School Telephone Screener Guide

APPENDIX E
SCHOOL TELEPHONE SCREENER GUIDE

Study of Secondary Math Teachers from
Alternative Routes to Certification
Call to _______________________ [School, District]
Screening Protocol

Introduce self, organization, purpose of call
Calling on behalf of U.S. Department of Education, concerning a study they are sponsoring of
secondary math teachers, specifically teachers from Teach For America / the
______________[TNTP] program.
Following up on a letter from U.S. Department of Education about the study, sent to you
_________________ by FedEx, delivered on ___________[date], along with study description
and support letter[s] from Teach For America / The New Teacher Project. The company I work
with, ________, is leading the study (part of the study team).
Received? Reviewed? Who best to deal with – principal or someone else?
Purpose of the call is to briefly describe the study and begin to determine school’s eligibility.
The call should only take about 15 minutes, maybe substantially less time, depending on what
I’m able to learn.
In initial call to school, before phone conversation with principal, try to obtain copy of master
schedule (or current roster of math teachers and their teaching assignments). Indicate that this
will make the conversation with the principal much more productive and efficient. If they
hesitate or refuse, it’s no problem!

Describe study to principal or designee
Basic policy issues and research objective:
Alternative route teachers increasingly depended upon to address teacher shortages.
Teach For America and/or the ______________[TNTP] program are distinct for being
highly selective.
Objective is to compare effectiveness of math teachers from this program / these programs
with effectiveness of teachers from other routes to certification – with effectiveness
measured by student math test scores.

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Contacting you and other schools in this district because of your school’s past (possibly
present, future) use of math teachers from Teach For America and/or the
______________[TNTP] program. Mr./Ms./Dr. XXXX in the district office knows about
the study and has given us permission to contact schools about their eligibility, interest in
the study.
Study will require very little time/effort by school staff and students, won’t interfere with
regular educational practices. Materials we mailed say a bit more about study, and we can
talk more about it if you wish, but prefer to go on and learn about whether your school has
the staff and right circumstances to even be considered for the study; if it doesn’t then won’t
need to take up any more of your time.

Explore school eligibility
Need to start with some background questions on how school is structured, then ask about
members of math teaching staff to see if conditions are right for the making the kinds of
comparisons mentioned earlier.
Learn about school structure, big issues that would affect study
Verify school grade range
Are the students in your school currently grouped in any way such as academies, pathways,
teams or families?
If so, how are these groups formed – on what basis (e.g. students with different
subject/career interests? Students with different abilities? More or less random, with goal
of just smaller, balanced groups?)? When are they formed? Do they remain in place from
year to year? Do students stay in these groups for their math classes?
Will anything be happening next year regarding use of groups in this school? Introduction
or elimination of student/teacher groupings/families? Change in how groupings/families are
assigned or maintained over grade levels?

NEXT, to know whether your school is eligible for inclusion in the study, we need to know a
little about your math teachers and their likely teaching assignments for next school year.
Eligibility depends on school having at least one teacher from Teach For America and/or the
______________[TNTP] program, and one teacher from another background who will teach
same course to similar students.
Our contacts in Teach For America and/or the ______________[TNTP] program gave us the
names of _#_ math teacher(s) from that program that were apparently placed into your school
when they first started teaching. I’ll ask you a couple questions about each one.

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Ask about each “known” HSAC teacher on our list:
Is ____________ still teaching there?
If no, Do you know when he/she left and whether might still be teaching math at another
school in this district? In another district? Left teaching? Go to next teacher on list or next
section below
If yes, Do you expect him/her back next year, still teaching math?
If no, ask whether possibly transferring to another school in/out of district, then go to
next known teacher on our list, if any.
If yes or uncertain, identify all courses teacher is expected to teach next year (if schedule
uncertain, focus on current course assignments)
For each course, determine number of sections
For each section,
Is that a regular section or special section for certain kinds of students
(e.g., bilingual, honors or gifted and talented, retained or struggling/lowachieving students, other)?
Is that a year-long class, or one year’s worth of instruction condensed into
half a year?
Does teacher teach that class alone? With help from a
paraprofessional/aide? Jointly with another teacher?
Will any other teacher in the school be teaching similar course section
during same period (or to students in another group/family)?
If yes, Do you know that teacher’s training/certification
background (TFA/TNTP versus other)? Note any potential
matches, reinforce that’s the kind of match we are looking for.
If no, continue through each known teacher’s likely course load
until done.
Ask about possible “unknown” current HSAC teachers, not on our list:
Do you know whether any of the other current math teachers in your school came into teaching
from Teach For America / the ______________[TNTP] program
If they say no or are uncertain, skip to next section.
If yes, get name and program, cycle through following questions about expected course load.

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Do you expect him/her back next year, still teaching math?
If no, ask whether possibly transferring to another school in/out of district, go to next
known teacher on our list, if any.
If yes or uncertain, identify all courses teacher is expected to teach next year (if schedule
uncertain, focus on current course assignments)
For each course, determine number of sections
For each section,
Is that a regular section or special section for certain kinds of students
(e.g., bilingual, honors or gifted and talented, retained or struggling/lowachieving students, other)?
Is that a year-long class, or one year’s worth of instruction condensed into
half a year?
Does teacher teach that class alone? With help from a
paraprofessional/aide?
Jointly with another teacher?
Will any other teacher in the school be teaching similar course section
during same period (or to students in another group/family)?
If yes, Do you know that teacher’s training/certification
background (TFA/TNTP versus other)? Note any potential
matches, reinforce that’s the kind of match we are looking for.
If no, continue through each known teacher’s likely course load
until done.
Ask about possible future HSAC teachers, not currently at school:
It’s possible that your school’s eligibility could evolve if you lose any teachers or expect to hire
any more. Do you expect to have any vacancies for math teachers next year?
If definite “no,” skip to next section.
If uncertain, When will you know for certain? Skip to next section.
If yes,
Do you have a sense for which courses/sections the new hire would be assigned to teach?
Potential match with any HSAC teacher discussed above?

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What are the chances you’ll hire/get someone from Teach For America / the
______________[TNTP] program to fill this vacancy?
If no chance, skip to next section.
If uncertain, When will hiring decision be made?
If chances of new HSAC are good, What are the chances he/she will teach the same
course section opposite a teacher from another background?

Learn about big issues that could affect study
Explore possibility of plans for big changes in school next year that could affect study or
planning for it? For example,
[listen/prompt for]
Principal leaving? (When would successor be known?)
Changes in curriculum (especially more/less combo classes, like math-and-science)?
School expanding/contracting dramatically (e.g., adding/losing grade level, merging with
another school)?
School calendar (change to/from year-round)?
Change in how teachers are assigned to courses (more/less team teaching)?
Is the master schedule for 2009-2010 available yet – something that shows what courses will be
offered during each period of the day, and possibly listing a teacher for each section?
What’s your best estimate of when the master schedule for 2009-2010 will be available –
something that shows what courses will be offered during each period of the day, and
possibly listing a teacher for each section?

Propose idea of in-person meeting, if/when appropriate
Based on what you’ve told me, it seems that as of right now your school has [high / some /
relatively low] chance of being eligible for the study.
If high/some chance, explain about preference to come meet in person, to explain more about.
Say you will get back to them about setting that, once you connect with other schools in the
district, to coordinate a trip with visits to more than one school.
If low chance of eligibility, tell them you’d still like to follow-up later in current school year, to
see if situation changes.

Closing

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Any questions or concerns?
Thanks for time, information
Will stay in touch about vacancies/hiring/schedule development/in-person meeting (if necessary)

Post-call Tracking/Data Updates
Record principal’s name, contact info
Record secretary’s name (for future reference)
Record name, title, contact info for other key staff (e.g. schedulers)
Specify whether “in play” or not (if not, why)
If “in play,” specify status of potential match (e.g., how likely is known HSAC teacher to be
there next year?)
If “in play,” specify status of planning for a meeting (e.g., scheduled, wait to schedule)

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