Hi Kid: Who Gets the Job?

LET’S TALK ABOUT IT…
Who Should Be Hired?

Is Poudre School District hiring the best teachers for our local students?

We imagine recruiting excellent candidates to Fort Collins would be relatively easy. Our area has so much to offer—a great place to raise a family, school choice, and all the sunshine. Given the struggling state of schools across the country, we assume PSD could easily attract and retain the best staff.

But what makes someone a fantastic teacher? Is it content expertise? Classroom management skills? Something else?

We wondered what the district looked for in candidates and found some clues. Those clues made us wonder if PSD’s hiring focus is on professional excellence or on the more controversial and polarizing diversity, equity, and inclusion political philosophy.

The first thing we found was a presentation to the PSD Board of Education delivered February of 2024. The presentation bluntly stated that PSD’s value—not priority, but value—is to incorporate DEI in everything that they do.

Next, we found a training that was delivered to PSD staff titled “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Hiring”.  The presentation was filled with slides informing staff of their many hidden, elusive, and seemingly difficult to prove biases.  The presentation also informed staff that all standard PSD interviews must include a minimum of two DEI questions from the DEI Question Bank.

Provided examples of DEI questions included ones such as:

• What was the last thing you did to challenge your own cultural self-awareness?

• What does anti-racism mean to you?

  Describe your understanding of equity vs. equality?  Give us an example of how we would see equity in your work.

• What is your philosophy for teaching and learning, especially regarding (sic) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?

Staff were provided a rubric for evaluating candidates’ adherence to the DEI philosophy (image below).

• A weak candidate “has little to no vision for moving equity work forward”.

• An average candidate “may show a prejudice, stereotype or bias, but then shows evidence of self-correction and/or evidence that they are working on getting better”. 

• Candidates exhibiting ‘Exceptional’ adherence to the politically divisive DEI philosophy are ones who show “experience having actually implemented equity work in the past…or…shows great introspection and self-awareness as evidence that they are ready to diver deeper into equity work.”

We are left wondering if PSD’s hiring emphasis on DEI-philosophical alignment is the best hiring strategy?  If a candidate is able to demonstrate content expertise, but scores low on the DEI rubric, would the district not hire them?  What should the district’s hiring strategy be? What do you think?

TRENDING CONVERSATIONS
WPATH to Trevor to Your Local Elementary

This week the internet was lit up when internal files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) demonstrating the organization’s clear and complete disregard for ethical treatment of gender dysphoric children were published. WPATH is linked to the Trevor Project, an organization frequently referenced and recommended to children in Poudre School District.

Should parents be concerned?

IS THIS A GOOD IDEA?
Prohibiting Occupancy Limits New Cure for Loneliness, Colorado House Declares

Northern Colorado House District Representatives Cathy Kipp and Andy Boesenecker are sponsoring a controversial bill that prohibits local communities from enacting or enforcing occupancy limits, arguing that the limitation will magically save the environment (how many people can you cram into the space?!), remove limitations on how family is defined (family is what you choose!), and solve loneliness (the more people you live with, the less isolated you’ll be!). What could go wrong?

WHY WAS I NEVER TOLD?
Identity Politics is Nothing New

Classification of citizens by social identities was a significant feature of Mao’s Chinese Cultural Revolution. Citizens were divided into “Black Identities,” those were were political enemies of Mao’s revolution and “Red Identities,” those who were considered politically supportive of the revolution.

Black Identities Included:

• Landlords

• Rich Farmers

• Counter-revolutionaries

• “Bad Elements”

• Right-wingers

Red Identities Included:

• Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants

• Workers

• Revolutionary Soldiers-members of People’s Liberation Army

• Revolutionary Cadres-active members of CCP

• Revolutionary Martyrs

DINNER TABLE DISCUSSION
Who Should Make the Decisions?

What Do You Think?

Do people with higher intelligence, experience, expertise, or virtue have the moral authority to rule over others? Do experts know best? 

Plato thought so—what about you?

BEFORE YOU GO:

• Thompson School District employee and local State House Representative Janice Marchman sponsors a bill that would force school districts to come between parents and their children.

• Local State House Representative Cathy Kipp sponsors legislation which would label some constituents as “Vexatious”.

• Why do politicians like to say they are Completely Against the thing their bills seem to actually do?