How to hire an Academic Coordinator

Academic coordinators need to be good enough teachers to earn respect from staff, and good enough managers to run systems. That mix is rare. Most candidates fall on one side. Some are experienced teachers who have never run operations across campuses. Others are managers who have lost touch with the classroom. Your interview needs to test both. Can they watch a lesson and give feedback a teacher will actually use? Can they plan a test calendar, track curriculum coverage, and report to leaders with real numbers?

Four traits matter. Teaching credibility: do teachers see them as someone who understands teaching? Or just a manager who checks boxes? Observation and feedback: can they watch a lesson and give specific, helpful feedback? "Good class" is too vague. "Your questions skipped the easier recall step" is useful. Systems thinking: can they build timetables, test schedules, and curriculum trackers that work across sections or branches? Talking with parents and staff: can they handle a parent complaint about the curriculum calmly and fairly?

Also test for curriculum knowledge, such as national or state standards, or IB and Cambridge assessment frameworks. Check experience leading large teams, since coordinators often oversee 30-50 teachers. Check comfort with ed-tech tools for tracking the curriculum and messaging parents, like Google Classroom and school ERP systems. Finally, check their ability to coach new teachers. Many schools lose teachers often, and the coordinator is the main support for new hires.

Promoting the best teacher without checking for systems skills. A great classroom teacher may struggle with timetables, keeping campuses aligned, and tracking the curriculum with data. Teaching skill and coordinating skill overlap less than school leaders think.

Not testing the quality of their feedback. Show the candidate a recorded lesson, or describe one. Ask what feedback they would give the teacher. Vague feedback like "it was good overall" means they cannot observe closely enough. You want specific feedback like "the change between activities lost 3 minutes, and here is how to speed it up."

Ignoring how they deal with parents. Coordinators often handle parent complaints about curriculum pace, exam difficulty, and teacher quality. A candidate who has never managed parents will be swamped in the first term.