Denver Catholic

DenverCatholicSchools.com | 5 Pillars Hiring: Principals and pastors need to re ne the hiring process for new teachers and aides. Whether or not the person being considered for the job is an authentic disciple, or displays openness to becoming one, must be an aspect of the interview process. is means that administrators and teacher candidates must jointly discern if the desire for a teaching position in a school is vocational. Continuing Formation: e O ce of Catholic Schools, in cooperation with principals and pastors, needs to provide formation that moves each teacher forward in a disciple relationship with Christ and his Church. e goal is not just to convey facts to the sta , but to also provide opportunities for further conversion, for their hearts to be transformed, so that they will then share their faith with their students and fellow faculty members. Evaluation: In order to determine their suitability for a particular role or position, appraisal of teachers and administrators must go beyond an evaluation of their pedagogy and adherence to certain benchmarks, policies and standards. ey should be able to give, in at least a brief fashion, a testimony about their faith journey, as well as ways that they incorporate their faith into their witness and teaching. Methods Hiring Toolkit: e O ce of Catholic Schools will develop a standardized set of tools and procedures to recruit, interview, and place high quality candidates in school positions. e objective is to both nd and form disciple-teachers. e hiring toolkit will contain such items as a process timeline, updated job descriptions and sample job postings, pre-hiring assessments, and standardized interview questions. On-going Formation Programs: Administrators and teachers will participate in ongoing catechesis and faith formation. To begin this e ort, two programs will be o ered during the current school year (2015- 16): to help form hearts, we will o er Jesuit Father William Watson's "40 Weeks" program; to help form minds, we will o er the Sophia Institute for Teachers. Mentoring Program: e O ce of Catholic Schools, together with school administrators, will formulate a program for new teachers that will help them develop their ability to become faith- lled practitioners and disciple-teachers in their respective classrooms. Teacher Evaluation Instrument: e O ce of Catholic Schools will develop and deploy an improved evaluation instrument for teachers that will assess behaviors, actions, and practices that are used by highly- e ective Catholic school teachers. A similar instrument for school administrators will also be developed.

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