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Re: Online applications
Posted by Merrill on 6/16/08

I am not at all familiar with the online "ASAP" application--of
course I didn't know what to expect when filling it out. I suspect
that the application is used to screen candidates based on things
like race and gender, the school they went to, how many years
teaching experience, etc. So you better have 10 years experience,
have a degree from Yale, and you better not be a white male.

*Or, if you are the daughter of the football coach, they will
interview you without ever having to go through the database.

This of course leads to the question of why education programs are
churning out teachers who will never find jobs? If schools in
Illinois are getting 800 resumes per position, it means that the
market is completely flooded--where is the "teacher shortage" we
keep hearing about?

The rational person is going to find a hard time justifying going
into a profession that has this many headaches associated with it.
Highly qualified people are going to go into the business world
instead (they are).


On 6/15/08, spedhead wrote:
> On 6/15/08, Merrill wrote:
>> I just filled out one for a district in Illinois--it was an
>> absolute nightmare. Took close to 6 hours to complete. They
>> wanted every piece of information imaginable, put me through a
>> "teaching style" personality test that was timed, and they
>> wanted me to upload letters of recommendation--as if I have
>> those--they usually come from the person making the recommendation!
>
> No, in Illinois they don't. You have to understand every area has
> different ways of doing things. I have filled out out-of-state
> recommendation forms that came from a district and they expected
> me to put them in the mail direct to them. This is almost never
> done in Illinois. We write letters of rec and give them to the
> candidate. They then give them, or a copy of them, to the
> district they're applying to. PDFs uploded on the online
> application are quickly becoming the prefered way to get this
> info, along with college transcripts and certification documents.
>
>> There was no place to indicate that I am close to finishing my
>> Ph.D. There was also no way to indicate that I had been in the
>> private sector for a few years between teaching gigs.
>
> Most Chicagoland districts use the Online ASAP application. After
> you've done one, you can import a lot of the info to another
> application. There is room to put all experience in the work
> force, teaching and private sector. There's also room to put all
> school attended and the credit you have there. If you've done
> something other than this application, it is not the norm.
>
> To be honest, I don't care if you've been in the private sector.
> We usually consider teaching experience when making a call on
> whether to interview. Non-teaching experience has to be something
> special to even raise an eyebrow, like military experience in Iraq
> or aide to a Senator or something like that (I've seen both of
> those examples, BTW).
>
>> So it is safe to say that an online application hurts most
>> applicants in a big way. It's just laziness on the part of the
>> district--why not hire someone to look at our resumes and cover
>> letters?
>
> Ummmm, because that costs money. School districts have many
> things to do with their finite resources and being fair to job
> applicants doesn't even make the list. If public schools in your
> state have money to spare, I'd suggest staying there.
>
> I'll say this. Teachers in fields that are glutted, like elem ed,
> English, Social Studies, PE, etc. do not get their applications
> looked at "fairly." I know this for certain because collegues of
> mine hire for those positions. There are many hundreds of
> applications for each job. We don't have the time to look through
> them and we don't want to. This is why we have the online system
> to sort through the people we don't even want to consider. Is it
> perfect? Nope, but its the system we have and its the system
> you'll have to live with if you want to work here. I'd say 3rd
> Grade teachers are a Dime a dozen, but they're more common than that.
>
> Now, I look at special education applicants and we have far fewer
> than say, the English Dept. I have the time to look through each
> application, because there might only be 8 apps for 3 jobs.
> Towards the end of the summer, when fluke openings spring up,
> there might not even be one app for a job.
>
>>
>>
>> On 6/15/08, Don't worry wrote:
>>> Most applications have a question such as "How do your past
>> professional and
>>> personal experience make you an excellent candidate for this
>> position?" Surely you
>>> can fit it in there, and you can send cover letters to the
>> principals as well.
>>>
>>> On 6/15/08, Merrill wrote:
>>>> Many districts and schools require online
>>>> applications--basically a database entry for the applicant.
>>>>
>>>> In my case, I have a CV that is much more comprehensive
>>>> than this--it has publications, service work, private
>>>> sector stuff, etc.
>>>>
>>>> I am worried that the online system is going to make me
>>>> (and everyone else) look the same. I won't be able to
>>>> explain why I was teaching in the mid 1990s and then took
>>>> time off and returned to graduate school/teaching (I was in
>>>> the private sector working). In other words, the database
>>>> is like a shoe-horn.
>>>>
>>>> I am pretty worried about this--should I be?
>>>

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Online applications, 6/15/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/15/08, by Don't worry.
• Re: Online applications, 6/15/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/15/08, by mrsd.
• Re: Online applications, 6/15/08, by spedhead.
• Re: Online applications, 6/16/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/16/08, by KKL/2nd/IL.
• Re: Online applications, 6/16/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/16/08, by KKL/2nd/IL.
• Re: Online applications, 6/16/08, by spedhead.
• Re: Online applications, 6/17/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/17/08, by Rebecca.
• Re: Online applications, 6/17/08, by spedhead.
• Re: Online applications, 6/17/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/17/08, by spedhead.
• Re: Online applications, 6/17/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/17/08, by spedhead.
• Re: Online applications, 6/18/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/18/08, by spedhead.
• Re: Online applications, 6/18/08, by Without Words Thanks to Sped Head!.
• Re: Online applications, 6/19/08, by discouraged.
• Re: Online applications, 6/19/08, by spedhead.
• Re: Online applications, 6/20/08, by Merrill.
• Re: Online applications, 6/20/08, by spedhead.