CRITERIA AND HIRING PRACTICES USED BY PRINCIPALS IN THE SELECTION OF TEACHERS AS PERCEIVED BY THE ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS IN THE BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA SCHOOL DISTRICT (SCREENING DIFFERENCES, VARIABLES)

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences among elementary, middle, and high school principals in the hiring practices, initial screening, and final selection of teachers. Issues involved in the study included items such as (1) willingness to transfer teachers during the school year, (2) willingness to transfer teachers at the end of the school year, (3) importance of college transcript, and (4) personality of candidate. The multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) program implemented in SPSS('x), Release 2.0, was used to perform the statistical operations from the surveyed population, ninety-seven elementary, twenty-seven middle, and twenty-two high school principals in Broward County, Florida, School District. Each set of twelve items associated with the three hiring areas from the survey was subjected to a separate MANOVA Analysis. The Wilks Lambda statistic was used to determine the significance of the multivariate tests. The differences between male and female principals in perceptions about the thirty-six components in the hiring and selection practices of teachers were not significant. Level differences among the three groups of elementary, middle, and high school principals, however, did exist. The emphasis upon transcripts, use of community support teams, and the need to seek certification waivers were some of the items of contrasts.