Hi Casey I'm not particularly familiar with the US school system, but here are my suggestions:
1. Can you 'borrow' someone who is sufficiently statistically-qualified to sit in on the interview process, and let them ask the stats questions (e.g. someone doing this job in a nearby school)? 2. Statistics can be a very unintuitive subject, and given your interview panel is likely to be similarly statistically naive, I suggest that you ask each candidate to teach you how to do a simple statistical technique. For example, let the candidates know a few days before interview that they will be required to 'teach' the panel a simple statistical technique. I'd recommend a 't-test' (this is a very basic technique) -- but don't let them know which statistical technique you are going to ask them about in advance. Give them a blackboard/whiteboard on the day and 15 minutes to teach you the test. Tell the candidate that none of you are statistically-minded. You will get a good idea about how good a teacher they are by being taught by them. Someone who is familiar with statistics will find this relatively simple. Someone who is a good teacher will be able to explain the subject to people who are not familiar with the material -- that's the job you are interviewing for, right? You may find that by the time you interview the 4th candidate, you are starting to understand the technique; be aware that this will be because it will have been described in four different ways, and not that the 4th candidate is a much better teacher. But this, of course, is only part of the job you are interviewing for. Also look for the normal things: someone who you will get on with, someone who wants to do *the* job rather than *a* job, and someone who understands the particular problems and challenges that they will face in the job. I hope this helps. In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Casey) wrote: > I work for a public school system and we are interviewing for a > research director/statistician. The problem is none of us are > statisticians. This is a new position for us. If anyone could > recommend 1 or 2 (or even 3) good interview questions, I would be most > grateful. > > Background info - Students are K-12 and the goal is to close the > achievement gap. All research projects are based around race, > economically disadvantaged, and limited English proficiency. > > Thank you in advance for your help. . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
