Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified

Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

Date: August 2016 Team: Academics, Bridge International Academies Acknowledgments: Special thanks to:

Submitted by:

https://newglobe.education/

Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

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Contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Overview of Teacher Recruiting and Screening Process 3. Results (By NCE Holders vs Non-NCE Holders) 4. Conclusion and Next Steps

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Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

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1. Executive Summary In August 2016, Bridge International Academies hired hundreds teachers to staff 13 new academies in Nigeria. As part of its mission to provide pupils a high quality education, Bridge pursued high levels of teacher quality via several rounds of recruiting assessments.

Bridge also sought to hire as many NCE holders as possible. This was a key priority for Bridge’s overall recruiting strategy, and recruiters aggressively sought out government certified teachers in the community.

As part of its overall effort to refine its selection model, Bridge continues to study and track the performance of candidates in its pipeline. This report summarises recent recruitment results of government certified teachers and those who are not, and describes subsequent questions for Bridge.

Overall, Bridge finds that there is no clear pattern of superiority of one group over the other.

While average recruiting scores of teachers who are not government certified are similar to those of government certified teachers, any contrast between the two distributions varied slightly from test to test.

It’s worth noting that type of finding is not unique to Bridge. Studies in other contexts have suggested that formal teaching credentials are not necessarily strong predictors of teacher effectiveness (Muralidharan and Venkatesh, 2013; Kane, Rockoff and Staiger, 2008; Rockoff, Jacob, Kane and Staiger, 2008). As recruiting assessments do not represent actual teacher effectiveness, Bridge also plans to continue this preliminary research by studying the effectiveness of these two types of teachers in the classroom over time.

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2. Overview of Teacher Recruiting and Screening Process The teacher recruiting and screening process of Bridge International Academics in Nigeria is summarised as follows:

1. Sourcing of Candidates via Referrals, Marketing Candidates are sourced via recommendations from community leaders and stakeholders (King, chiefs, pastors, elders, imams, student union, etc.), local and state departments of education, and teacher training colleges.

This method of referrals was used in order to achieve a candidate pool of higher quality or stronger ties to the community. Posters and flyers about the teaching position were also distributed throughout the community.

In all conversations with leaders providing candidate referrals, we communicated that we strongly preferred NCE candidates. In our marketing materials about available positions, we also clearly indicated this preference.

2. Phone Interview Bridge then reaches out to all referred candidates and conducts a preliminary screening based on their conversational English levels and other important logistical questions.

For example, candidates are asked whether or not they can commit at least two years to the job, whether they are willing to work upon understanding work expectations, remuneration and benefits, and whether the academy is within close proximity to their current residence.

3. Written Examination of Content Knowledge Candidates who successfully pass the phone interview are then invited for a Written Examination and Interview. The written examination is an assessment composed of basic arithmetic, reading comprehension, writing and grammar taught in primary school, in addition to basic cognitive ability to follow detailed directions.

4. Interview Candidates who successfully pass these stages are invited for an Interview. This portion is composed of several performance assessments and varies by grade level. All applicants are asked to deliver a lesson demonstration with a sample Bridge lesson guide.

Other assessments include assessments on reading and pronunciation, ability to follow directions in English, assessment on letter sounds, phonics, blending, and a behavioral interview assessing job “fit.”

Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

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5. Reference Check Recruiters call members that share same community connections as the candidate and complete a “blind” reference in order to determine the candidate’s work ethic, integrity, and passion for the teaching job.

Training Performance Assessments Successful candidates are then sent to Training, and are hired as teachers with a 6 month probationary period. There are assessments throughout Training to give formative feedback, but Training also ends with a summative assessment that indicates teacher growth and overall performance.

3. Results (By NCE Holders vs Non-NCE Holders) A comparison of Exam scores means between NCE holders and non-NCE holders appears to show similar levels of performance on Written Exams for the two groups (Table 1).

Table 1. Comparative Scores of Non-NCE Holders and NCE Holders on Written Examination Non-NCE Holders Mean SD Min

Max

N.

Mean

NCE Holders SD Min

Written Exam

N.

Max

Mathematics

226

13.64

3.05

4

20

86

13.69

3.20

7

20

Grammar Reading Comprehension Attention to Detail

226

15.88

2.86

2

20

86

15.78

2.67

7

20

226

16.12

3.07

0

20

86

15.55

3.07

6

20

226

15.54

4.49

0

20

86

15.30

4.40

0

20

However, further comparison of Interview scores (Table 2) and a closer look at the distributions of all scores (Graph 1) shows that there is no real clear superior group between the two.

On some assessments (Math, Reading exam scores), teachers who are not certified scored slightly higher, while on other assessments (Fluency, Reading Accuracy), the government certified teachers scored slightly higher.

Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

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Table 2. Comparative Scores of Non-NCE Holders and NCE Holders on Interview, Performance Assessments Non-NCE Holders Asssessment

NCE Holders

N.

Mean

SD

Min

Max

N.

Mean

Fluency Words Per Minute

160

147.24

29.91

18

Fluency Accuracy

160

92.99

17.48

1

214

60

151.68

106

60

93.48

Phonics (Younger Grades)

109

12.64

1.51

Lesson Demo (Younger Grades)

6

14

46

107

7.89

4.89

4

53

Lesson Demo (Older Grades)

49

Response to Pupil Work (Older Grades)

7.61

1.97

5

49

7.14

1.54

Overall Rating by Recruiter

160

7.28

1.44

SD

Max

32.65

M in 9

15.45

9

100

12.41

1.57

8

14

45

7.44

1.66

5

12

12

23

7.43

2.27

4

11

5

11

22

6.91

2.11

4

11

3

10

60

7.22

1.82

2

10

204

Graph 1. Distributions of Recruiting Assessment Scores: Government certified teachers vs Teachers who are not government certified Math scores of government certified vs not

.15

Grammar scores of government certified vs not .2

.15 Density

Density

.1 .1

.05 .05

0

0 0

10

Exam score

15

20

0

5

Government Certified Not Government Certified

15

20

Government Certified Not Government Certified

Reading scores of government certified vs not

.15

10 Exam score

Attention to Detail scores of government certified vs not

.15

.1 Density

Density

.1

.05

.05

0

0 0

5

10

15

Exam score

Government Certified Not Government Certified

20

0

5

10

15

20

Exam score

Government Certified Not Government Certified

Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

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Fluency scores of government certified vs not

Exam Scores

Government Certified Not Government Certified

5. Conclusion and Next Steps While preliminary, these findings raise questions for Bridge International Academies regarding the prioritisation of government certified teachers in its hiring process. Bridge will continue to track these statistics for future cohorts, and will also track the performance of government certified teachers versus those who are not certified teachers over time throughout their employment.

In the short-term, Bridge will continue to aggressively recruit government certified teachers via increased engagement with communities, stakeholders, and teacher training colleges, and welcomes feedback or suggestions from the broader education community regarding these findings.

Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

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Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

Findings from Teacher Recruitment in Nigeria: Recruiting Assessment Scores of Government Certified Teachers

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