Author Description

In 2002 and 2003 NAIS Hot Issues surveys, school heads ranked "hiring and retaining qualified teachers and staff" among the top issues they most worry about. Peter Gow, academic dean at Beaver County Day School, offers advice on this challenging issue in the NAIS book, An Admirable Faculty: Recruiting, Hiring, Training, and Retaining the Best Independent School Teachers. This 154-page book focuses on sush topics as: * preparing for hiring; * building the case for recruiting; * recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and training; * school culture; * leadership; and * compensation. Each chapter of the book is based on a simple maxim (for Chapter 1, "Preparation for Hiring," the maxim is "Every opening is an opportunity"), and each chapter ends with a list of recommended resources and best practices. Gow, hailing from a "tribe of educators" himself, explores why teachers in North America, despite having relatively low incomes and status, love and pursue their vocation. How is the relationship between the teacher and school forged and strengthened? How is it maintained in a way that promotes and sustains mutual growth, and how can it end, if need be, garcefully? If a school employs Gow's maxims and a "systems approach" to hiring an retention, he believes it can "become the kind of community in which the nurturing of teachers from raw recruits into seasoned, effective, and even beloved profesionals becomes the norm. " --- from book's back cover