A Bill of Rights for Teacher Hiring

Adapted from: Kenneth D. Peterson (2002). Effective teacher hiring: A guide to getting the best. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
________________________________________________________________________

The School District has Rights to:

1. exercise judgment and make personnel decisions intended to provide quality education.

2. collect information relevant to its hiring role.

3. act on such relevant information in the best interest of the students.

4. expect initiative from candidates in order to make the best decisions.

5. a thorough and rigorous evaluation of candidates because of their employment to work with a vulnerable and young population.

6. the cooperation of the teaching staff and parents in implementing and executing a fair and effective system of hiring.

The Candidates have Rights to:

1. Professional rights

a. a reasonable degree of professional discretion in making his individual case for employment suitability.

b. make his individual case for making a valuable contribution to the school district.

2. Evidential rights

a. hiring decisions made on the basis of evidence.

b. be judged on relevant criteria related to job performance.

c. present his best evidence for competence with knowledge, skills, abilities, and other criteria used by the District.

d. not be judged on the basis of hearsay, rumor, or unchecked complaints.

3. Procedural rights

a. be judged according to general, public, and comprehensible standards.

b. know the general time frames concerning review and deliberation.

4. Other humanitarian and civil rights

a. humane hiring procedures.

b. to be judged by those who are competent in judgment.

c. hiring deliberations that are kept private and confidential.

d. to not be asked questions that reflect personal bias or are an invasion of privacy.

e. hiring procedures that are not needlessly intrusive into his professional activities.

f. have his private life considered irrelevant to his hiring.

g. hiring not used coercively to obtain aims external to the legitimate purposes of hiring.

h. criteria and procedures which do not unfairly discriminate merely on group or class membership.

i. hiring not used to inhibit the expression of unpopular views.

j. refuse to perform illegal acts.

k. not be harassed while considered for employment.

l. participate in union activities (except where limited by law).

The Public, Parents and Members of the Community have Rights to:

1. the educational welfare of children be the paramount concern.

2. their children taught by competent educators.

3. the hiring of teachers done in a fair and functional way.

4. teachers hired according to publicly known standards and by publicly known practices.

5. their concerns and complaints concerning teacher hiring fairly considered.

________________________________________________________________