Archive for the ‘Doug’s Original Work’ Category

I am now a guest blogger at Dangerously Irrelevant, which is a popular blog devoted to technology, leadership, and the future of schools. The author is Scott McLeod, L. D., Ph. D. who is a professor at Iowa State University. The post is an article that I did on the idea that districts should think about cutting the position of technology director. This is a position I held from 1982 to 1993 before I became a principal. Thanks to Scott’s popularity, my article has attracted a lot of attention from his readers and is getting much attention of high profile people on Twitter. Let me know what you think.

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Interviews are less predictive of job performance than work samples, job-knowledge tests, and peer ratings of past job performance. Even a simple intelligence test is dramatically more useful. This is according to Dan and Chip Heath, authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The article can be found in the January issue of Fast Company. (www.fastcompany.com) They cite studies that show that the only thing interviews correlate with is the ability to interview. People who think they are good at judging people in interviews need to think again. A college transcript is based on four years of the cumulative evaluation of 20 to 40 professors. If you think you can do better after an interview, I admire your self-esteem but not your judgment. So what does an administrator do? Simple, watch someone teach. Better yet, get input from people you trust who have seen the person in action. They are more likely to see the real thing as anyone can turn it on when the boss walks through. Listen carefully for indications of teaching talent rather than superficial judgments like those you would gather during an interview.

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