Hiring a New Teacher?

As we balance ourselves as teachers between the long slough from winter break to spring break our attentions simultaneously turn to thinking of next year.  From putting together a master schedule to a calendar my attention becomes increasingly divided.  One thing that I have never had time to do is overhaul our hiring process.

There are two reasons I think I have never put too much time into it.  First, as part of a big district our hiring process is somewhat constrained by district protocols.  Sometimes they help, oftentimes they don't.  The bigger problem of me though is the lack of wonderful candidates from whom to choose.  Why would I put a ton of time into choosing between two of three candidates when there is usually a clear favorite?  An obvious cost-benefit analysis that usually turns my attention elsewhere.

However, how would I hire in a situation where I had what economists would call a "thick market?"  I have bandied ideas around in my head, and here are some:

1. What if I had applicants grade a series of tests with known flaws to see if they could identify them and plan to address them?
2. What if I had assessments with names that identified "kids" ethnically, racial, and by gender to look for discrimination there?
3. What if I then gave them the next lesson that ignored the misconceptions and asked for feedback on the lesson to see if they would back me up?
4. What if I had them grade the test, gave them the Learning Targets, and asked them to rewrite the test in a way that better assessed the learning targets?
5. What if I gave them a case study with a difficult behavior and had them call a parent looking to make things difficult for them to see how they would handle it?
6. What if . . . 

So many what ifs.  What would you want to see if you needed to choose from between 100 apparently equal applicants for a job?