The International Schools Review Forum

Many of us are veterans in the international teaching circuit. I am personally not one of them as I have only had 8 years of international teaching experience. I thought it would be helpful to list down some of the "warning signs" that you noticed first offhand about the school during that interview that made you back away. It could help many of the new teachers out there who are willing to take a step into the international teaching circuit.

Let me start with some of mine:

1) CONTRACT IS NOT READY
Upon offer, the Head stated that the contract will be delivered / mailed within two weeks. The question in my head was, " I wonder what will take so long to finalise details when he just verbally stated what I would be getting? "

2) HIGH TURN OVER
I think it's safe to ask the director the question about turn over rates. When their eyes shift and they give you a vague answer of " I don't have the exact statistics or numbers right now ", then you know that there's a problem. Any well managing, responsible director would KNOW the turn over rate...because it would be fairly low.

3) SALES PITCH
The interview is starting to sound like a sales pitch ( focusing more on the beauty, appeal of the country, activities to do, fun stuff that foreign expat teachers get into...which usually means EXTREMELY LOW SALARY. There is nothing really wrong with a low salary for those who don't consider money as important in their career. If I was 21 years old and just licensed, then why not...but for those who are considering on building a career, the low salary might not be the way to go.

4) DIRECTOR / HEAD OR PRINCIPAL DOES NOT RECOGNISE SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS
I had one director abruptly tell me that there are NO special needs kids or kids with learning disabilities in their school bc it's an IB school where kids are expected to succeed at a high level. This is not entirely true of IB schools ( as in they don't accommodate kids with special needs or learning disabilities ). To me, this screams that the school is dogged on looking good with the IB logo and academics, without really caring about education and the well-being of students. It might also mean, low classroom support.

5) DISCIPLINARY MEASURES POLICY
I asked a Head once what the protocol is for disciplinary measures for students ( this was of course, after he told me that their main issues with the student body is that they are " chatty " in the classroom and can sometimes forget the authoritative lines between teacher and students ). Of course, this prompted me to ask the question above. Head seemed a bit of a loss for answers and turned the question around on me as in " So what would you do? ". This tells me that the school probably has a climate where parents and students rule. You know, one of those schools where parents ask you to change the grade and you have to "comply"?

6) TIE ONLINE PRESENCE ( FOR A LONG TIME )
I've noticed that there are some schools on TIE Online who have been on there since January and their job postings have been updated every month. This tells me that they have hired people who have subsequently broken contracts or possibly lost out and are hiring again. These schools make me wonder as to why they seem to be on TIE Online for some time now. Although this may NOT be true for some schools that are genuinely good, you somewhat have to wonder about the other schools and the reviews that match up on ISR.

7) " HIGH CALIBRE TOP TEACHERS " AND " IT'S COMPETITIVE "
This line was used on me by one of the heads of a school that was reviewed on here as being bad for its toxic work environment ( i.e. bad administration, unfair treatment by board, power struggles between teachers ). The Head strangely mentioned that if one is a mediocre teacher in this environment then that teacher will feel it because of the competition. I think that one doesn't have to read the lines here. What comes into my head : Gosspiy, unprofessional, mean, toxic work environment with possibilities of teacher bullying.

8) WE ARE " EXPANDING " AND WE HAVE " INCREASED ENROLLMENT "
Although this may seem like a good thing, it usually suggests one of the following :
a) High teacher turn over and it's been disguised as "expansion"
b) Profit-hogging school ( if there is an expansion of hundreds of students within a year, then it's usually for profit...which means tight resources, long hours ).
Really good international schools ( usually non-profit ) tend to be aware of limitations and capablities of numbers, because they want to keep a decent teacher-student ratio for best teaching practices. This line was fed to me before until I looked at the staff list and pictures of the website only to realise that the reason as to why I am being offered the job is because the principal was fired due to numerous complaints of unethical practices and the grade teacher is moving on up to take the spot, leaving one spot in the grade empty. I wish that the HR rep just stated this ( not the whole part about the previous principal being fired ) rather than stating that they were " expanding " due to " increased enrolment ". Also, a particular school in Kuwait with a really damning review on here ( involving courts and the law ) has been advertising on their website due to " increased enrolment ".

Hi there,
I agree with the contract not ready dance routine. I should have run then but I didn't. The contract didn't have any details on it and listed a variety of ways they can get rid of me. It also contravened the employment laws of the country the school is in. In retrospect, if they say they're going to do something in a 2 week span and they don't follow through for whatever reason then run. If they can';t hold true to what they've said and string you along, telling you next week, in a few days, I don't know what the hold up is etc. then I would look elsewhere. From experience its not worth it.

[quote="PsyGuy"]Im with you with all but the Special Needs. Many schools being private get to simply pick who they can and do admit. Its not uncommon in Asia for instance for school to simply deny admission to students with special needs. Some schools will admit special needs students with the explicit understanding of the parents that no special needs will be provided. Special needs costs money and resources and i cant blame a school for saying "we dont want to deal with that".[/quote]

Most international schools charge each student around $ 10, 000 - $ 40, 000 USD per year. I'm pretty sure that they can provide the special needs with some sort of accommodation. It's not really the logistics that I am worried about. I'm more worried about the fact that a school would reason that the reason they don't provide resources for special needs is because it's an " IB school ".

My warning sign has been the line 'and really, no matter what anyone says, our kids are great.'

Too much emphasis on this line has ALWAYS meant major behavioural problems. And there was of course very little one could do about it except grin and bear it until the contract was finished.

1-Watch out for schools where they just LOVE you immediately and want to hire you spot on. If they don't really ask many questions to get an idea of your competence or abilities and seem eager to offer a job right away BEWARE. An interview should ask questions that actually query whether you would make a good fit for the school or not.

2-Never, ever pay ANY money to get a job!! Not one cent!!!!

3-Ask questions about SpEd, such as:
*Do SpEd students receive in class support? (from teachers/assistants?)
*Do you offer speech and language or OT services for SpEd students? Are these done on campus or provided by outside service providers?
*What is the continuum of services offered for SpEd students?
*What would you say would be my biggest challenge servicing SpEd students at your school?
*How does scheduling accommodate for collaboration between SpEd/Reg Ed teachers?

You'll get a pretty good idea of whether the admin knows anything about SpEd and that could give you pretty good idea about what your potential service expectations could be. Do the same for ESL. Make a list of questions that will give you an idea of services provided.

4-Beware of schools that tell you (at a job fair) to not accept offers from any other schools just yet. I had a school tell me to "hang on" and then never offered a job. They're not supposed to do this, but it can (and does) happen.

5-Schools that don't give things in writing. Anything they are offering at the job fair to entice you to sign on with them should have that package already listed in a legit contract for you to sign at the fair. Verbal agreements about housing, utilities, flights, etc could end up being a major disappointment later. Get it in writing!

Candycane, great list you have there. I have to agree ( wholeheartedly ) with # 1 ( Schools that are not so picky ) and # 2 ( Don't pay a single cent to any school to land the job ).

In particular reference to # 1, it's funny how heads, directors and administrators scrutinize us so much during interviews when we also scrutinize them. I often wonder how "professional" a school is when they don't have a prepared list of questions / interview etc. I like interviews that give me a preliminary sheet to answer and then a list of questions where heads, directors and so on can write comments and "rate" me. I like to think that I am a decent teacher but I also want to be able to back up that claim....so for schools who go the extra mile to find out what types of teachers they are hiring ( bc they genuinely care about the welfare of the kids ), then that's where I go.