Uncommon Schools Uses Recruit to Contribute to Increased Teacher Diversity Hiring
Situation
Founded in 1997, Uncommon Schools is a network of public charter schools that provide a high-quality education to students from low-income communities, preparing students to graduate from college and for lifelong success. To achieve this, Uncommon Schools actively recruits students to mentor and teach more than 21,000 students at 57 schools across New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Uncommon Schools aims to bridge the opportunity gap in low-income communities with a holistic, co-curricular teaching model that incorporates social and emotional learning to prepare all students for success in college and beyond.
Uncommon Schools recruits talent from across the country and all majors to ensure the diversity of its staff reflects the diversity of its students. Uncommon Schools leverages Symplicity Recruit to find candidates to teach at one of its K-12 schools or support its central office. Alongside other solutions, Recruit stood out to Uncommon Schools for its customization and ability to reach a wide array of students and alumni across the country.
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Solution
Following many of its college and university partners, Uncommon Schools joined Symplicity Recruit in 2015. At the time, Uncommon was looking for a solution to expand its connection to a wide array of institutions, particularly those who would be a good fit for teaching roles at its schools, regardless of major. With Symplicity Recruit, recruiters at Uncommon can easily find early career talent with access to resume books, the student Global Search features, and access to hundreds of institutions on the Recruit’s platform.
"Recruit has really been critical to hiring for our Summer Teaching Fellowship and our early talent pipeline. Recruit has enabled us to invest in students as early as possible from a variety of different universities and colleges.”
Toya Hall, Director of Talent Recruitment at Uncommon Schools
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Adopting Recruit has improved their engagement with students and broadened their recruiting scope. “Being able to filter qualifications, GPA, major, year, and better market our paid internship has been the biggest growth area for us,” says Toya Hall, Director of Talent Recruitment at Uncommon Schools. “Recruit has really been critical to hiring for our Summer Teaching Fellowship and our early talent pipeline. Recruit has enabled us to invest in students as early as possible from a variety of different universities and colleges.”
Additionally, Recruit has supported Uncommon by expanding its brand awareness and access to students. “Recruit supports fostering a strong foundation between the employer and students,” says Hall. “[With Recruit] we build connections that allow us to find great talent and encourage them into great educators.”
Success
Recruit provides multiple engagement features to support employers connecting with students from registering for in-person and virtual career fairs easily to communicating with students all within the platform. Uncommon utilizes Recruit to promote its Summer Teaching Fellowship, a 7-10 week immersive teaching internship that prepares students for success in urban public schools.
Fellows receive professional development and coaching from a mentor teacher and after successfully completing the fellowship, Fellows often receive full-time offers to join the Uncommon Schools teaching staff upon graduation. “Ultimately, [Recruit] allows us to connect with so many students in such a small amount of time… it allows you to diversify who and how you connect with candidates,” Hall stated.
Since September 2020, Recruit has sourced 2,500 applicants for Uncommon Schools. Of those applications, Recruit helped Uncommon to fill 124 full-time and internship positions. “Symplicity Recruit is a one-stop-shop platform that supports multiple outreach initiatives,” says Hall. “Whether you feel comfortable creating a connection via email or hosting events, Symplicity can do that. Whatever avenue you want to engage candidates with, enacting a singular or multi-approach, Symplicity can assist.”
Plus, alongside other platforms, Recruit has helped increase Uncommon’s diversity hiring with staff identifying as people of color increasing from 40 to 61 percent in the last five years.
With Symplicity Recruit, Uncommon Schools has diversified its candidate pools, fulfilling its mission to ensure the diversity of its staff reflects the diversity of its students.
"Symplicity Recruit is a one-stop-shop platform that supports multiple outreach initiatives."
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