Wake County Schools Teacherfit (home, high school, restaurant)

[MaxtheRoadWarrior]

I am currently a teacher in a county neighboring Wake and have quite a few friends who teach in Wake County schools (not to mention my wife currently works for WCPS). While speaking with a few of them I was informed that Wake has adopted a new application item known as "Teacherfit." Put simply, it is a qualification quiz every candidate must take to be considered. I had never heard of such a thing!

As they explained it to me I was progressively more horrified. For an teacher application to even be considered in WCPS they must take this test and make a certain score. Questions range from something as relevant as "How would you handle this disciplinary issue" to something as trivial as "Would you cross the street without a crosswalk signal." I researched a little further when I got home and found that it is actually catching on around the country, but is seemingly universally disliked, at least by teachers.

My time as a teacher is drawing to an end, so I really don't have a dog in the fight, but I can't help but see this as another blunder on the part of county administration. After years of education, supervised student teaching, recommendations, and Praxis testing, this quiz seems awfully insulting to applying teachers.

I suppose I understand the move. Wake is one of the more popular teaching locations in the state, so Teacherfit would serve to weed out applicants, but from remarks I have seen the test is highly arbitrary and not at all an accurate reflection on the abilities or potential of teachers.

Given the rampant nepotism and sometimes questionable hiring practices that already exist in Wake County, I don't see how this helps anything...

Really interested in the opinions of posters here (especially given many posters are parents!)

[RedZin]

I think it's ridiculous.

[twingles]

No different than the private sector. Meanwhile, consultants make $$$ to come up with these stupid questions, half the people don't work out anyway, and they are laughing all the way to the bank. What my spirit animal is really has no bearing on my ability parse out legal and liability issues, but someone has been brainwashed into thinking that it does!

Not to mention WCPSS isn't really in a position to be choosy....think there were more than a few schools that started last year without all the teachers they needed...

[JaPaKoMom]

This type of testing is becoming quite popular. My high school son had such a test when applying to be a bagger at Publix. And I recently spoke with another mom whose son had the same type of psychological test when applying to be a bus boy at a local restaurant. I think it is ridiculous!