Update on KEEB Statistics for Year-to-Date

It is the time of the year that we at KEEB begin reflecting on the growth in KEEB and look to the future needs of the program for the next school year. In doing this review, we have compiled a number of key data that may be of interest to school and state personnel. Below is a slideshow detailing the years growth in visitors, applications, and jobs posted. Feel free to view the slideshow and contact us with any questions or suggestions you may have for improvement of KEEB.

Kansas Teaching Jobs 2009

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Upcoming KEEB Training Events

Two training events on new KEEB features and a review of last year's updated features will be offered at the following locations and times. The training is coordinated by the Kansas Education Employment Board's lead programmer and offers a great opportunity to refresh yourself on KEEB features before the recruiting season hits. The training sessions will also include assistance with your employer profile and job advertisements to improve your overall recruiting effort.

• January 29th @ Greenbush, Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, Girard, KS, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
• February 13th @ Greenbush, Forbes Field Office, Topeka, KS, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
  

For more information email matt.blatchley@greenbush.org.

February Virtual Career Fair Announced

The Kansas Recruitment and Retention Program will be hosting another virtual career fair February 26th from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. in Second Life. The event is free for public schools and potential candidates for teaching and administrative positions. To register to participate email support@kansasteachingjobs.com or visit the Kansas Education Employment Board.

New Interview Scheduler Feature on KEEB

The Kansas Education Employment Board (KEEB) is excited to announce a new feature coming to employers using KEEB to recruit educators. You will now be able to utilize an interview scheduler within KEEB to schedule interviews as you view applicant resumes. While searching applicant resumes you can request either a (1) in person interview or (2) phone interview. Below is an example of how you can schedule an in person interview.

The applicant then receives a notification via email and within their KEEB account that you have requested an interview and applicants can either accept, deny or reschedule. Once applicants have viewed and responded to the interview request, the employer's interview schedule will be updated. As an employer, you can view your current scheduled interviews and any interview requests by clicking on "Interview Schedules" on the main Employer Account page. If you make any changes to an interview's time or location KEEB automatically sends an email notifying the applicant of the change to seamlessly allow you to manage your interview schedule.


The interview scheduler will be available to all employers using KEEB later this fall.

Resource to Help Teachers Develop Relationships with Parents

As the first quarter of the 2008-2009 school year nears its end, early career teachers may be encountering their first communication regarding report cards with parents. This is a great time for district and building administrators to provide resources and support related to parent communication. The Kansas Parent Information Resource Center (KPIRC) is one such resource that can be valuable to all teachers in Kansas. KPIRC is supported by federal funding under the No Child Left Behind Act and works closely with KSDE. There are a number of resources on the KPIRC website related to:

• developing successful partnerships with parents
• information for first year educators
• informing parents on NCLB requirements
• informing parents on state assessments and grade level expectations
• special education rights and services
  
• information on early childhood services
• information for how parents can support academic learning at home

The New Teacher Welcome Packet offers a number of tips related to developing and fostering parent communication throughout the school year. Particular for this time of the year, it offers a number of great suggestions for conducting successful parent/teacher conferences. You can download the packet at http://www.kpirc.org/Downloads/NewTeacherWelcome.pdf.

2nd Annual Virtual Career Fair for Educators

On November 10th the Kansas Recruitment and Retention Program will be hosting the 2nd Annual Virtual Career Fair for Educators in Second Life. This is a great opportunity to recruit highly qualified educators from the comfort of your office or home. During the 2007-2008 school year, the program hosted two successful career fairs in this new virtual world that allows districts to visit with potential candidates from all over the country. Second Life allows districts to share information with potential candidates, have voice conversations, and view candidate resumes. The event is free for all public school districts and cooperatives who utilize the Kansas Education Employment Board (KEEB). If you would like to register or have questions about the event please contact us at support@kansasteachingjobs.com. Your registration email should contain the contact information for district personnel participating (personnel must be identified ahead of time to receive appropriate training).

Celebrating a Year of Recruiting with KEEB

This week marks 1 year since the state of Kansas launched the redesigned teacher recruitment initiative at www.kansasteachingjobs.com. The year has represented a renewed effort of recruiting in Kansas and many lessons have been learned to apply to the this year's recruitment practices.

Successes
The redesigned KEEB experienced a significant increase in traffic by both schools and potential educators in the last year. At the years end we have 98% of districts in the state utilizing the service and over 10,000 applicant profiles. From September 2007 to today we have had over 670,000 visits from Kansans and approximately 6,708,000 page views. In addition, 35% of the traffic on KEEB is generated from out-of-state visitors allowing districts in the state to recruit from a broad range of experienced educators. Although www.kansasteachingjobs.com represented a significant increase in traffic to school job postings, other efforts ensured that schools in the state of Kansas were represented in a range of online and virtual recruiting tools. KEEB now feeds jobs from the website to 4 different nationally recognized job boards ensuring that Kansas jobs reach potential candidates outside of our state lines. In addition, the use of new technology such as virtual recruiting events has put Kansas on the forefront of recruiting practices. It will be critical in the future that Kansas continues to utilize the latest and best technology to reach highly qualified educators.

Lessons Learned
While there were many successes through the year there were also a number of lessons learned to continue to improve the recruiting effort in the state. Thanks to great feedback from school district personnel and applicants we've identified a number of improvements that are currently in the process of being made. A few of those improvements include:

• multiple security levels for employer accounts allowing various school personnel to access resumes and applicant information
  
• interview scheduler to schedule interviews with applicants via email from KEEB
• search for candidates by geographical area
• additional help notes built into critical steps of the job posting process

In closing, a special thank you to the Kansas Department of Education's Special Education Team for their continued support of the Kansas Recruitment and Retention Program and to the key KEEB staff, Matt Blatchley, lead programmer, and Johnna McColm, support specialist.