting interviews.Group showings will take place on Saturdaysat the Green Bay schools administrativeoffices.

"I think slides and photo albums arepractical and work well," observed BeverlyHills' William Jenkins. "They work partic-ularly well for a small district for real iden-tification." The Fairfax County, Virginia,schools used a slide presentation last yearand may get further into nonprint media.Color photo albums and filmstrips havebeen used by the Placentia, California,schools. The big limitation on future devel-opment and use of audiovisuals, accordingto the recruiters, is inadequate campus place-ment office facilities.

Recruiters who are thinking of newkinds of audiovisuals talk about the possi-bilities of a continuous presentation whichcandidates can look at while awaiting an in-terview, although some say even this kindof area is not always available.

The innovation which the Newark Spe-

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cial School District, Newark, Delaware, hasbeen readying for 1969 recruitment tripsover a six-state area may typify what isjust ahead in audiovisuals for teacher re-cruiting. It is an 8mm sound motion pictureused with a compact portable, lightweightprojector containing its own screen. Thefilm, mounted in a cartridge, is slipped intothe machine. It can be set to run contin-uously. A darkened room is not essential. Themain essential is an electric outlet.

"It is still too early to report defini-tively, but we obviously feel it has sufficientpotential or we'd not have gone to the troubleor expense," said Thomas Calhoun, person-nel director. The film, in eight- and 13-min-ute versions, was produced by Philip A.Toman, director of information services forthe school district.

The Newark recruiters have been long-time users of the audiovisual approach. A de-sire to have some kind of attention-getter inplacement office waiting rooms led to the de-velopment originally of a slide presentationwhich could be set to operate automatically.This was so satisfactory that it went throughthree revisions.

Other school systems, however, beganto show up with slide projectors. This causedNewark to hunt for something more orig-inal. Toman, fortunately, is skilled in the mo-tion picture medium. He did the scriptwrit-ing, filming, and editing.

The short film version is used mostlywhen the projector is operating automati-cally in waiting rooms. When the recruiter isable to use the film as part of the interviewsession, he has the option of using either theshort or longer form.

Paid Advertising in RecruitingPaid advertising to employ teachers is

something about which many recruiters stillhave serious reservations. There is the slightsuggestion that it might be an "unprofes-sional" approach. One metropolitan schooldistrict personnel chief said paid advertisinghad been used with good results for non-teaching employees but the district had notattempted it in the recruitment of teachers.

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Some recruiters associate advertisingwith the seeking out of teachers already em-ployed by other districts. "Since we are notinterested in 'pirating' experienced teachersfrom other districts, we have engaged in noadvertising program," one explained.

Advertising, nevertheless, is on the in-crease in teacher recruitment. Newspaperadvertising for decades has been a favoritemedium for recruiters of industrial engineer-ing and technical personnel. Business and in-dustry campus recruiters also have beenlong-time buyers of campus newspaper ad-vertising space to announce the interviewschedules of representatives. This precedenthas led public school teacher recruiters totry paid advertising. In some instances,school board members have urged it; inothers, it has been the outcome of steadilyintensified efforts in teacher recruiting.

Cleveland's Darian Smith is one of thelong-time users of advertising. "We pio-neered in advertising in newspapers," hesaid, "announcing that the recruiter wouldbe in 'X' city on a certain date. We did thisin many large cities and it has been effec-tive. We also advertise in college newspapersand, to a limited extent, in other publica-tions.

The Fairfax County, Virginia, schoolsalso report satisfactory use of publicationadvertising. "We have tried a variety of ap-proaches, including display-type newspaperadvertising and through professional jour-nals," reported Mrs. McBride.

Many recruiters, however, are not cer-tain about the actual value of newspaper ad-vertising for the recruitment of teachers."It is hard to evaluate results," admitsSmith. This probably is due to the fact thatthe advertising plays a supportive role tothe recruiter and is not designed to produceresults on its own.

Kingsley Sears, of Warren, Michigan,believes that there has been a limited re-sponse from the use of general newspaperadvertising, campus newspapers, and radio.

"We've been pleased with advertisingresults in campus newspapers before ourvisits," said Montgomery County's Edward

Andrews. "This seems to be our most produc-tive use of advertising. In general, othernewspaper or magazine advertising has notseemed to be productive."

Some campus newspapers get lots of re-cruiter advertising. The Bowling GreenState University News on Tuesday contains aspecial weekly recruiting news section whichincludes interview schedules of recruiters,career features and interviews, and recruit-ing advertising. This advertising producedmore than $2,000 in revenue for the studentnewspaper last year.

By far the largest and most acceptablemedium for teacher recruitment advertisingis a fairly new publication produced yearly bythe ASCUS Communications and ServiceCenter, Inc., an operation of the Associationfor School, College, and University Staffing.

The ASCUS Annual, published in Oc-tober, has a press run of 150,000 copies.Teacher candidates registered with place-ment bureaus of institutions holding mem-bership in ASCUS ( they account for about75 percent of the new public school teachersproduced in the United States each year) arepresented with copies. Most of the contentof the Annual consists of advertisements byschool districts. More than 200 school sys-tems buy about 130 pages of advertising in

the book. The smallest advertisement size isone quarter of a page ($300 ). A full pagecosts $800.

Recruiters generally appear to be happyabout the ASCUS Annual advertising. Pros-pective teachers viewing the advertisementscan get some initial impression about aschool system and write for information ifthey are at all interested. These inquiriesprovide the recruiter with leads for campusvisits and interviews to be scheduled.

"We have good results from the ASCUSbook as well as ads in the college papers tell-ing of upcoming interviews," said Palmer ofPlacentia, California. Seltzer, of East Orange,was enthusiastic: "Our ASCUS experiencemeans that it has cost us about $25 per per-son," he reported. "That's good. We don'tadvertise anywhere else."

"Fair to good response from the ASC USAnnual," said Carroll L. Lang, personnel di-rector of the Simi, California, schools, whichmust hire more than 325 additional teach-ers yearly.

"We have taken a quarter of a page inthe last two annuals," said Parma's Brown."I would say that our response has been quitelimited, and I doubt very much that in thesetwo years we have actually secured a teacherthrough this advertising."

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In many ways, Parma's Arch Brown is alucky guy. Even though his district's subur-ban sprawl results in the addition of hun-dreds of new students each year and teacherturnover is about the equivalent of Ohio'saverage ( 12 percent ), his recruiting prob-lems in comparison with those in other dis-tricts are not so severe.

Brown's fortunate break is that Parmais located near 33 Ohio colleges and universi-ties which train teachers. He has foundCCover the past several years a diminishinginterest in Parma among students on out-of-state campuses," and now takes home-grown Buckeyes in large numbers, which hasconsiderably reduced the mileage on Brown'stravel vouchers.

After forced cancellation of some out-of-state college visits a few times, Brownsaid, "We have generally restricted our cam-pus recruiting to Ohio." And not all Ohiocolleges are on his itinerary, either. "Parmais represented on about 13 campuses duringthe season, and in some instances, particu-larly at the large universities, we will makethree or four visits, trying to be on campusduring each of the semesters or quarters dur-ing the school year," he said.

Others, of course, are not so fortunate.By jet and car, many school district re-cruiters range thousands of miles, especiallyto seek the teacher in short supply. Forty-five or 50 campuses seem to be the numbermost often mentioned by recruiters, andhow many states this encompasses is largelydetermined by the location of the school dis-trict in relation to the college concentration.

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On the Road

The typical recruiter is on the roadabout four monthsJanuary to April, al-though some districts like Green Bay beginin November. To some extent the number ofquarter-system colleges on the route helps todetermine the starting time.

According to many recruiters, gettingto the campus first with the most doesn't al-ways pan out when teachers are the quarry.Ferguson-Florissant's Koch reports that onerecent drive started in January, "but it wasnot better, rather a little too early."

Most school districts use two- or three-man teams, especially for visits to the largercampuses. Some rely heavily on nonperson-nel department staff members, although thereaction to this practice varies widely amongdistricts. One typical philosophy is voicedby San Diego's Wahrenbrock, who said thathis district has "found that the use of schoolprincipals and other personnel for interviewscan result in much misinformation with re-spect to certification requirements and otheremployment procedures."

Much of the reluctance to use buildingadministrators as part of a team seems tostem from the lack of training and practiceprincipals have in the recruiting game. Port-land's Rands said that the "rare" use of prin-cipals has come about because a "recruitershould have about 30 days of orientation inour office before going on the road" in allaspects of the school district.

Among the school systems which haveused principals extensively, Birmingham re-ports mostly good results. Nagley. said: "Theproblem is that these people have to have ex-

perience in order to develop skills in inter-viewing."

Apparently atrophy of skills also can setin with part-time recruiters. Denver's Stet-zler said one of the problems with principalsas recruiters is their need to be "used con-sistently."

Districts which have made principals anintegral part of the recruiting process seemto feel also that there are psychological ad-vantages to the technique. Port Huron'sSloan said that not only are good teachershired as a result but also "it is extremelygood for the morale of the building admin-istrator personally."

At Bellingham, Washington, Green saidsuccinctly: "They ( the principals) knowthey may well have to live with their selec-tions."

Outside of the occasional administratorwho performs a recruiting stint part time,school districts seem to be wary of teachersin a recruiting role. Those who have tried italso report mixed results.

At Cleveland, for example, Smith saidthat "successful and enthusiastic youngteachers have been helpful in recruiting."On the other hand, East Orange's Seitzersaid "at times" teachers have been used onrecruitment swings, "especially a very happyone from a choice school in a highly skilledarea." The drawback he found, however, isthat "we've never been able to keep oneteacher from becoming jealous of another."

A few other districts use teachers in in-direct recruiting. At Newark (Del.) PublicSchools, for instance, Tom Calhoun uses newgraduates for a return to their alma mater"in an early "softening up" foray. "This is amissionary endeavor, not to replace the in-terview visit," he said. (Denver sends minor-ity group administrators to talk before cam-pus organizations before the system's re-cruiters arrive to recruit minority groupteachers. )

Some school systems use teachers forlocal interviews following a campus contact.Seitzer reported that during a one-day tripto East Orange, candidates have a chance tomeet a wide range of teachers already em-

ployed in the district. "I believe kids want tomeet the kind of colleague that they aregoing to work with," he said.

Headaches and Gripes

Recruiter-placement office relations dohave some abrasive qualities. Amid gnashingof teeth and veiled accusations, these pointsof view emerge: In the view of the schooldistricts, some placement offices are clothes-closet operations with little appreciation andunderstanding of school system problemsand operations. From their angle, the collegepeople view a good many public school re-cruiters to be nice guys but unbelievablynaive and ineffective when compared withtheir competition in business and industry.

A vast majority of school system re-cruiters, for their part, cite the "biggestheadache" on campus as being the candidateinterviewing schedule. It is either toocrowded, filled with applicants the school dis-trict does not need, or the quarters arecramped, etc. "Not one campus in five hassatisfactory places and conditions for inter-viewing," according to Applegarth of Beav-erton, Oregon. "In addition," he said, "place-ment officials are not knowledgeable aboutlocal school districts, even in a generalsense.

Foul-ups in interview scheduling are asore point with school district recruiters.Green Bay's Swanson says there is no easysolution to the biggest placement office prob-lem: too many students. He remarked: "Stu-dents are supposed to sign up for interviewsprior to our visit so we know how much staffand time to allocate. However, when stu-dents know you're there, many who did notsign up swarm in and we don't have time totalk to them as we'd like. For example, oncewe expected 15 applicants, we were laternotified to expect 30, and we wound up with55."

Sears, of Warren, Michigan, tells abouthaving scheduled a full day of interviews atone campus and "six or fewer candidatesshowed up." As a possible solution, Searssuggested that "backup plans" for recruiters

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may be necessary by placement offices suchas meeting with department heads, visitingother schools, etc.

One problem which Universally seems toplague public school recruiters is the tragicsurplus of unneeded teachers in some sub-ject-matter areas. Portland's Rands statedflatly that "we see too many social studiesand physical education candidates."

He continued: "We have attempted tohave persons we will not need excluded frominterview schedules. This works on somecampuses, but some placement officials willnot restrict who can sign up for interviews."

Added to the problem of the unwantedcandidates is another administrative head-ache caused by the lack of time between re-cruiting teachers and the cut-off for teacherresignations locally.

State and local regulations also posesome booby traps. One of the biggest prob-lems, Birmingham's Nag ley reported, is "in-terviewing candidates who cannot qualifyfor a Michigan teaching certificate." A fre-quently encountered roadblock in out-of-state recruiting is state statutes requiringcourses in the history and government of thestate prior to the issuance of a teachingcertificate.

The best solution to this kind of situa-tion, in Nag ley's opinion, is to "work towarda country-wide certification code."

In the final analysis, however, campusrecuitment roulette is for many school dis-tricts a time-consuming process that may notbe fully justified by the cost in staff time.Some doubts are expressed by Carroll Lang,of Simi, California: "We talk to too manypeople for the number employed."

"Let's face it," he said, "all of us arelooking for the top 20 percent of the appli-cants, and the demand is much larger thanthe supply."

The dearth of top-quality applicants isespecially noticeable among minority groups,most recruiters have found. "It is a criticalproblem," said Forrest E. Orebaugh, whodirects recruitment for the Cincinnati, Ohio,schools. "Each year the number of applicantsdecreases" even though the Ohio River city

22

actively recruits at predominately Negro col-leges in nine Southern states.

To help tell the Cincinnati story, the dis-trict uses one Negro teacher as a memberof each recruiting team, he said. This is toovercome "hesitation" on the part of South-ern Negroes "to come into a large city be-cause they are afraid of the difficulties ofthe assignments."

"It is up to us," he said, "to assure themthat there are opportunities for all types ofassignments within our system."

The heightened apprehension on the partof black candidates toward the urban dis-trict has come about in the last few years,Orebaugh believes, because of a basic changein the type of Negro teacher applicant.

"More middle-class Negroes are movinginto teaching and the ghetto is as foreign tothem as it is to a member of the white mid-dle class," he said. "As a result, they maybe more comfortable in the middle-class kindof school. It may be predominately Negroin makeup, but middle class nonetheless," hesaid. By contrast, as recently as "five yearsago we interviewed more Negro candidateswith a preference for disadvantagedschools," he said.

Orebaugh believes that the number ofminority group candidates has dropped offlately because of the increased range of op-portunity open to Negroes. "At one time,Negroes were urged to the ministry, medi-cine, dentistry, and education," he said, butnow many new types of jobs are availablein business and industry.

And the commercial world is not theonly competition that school systems face, hesaid. "Many of the top candidates, Negroeswith superior aptitudes, are being activelyrecruited by graduate schools."

Although increased pressure for topNegroes is part of the employment scene na-tionwide, college placement officials by andlarge do not believe that there is much coin -petition otherwise for education graduates.

"This is a myth," Bowling Green's Gal-loway stated flatly. "School personnel( teachers and administrators) are not seek-ing business positions as is constantly stated

as one of the reasons for the shortage ofteachers."

He continued: "I would guess thatfewer than 5 percent of those training to beteachers enter the business world."

The same situation exists at UCSBwhere Chalberg reports that 1,047 candi-dates registered for placement in 1967-68and "only 47 accepted employment outsideof the field of education."

Seconds MSU's Scheetz: "The strongestbid for education credentials by nonschoolrecruiters is probably in the areas of indus-trial arts and marriage."

The Campus ViewAfter the school district recruiter shows

up on campus and finds his interview sched-ule too full ( or almost empty) and no outletsfor his audiovisual presentatipn, he may wellend up a quivering bundle of frustration.

But even when the physical arrange-ments work out well, Galloway believes thatmany school district recruiters blow goodchances because of ineptitude or the wrongapproach to the students.

Often, he said, the recruiter emphasizesthe wrong thing. "Location is the numberone factor in teacher recruitment," he statesbaldly. "Salary is ranked fourth or fifth, andin this regard recruiters are trying to sellsalary rather than location, school person-ality, teaching load, reputation, and good re-cruiting practices."

He continued: "Most salary schedulesfall into a competitive range, and new teach-ers are not concerned about the upper levelsof the schedule."

College students today are also becom-ing more sophisticated, many college place-ment officials report, and are highly criticalof recruiters. "Students are more and moreselective in signing up for interviews andwhen they do are highly evaluative of the in-terviewer and his knowledge of his schoolsystem," according to Indiana University'sFay Arganbright. "If the interviewer is in-effective, the school system he representssuffers."

Much of the same attitude is evident

among Jayhawk studerits, Herold Regier,University of Kansas, reports. "A survey ofour students indicated that they became lessinterested in the district as the interviewprogressed." Of the sample, "nearly half"said that the recruiter was "overconfident,"and "instead of selling his district the re-cruiter created unfavorable impressions."

Who does a good recruiting job andwhy, at least in the opinion of students, isnot a matter of guesswork at Bowling Greenwhere, since 1962, awards have been handedout to outstanding campus recruiters. Ac-cording to Galloway, students fill out a re-cruiter evaluation form following each inter-view. They rate "personal and interactive ef-fectiveness, communications, and generalcomments about the recruiter." Studentsregister all reactions, according to Galloway,good, bad, and indifferent." From these

forms, the recruiter of the year is chosen.Some of the best recruiters, according

to Miss Arganbright, "show genuine inter-est in the student and are honest about theopportunities which may exist for the regis-trant. They conduct the interview withoutbeing too directive, give good directionsabout follow-up, and use no high pressuresalesmanship or tactics."

School district recruiters may also haveto eliminate some personal prejudices whendealing with university students, in theopinion of UCSB's Chalberg. "Recruiters hadbetter prepare themselves for a change inthe makeup of the teaching candidate. Pub-lic school recruiters who have frowned onbeards, longish hair, and the like are goingto see more and more of them, and in Cali-fornia particularly the recruiter will have towatch his step so that he won't become em-broiled in charges of discrimination underCalifornia's Fair Employment PracticesAct."

School systems with reputations for asegregated faculty or student body are alsoin for a hard time on campus, from morethan one standpoint. Many placement offi-cials cite heightened student interest in theschool district's stand on racial attitudes,academic freedom, and integration. In the

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border state of Tennessee, for example, MissBales reports that UT students are "shockedwhen they find themselves assigned to an all-Negro school." Even though the students maynot personally be opposed to integration, shesaid, "they should be warned about theseunusual situations."

Lack of racial balance in a school dis-trict may also catch the attention focus ofcampus agitators, who, Chalberg believes,may "start zeroing in on school districts thatdo not have a fair percentage of minoritygroups represented on their faculties."

"Recruiters from Dow Chemical and themilitary services will undoubtedly be gladto share the heat," he added.

The upsurge in campus recruiting hasmultiplied many of the headaches of the al-ready hard-pressed placement office. "Mostplacement bureaus are short of staff, facili-ties, and budget," according to Galloway,and "financing of the service is sometimes abig obstacle." Many of the placement bu-reau's problems are unkown to school admin-istrators, Galloway admits. Among them:

There are fantastic numbers of re-quests for candidate credentials to beforwarded "immediately." Two weekswould be helpful.Some seek recruiting dates on a fewhours' notice when they should bemade at least six to nine months in ad-vance.Teacher vacancy notices pour in bythe thousands which are "dittoed,mimeographed," in letters, and oncards. All must be processed.Recruiting literature arrives in manysizes and shapes.School districts often fail to notify col-leges of graduates hired.

Teacher recruitment is "dynamic," andrecruiters and placement officials must beflexible, Galloway said. New approaches aregoing to be required at both ends of the jobpicture to accommodate not only the new re-quirements of the schools but also the newqualifications of the teachers they employ.

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As a partial answ -r to one of the mostcommon complaints ( scheduling), Gallowaycites a new program which has been verysuccessful in recent years at BowlingGreenthe evening interview. In 1967-68, hesaid, 1,436 students utilized the 221 eveninginterviews, a whopping 68 percent increaseover the preceding year.

"There is no question of the value of theevening interview for the student and theemployer," he said. The tremendous increasein evening interviewing shows definitely thatstudents and employers alike are pleasedwith the opportunity provided and are morethan willing to arrange their schedulesaccordingly."

In addition to the evening meeting, theFairfax schools used a centralized location tointerview college students in the Boston area.With its high concentration of 25 colleges,a downtown hotel seemed to be a good ideato accommodate students who were unableto make the normal campus schedule. Ac-cording to Mrs. McBride, it paid off. Theyield was 12 new teachers for the schoolsystem.

Another valuable new technique used bya few school systems is the campus massmeeting. It seemed to work very well forMemphis, Lee Thompson reported. "We con-ducted a group meeting the evening beforethe day we had scheduled individual inter-views. This way we could tell the entiregroup about the Memphis story, and the nextday in the individual interviews spent moretime on specifics."

He continued: "The outcome was goodbecause of the time element and also be-cause some of those who attended the groupmeeting in the evening interested other pro-spective candidates in coming in for inter-views."

Aside from the constant need for flex-ibility and new techniques, both placementofficials and school administrators seem toagree that closer communication between thetwo groups is an absolute essential.

"School administrators need to knowhow the various placement services oper-ate," Scheetz said. "Some are centralized and

some are decentralized ( all university em-ployment is handled through one center, orschools and colleges each handle their own ).Some have communication with faculty liai-son persons. Some have facilities for storingmaterials, for conducting many interviews,for meeting with large groups of students,and other facilities and services which mayaffect the personnel recruitment program ofschool systems."

Almost universally, placement officialsare in favor of school district visitations.Said Miami's Ben David: "Some large sys-tems invite placement officers to their city fortwo to three days. On-the-spot visitations aremade to selected schools. The teacher place-ment people are then able to do a much bet-ter job of providing information, upon re-quest, by the candidates."

Perhaps a tightening up of the wholeon-the-road recruiting program seems to bein order at both ends, according to Robert D.Chamberlain of Centralia, California. Hesaid school systems need to take a page fromindustry's recruitment notebook. "Industryhas developed a number of techniques to re-cruit people into that type of work. Schoolstoday need to do the same."

He continued: "The modern ( school)administrator must become a salesman, notjust a plain salesman but a super salesman,the kind that industry would jump to employbecause he shows a great interest in theproduct he is selling. He is enthusiastic,knowledgeable, and prepared to help a po-tential candidate from the beginning appli-cation to the acquisition of the teachingcredential."

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\

Recruiting on Home Grounds

Vrtually all school district recruiters, givena choice, would prefer to do their hiring athome, or at least in their own back yards.Logistically, and from the standpoint of costand personnel, it would be more effective andmore efficient.

Of course the hitch is that it is futile formany districts to depend on a local supplyfor quantity or quality. Most school systems,however, are intensifying the local talenthunt, stepping up any source of potentialsupply, such as cooperative university train-ing programs, inservice and retraining proj-ects, etc.

Ferguson-Florissant's Koch reports thathis system has placed an increased effort in"the area of indirect recruiting, such asworking with the various universities in theimmediate area by bringing our first-yearteachers to them during the year to discusswith seniors the practical aspects of teach-ing. The increased use of our schools forpractice teaching by the universities willcontinue to serve as excellent staff materialfor us, and permit us to watch these can-didates prior to the interview."

"Individuals who have done outstandingstudent teaching in the district" receive per-sonal letters inviting them to remain on thestaff, according to Bellingham's Green. Thispersonal touch is the "most effective recruit-ing device" used by the system, he said. Theletters go from the assistant superintendentto potential employees who have been iden-tified through inquiry or recommendation.

A nearby supply of student teachers,plus school district cooperation in a collegetraining program, has been unusually prof-itable for East Whittier schools. Accordingto Woodward, "our needs are 50 percent

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satisfied by the teacher training and studentobservation program at Whittier College."

In one recent year, he pointed out, theelementary district needed only 40 newteachers and at the same time had "100 ap-plicants for student observation in connec-tion with a teacher training course. A largepercentage can be expected to seek assign-ment here when they are involved in studentteaching," he said.

Large urban districts with problems ofrecruiting teachers due to the inner-city psy-chosis have taken some steps to train theirown teachers. At Omaha, for example, theschool district is setting up a new project,Veterans in Public Service ( VIPS ), modeledafter the Teacher Corps, which is used toprepare Vietnam veterans for a teachingcareer. According to Omaha's Paul Turn-quist, the candidates "get into education firstas a teacher aide and then work toward com-pletion of the college requirements and cer-tification."

At the present time, Omaha has a stu-dent aide program in which "246 sopho-mores and juniors in education ( at the Uni-versity of Nebraska at Omaha and CreightonUniversity) spend two hours a week in theclassroom and work with regular teachers ingrading papers and other nonteachingduties."

In Cleveland, Darian Smith reportedthat his system is putting a greater em-phasis on "homegrown teachers, trained fora specific setting and in a specific area(math, physical science, elementary) for theinner city."

In addition to long-range programs in-volving training and retraining of teachers,other school districts are making changes in

administrative practice to step up local re-cruiting. One new wrinkle mentioned byseveral school systems is a return to Satur-day office hours by the personnel department.At Green Bay, Swanson said that the systemholds a "series of Saturday meetings in ouradministrative offices to brief candidates asa group and then let them talk to any of sev-eral recruiters we have on hand."

Actually, said Swanson, Green Bay "em-ploys more at home than on the road." Ad-ministrators have found, he said, that"teachers are not interested in signing onthe campus because they want to see otherrecruiters and they are also interested incoming to see our system. Many we see twice.The experienced teacher, of course, we seeonly at home and not on a college campus."

The Numbers GameIn addition to the expenditure of val-

uable staff time for recruiting, many schoolsystems admit frankly that the ratio ofteachers interviewed to those hired can betwice as high on the road as at home. Port-land's Rands, for instance, said that in onerecent year 1,583 candidates were inter-viewed at home, resulting in 529 teachershired, or a three-to-one ratio. On the road,however, the recuiting team interviews 583candidates with only 69 new employees as aresult, or a ratio of eight to one.

How extensively a school district con-ducts interviews for each teacher employedseems to depend on a number of variablesrecruiting philosophy, numbers of teachersneeded, geographical location in relation tosupply, desirability of the school district,etc.

Highest number of interviews perteacher hired among the school districts in-terviewed was reported by Beverly Hills,which looked at 20 candidates for eachteacher employed. Jenkins admits, however,that it is an "atypical district" whose majorrecruiting effort is toward the experiencedteacher.

In a more typical school system, Pla-centia, California, the district's recruitersstill interview about 11 candidates for each

teacher selected, according to CharlesPalmer. However, the number of on-the-roadinterviews is being expanded so that the in-terview-hire ratio will reach 15 to 1. This isnecessary, Palmer said, largely because "col-leges don't screen carefully, and persons areinterviewed who aren't qualified." He hopedto offset some of the campus problems, headded, by previewing "some of the studentson their home ground in the classroom oncampuses prior to the actual interview. Ihope that I can arrange to be invited to pro-vide guest lectures in some of the schools I'llvisit."

Parma's partial solution to the numbersgame, according to Brown, is to "screen can-didates through application forms andthrough references and credentials, and onlythose people that we reasonably expect willmeet our qualifications are scheduled for in-terviews." At present, he said, the ratio isabout two to one, although he admits that"if time permitted, we would be able to in-terview on the basis of a three-to-one ratio."

A basic change in the style and type ofrecruiting in the future is anticipated byBirmingham, Michigan, even though, Nag leysaid, the school district still expects to hirefour teachers through local interviews forevery one hired on the road. "We will haveless recruitment in the future," he statedfrankly. The concentration will be on "se-lected areas where we can attract candidatesrather than a number of trips throughoutthe country." More time is needed in the of-fice, he said, to conduct local interviews, pro-cess applications, and write contracts. "Toomuch of this is neglected if you are exten-sively involved in recruitment trips," hesaid.

The importance of being on hand forlocal interviews is more critical in Birming-ham, Nag ley said, because "many experi-enced teachers transfer to the area as a re-sult of their husband's job assignment orjust to make a change."

Teachers locating in the district alsoform a very important supply source forParma schools, Brown said. "We continuallyhave teachers moving into the district who

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have lived and trained in various parts ofthe country." This eases a potential problemof too many teachers coming from the samemetropolitan area or the same state univer-sity, he added.

The numbers involved in the school dis-trict's recruitment program are "generally ameaningless statistic," according to SanDiego's Wahrenbrock. "We may interview avery large number of applicants in subjectareas of great need. The relationship, there-fore, of 'interviews' to 'hires' ordinarily hasno significance."

Perhaps one reason for the frustrationevident among many school district recruit-ers over the campus interview can be ex-plained by the concern over the reactions ofstudents to the job of teaching itself.

Many recruiters complain that studentsare not taking job commitments seriouslyenough these days and are showing whatGreen Bay's Swanson calls "a weakening ofethics." He continued: "We are seeing morenow of a verbal commitment to sign a con-tract and then rejection of the contract whenit is offered or we find candidates signing acontract and then resigning a month later."

News reports about high school studentdisruptiveness and mimicry of college cam-pus behavior now crop up in interviews.School personnel men report considerableconcern by teaching candidates. Wahren-brock believes that "in any large city schoolsystem, more and more inquiries from ap-plicants are being received regarding stu-dent discipline, ghetto assignments, and re-lated matters. We have also noted that manyMidwestern and Eastern applicants, espe-cially those who have had experience, areraising questions with respect to teachingcontracts. This would appear to be a naturalresult of the increase of collective bargain-ing agreements in some Midwestern andEastern states."

In the East, however, the major prob-lem among students, according to Mont-gomery County's Andrews, is selective ser-vice. "Some applicants have been inquiringabout negotiations activity and strikes, butthe draft seems to be the major concern," he

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said. "As a long-standing practice, we writedraft boards when requested, to let themknow that we believe the applicant is per-forming a vital service in his teaching re-sponsibility."

In Michigan, where considerable teacherunrest has followed a 1966 star. vide collec-tive bargaining bill, both Port Huron andBirmingham school personnel departmentsnoted a large number of inquiries about ne-gotiations, especially from out-of-state can-didates.

"It ( collective bargaining) seems to befairly well understood by candidates whograduated from our own state," Port Hu-ron's Sloan said. And, according to Nagley,"most teachers making the inquiry are cu-rious and have little understanding of theeffect of negotiations upon the profession."

The knowledge gap between campus andthe "real world" has also been very evidentto Parma's Arch Brown. He observed: "Itseems that the kinds of questions prospec-tive teachers raise relate to whatever prob-lems are in the public eye at the time."

Continued Brown: "For example, whenriots were occurring in the inner city wehad some questions regarding the kind ofstudents and population we had. Wheneverteacher strikes are publicized we are askedabout the relationship of our teachers to theAmerican Federation of Teachers and theNational Education Association.

"It would seem to me, however, thatmost of the graduating education seniors arequite unaware of what is occurring in theprofessional organizations throughout thecountry. They seem to be unaware of thegrowing militancy on the part of teachers,the conflict between the AFT and NEA, andthe general expansion of negotiation agree-ments."

Most recruiters agree that students areconcerned about integration and the socio-economic makeup of the community. At EastOrange, Superintendent Seitzer reportedthat "the militant black is a concern to thebeginner." He added: "The average kidwants to go where 'peace and tranquility'isn't the exception."

What Does Recruiting Cost?

One aspect of teacher recruiting aboutwhich little is said or reported is the cost.Tremendous amounts of money quite ob-viously are being invested for this purposeby school districts in professional salaries,secretarial and clerical costs, general over-head, travel, and printing.

Some personnel directors are quitetight-lipped about recruitment costs and areevasive about inquiries. Others consent totalk only about costs of materials or travel.

"I think there may be reluctance to talkabout costs of teacher recruiting by somepublic school people simply because it ispublic employment and there is fear of criti-cism," said one university placement officer."But the real reason why most school sys-tems lack information about recruiting costsis that they simply don't have definitive costinformation.

"Industry recruiters, on the other hand,talk quite openly about costs. For example,the typical industry cost for recruiting anengineer is about $1,000. I am sure that thecost of recruiting a teacher for some dis-tricts, especially those who must recruit atlong range, may be $600 to $1,000. They arenot likely to concede this and most likely arenot even aware of it.

"There isn't any actual recruiting budgetfor most school districts. They often have toscrounge and improvise, using many sources.A recruiting trip may be combined withother business, like going to a convention orinspecting some new educational program.Recruiting may be only one of several jobresponsibilities and no one has ever con-sidered just how much of the salary and

other overhead should be charged to re-cruiting."

Edward Andrews, Montgomery County,Maryland, confirms the placement officer'sconclusions about accounting difficulties.

"We haven't been able to cost it out, butit is expensive," he said. "Our personnelstaff members have a lot of other responsi-bilities in addition to recruiting, and it's notpossible to separate recruiting from theirother duties to arrive at a cost estimate."

Reynold Swanson, of Green Bay, Wiscon-sin, was quite candid: "I wouldn't know howto estimate the price tag with any accuracy,since the greatest cost is that in staff timerather than the small amount ( $500 lastyear) budgeted for expenses of hiring teach-ers. From February to July, our elementaryand secondary directors probably spend halftheir time in recruiting, and our superintend-ent, director of special education, and I alsospend a considerable amount of time at thetask."

In some districts, the recruiting budgetmay be limited to travel costs. Publicationsfor recruiting may be budgeted under somemore general category. At Fairfax County,Virginia, for example, a- $5,400 budget for1967-68 included travel and advertising butnot publications or salaries. On this basis thehiring of approximately 500 teachers on re-cruiting trips was accomplished at $10 each.At Memphis, Tennessee, the recruiting effortincludes visiting 60 campuses in 14 states bya staff of 12 in search of about 900 teachersat a stated cost of only $6.84 per teacherhired.

Most school personnel directors are in-29

dined to base rough estimates of total costsper teacher at $50 to $100 and up. Althoughtravel costs are limited by the nature of theParma, Ohio, recruiting program, the over-all cost of recruiting a teacher may be about$100, Assistant Superintendent Brown re-ported.

The San Diego, California, schools do nothave comprehensive cost figures but estimatethat for 1967-68 the travel and personnelcosts amounted to about $140 per teacher em-ployed as the result of direct out-of-state in-terviews. The Bellingham, Washington, esti-mate is $325. It is about $200 at Newark,Delaware.

Most recruiters who have made some studyof total recruiting costs are in agreementthat there has been a doubling of costs dur-ing the past five years. Unquestionably costsare headed upward.

Charles Huddleston, Los Angeles, said thatthe huge school district has expanded its re-cruiting operation into more campuses in the

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search for 4,700 new teachers. In 1967-68, 50Los Angeles staff members visited campusesin 48 states. One of the big Los Angeles re-cruiting problems has been to schedule re-cruiting trips which permit holding inter-views at several campuses in the same area.When this cannot be arranged, there areadded costs caused by additional trips intothe area.

The increased competition has built-in costincreases for all recruiters. Placement offices,with limited interview facilities and loadedcalendars, are already requesting recruitersto schedule visits earlier ( which is usuallydifficult because full information about jobsto be filled may not be known ). Recruitersmay have to make additional trips to havethe opportunity to interview. It may be thatthe Bowling Green State University and Uni-versity of South Florida expansion to ar-range night interview hours and other time-and money-stretching techniques may becomecommonplace.

Irr

To hard-pressed public school recruiters,the future of the job seems to be expressedin four words: "More of the same." Yet,there is some hope that better administrativepractices, both on the campus and at home,plus the advent of broad-based computerservices, will mean an improved program.

NEA °SEARCH, for example, is a custom-made, computer-based locator system ( not aplacement service) for matching teacherswith job vacancies. A project of the NationalEducation Association begun in 1967, NEA°SEARCH operates under the administrationof the National Commission on Teacher Edu-cation and Professional Standards. In its firsttwo years NEA °SEARCH processed over14,000 teacher applications, matching themagainst requests for over 40,000 referrals bysuperintendents. For a modest fee teacherscan indicate their preference as to job con-tent, location, and pay, and employers canspecify i'Aie pay, educational level, ethnicgroup, and years of experience of applicantsthey seek to fill specific jobs. Both parties arenotified when the computer produces a match.

Osborne Payne, director of NEA*SEARCH,foresees considerable extension of this ser-vice in the very near future. He believesthis will result in reduced cost and frus-tration on the part of school systems in lo-cating desirable personnel on the elementaryand secondary level. Payne also anticipatesthat the extended services of NEA*SEARCHwill motivate many qualified persons to gointo the field of education or return to thefield of education, and to remain in the fieldof education through relocating when thisbecomes desirable.

A Look into the Future

"The computer is going to be as much apart of the placement operation 10 yearsfrom now as your typewriter or your Xeroxis today," UCSB's E. L. Chalberg, a pastpresident of ASCUS, the school-campus staff-ing association, told a group of college offi-cials not long ago. "Requests for nominationsfor a specific superintendency will be whiskedinto the computer in the twinkling of an eye,and just as quickly you'll have the computer'sprescreened nominations appearing beforeyou on a video screen. No more leafingthrough registration cards to come up withcandidates who have the qualifications, be-cause the computer not only will comparecandidates with the qualifications desired butalso will come up with weighted scores foreach of the candidates to give you a relativeranking as far as a prescreening is con-cerned."

For school district recruiters, Chalbergpainted this picture: "From the universitycomputer, the school district will receive elec-tronically reproduced candidate credentials.When the director of personnel spots a set ofpapers that interest him, he contacts the uni-versity to set up an interview. The placementoffice is now equipped with phonovision andhe is able to see Susie Smith as he talks toher on the telephone. It isn't necessary tomake the trip to College X to interview Susie;he can do it in the comfort of his office."

If the candidate handles herself well in theinterview, and is interested in knowing moreabout the district, she can go to the audio-visual section of the placement library wherethere is a videotape about the district, pre-dicted Chalberg. "The videotape will take her

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on a tour of the district, and she'll have anopportunity to hear teachers tell her whatthey like about the district, as well as to seethe schools, the homes, etc.," he said.

While phonovision and videotape and TVare aiding in the recruiting process, Chalbergalso predicts that the ASCUS Annual will becomputerized geographically and school dis-tricts can "canvass the whole country forprospects with a single vacancy communica-tion, a teletype message that will insure themof instant coverage of virtually every place-ment office in the country. From the Index ofAcademic Vacancies, candidates will get acomplete listing of every reported teacher jobavailable.

"The computer, in addidon to prescreen-ing vacancies, also will be able to take careof notifying candidates, except probably forthe stuffing of the notice into an envelope,and we may even solve that problem shortly."

Chalberg predicted that the "biggest devel-opment" of the electronic boom will be mak-ing research materials available to placementofficials. Of paramount importance will be theavailability of supply and demand in anyfield at the moment. "Ponder for a momentthe counseling advantages of the system,"he said. "Right at your fingertips, you'llhave information that has had to be obtainedby an ear-to-the-ground method in the past."

Some of Chalberg's predictions do not seemto be too far away. He has already set up a

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pilot study for the Santa Barbara campuswhich has involved feeding into a computerdata on all of UCSB education candidates,plus many alumni. Information available torecruiters is definitive about such aspects asa candidate's degree of interest in locatingin various sections of the country.

Next step in the California plan will be toput into the information bank data about allthe education candidates at all University ofCalifornia campuses, more than 10,000 plusalumni. The information will be instantlyavailable at any UC campus.

Until the general availability of electronicwizardry, however, the success or failure ofa teacher recruiting program will still reston that most uncertain of all variables: thehuman recruiter. "Successful recruiting isstill based upon how comfortable the appli-cant feels at the first interview and how muchhe feels the interviewer cares about him," ac-cording to East Orange's Seitzer.

"Even more important than recruiting theright teacher," Port Huron's Sloan said, "isthe job of retaining the right teacher forthe school system. Often we recruit poten-tially outstanding people only to lose them ina short period of time to another district orcommunity. If we spent an appropriateamount of time, effort, and money on thisproblem we could no doubt reduce the re-cruiting problem considerably."