Questions to Ask Principal During Teacher Interview
Questions a teaching candidate can ask the principal about the specific job on offer: the assignment, the roster, the materials, the evaluation, and what support exists in the first year.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What grade and subject would I be teaching, and is that assignment settled?
Why ask it
Assignments shift into August as enrollment moves. A principal who says it depends on numbers is being honest, and that answer tells you to ask what the second most likely assignment is.
How many students would be on my roster, and how many sections?
Why ask it
Class size and total student count are different problems. Six sections of 22 means 132 sets of work to grade and 132 families to communicate with, which no average class size figure will show you.
Who else teaches this grade or subject, and do you plan together?
Why ask it
Being the only person teaching a course is a very different job from joining a team with shared units. Ask when common planning happens and whether it is on the master schedule.
What curriculum and materials would I be handed on day one?
Why ask it
Ask specifically whether there are texts, a pacing guide, and prior units you can inherit. "You have freedom" sometimes means trust and sometimes means nothing exists yet, and those cost very different amounts of summer.
What does the evaluation rubric look like, and how many observations should I expect?
Why ask it
Ask which rubric the district uses and to see it. New teachers are often surprised that the score depends on evidence they were never told to collect.
When you walk into a classroom, what tells you the lesson is going well?
Why ask it
This is the most revealing question you can ask a principal. Some answer with student talk and thinking, some with quiet and compliance, and you will be evaluated against whichever it is.
What happens when a student needs to leave my room?
Why ask it
You want the mechanics: who comes, where the student goes, whether they return that period, and what you are expected to document. If the answer is that you call the office and hope, plan for that.
What support is in place for students in my class reading below grade level?
Why ask it
Ask how many students that describes and who works with them. The gap between the number of students and the number of intervention slots is the part you will absorb.
How are IEP and 504 accommodations passed to me, and who follows up?
Why ask it
You are legally responsible for implementing accommodations, so ask when you receive the documents, who explains them, and who checks. A vague answer here is a compliance risk you inherit.
How much planning time is in the schedule, and how much of it is already committed?
Why ask it
Ask how many planning periods last month went to meetings, coverage, or testing. The difference between the contract number and the real one is your evenings.
What duties come with the job beyond teaching?
Why ask it
Lunch, bus, hallway, clubs, and coverage rarely appear in the posting. Ask for the weekly hours total and whether any of it carries a stipend.
How do you expect me to communicate with families, and how often?
Why ask it
Expectations vary from a weekly newsletter to same-day replies to every email. Ask what the response-time expectation is, because that is the piece that quietly eats a first year.
What happens when a family disputes a grade I gave?
Why ask it
Ask whether grades have ever been changed over a teacher's objection. The answer tells you how much your professional judgment will hold up under pressure.
What professional development is required this year, and who chooses it?
Why ask it
Distinguishes learning you would have chosen from days you must sit through. Ask how many days, whether they are on contract time, and whether there is money for anything you propose.
What did the person who held this job before me find hardest?
Why ask it
Principals will usually answer this honestly because it does not require criticizing anyone. It surfaces the specific difficulty of this room, this schedule, or this group of students.
How do new teachers get help here in their first month?
Why ask it
Look for a named mentor, a shared planning period with that mentor, and a reduced duty load. A mentor with no overlapping free time is a name on a form.
What surprises people who are new to this school?
Why ask it
An open-ended question that tends to produce the honest, unscripted detail: a commute, a bell schedule, a community expectation, a facility problem.
When a teacher brings you an idea, how do you decide whether to say yes?
Why ask it
Ask for the last idea a teacher brought and what happened to it. That single example tells you how much room you will have to try things.
What would make you say at the end of my first year that this hire worked?
Why ask it
Converts the interview into the actual standard you will be held to. If the answer is only about test scores, or only about being a team player, you now know.
What are your next steps, and when will you decide?
Why ask it
Practical if you are holding another offer, and a small sample of how the school communicates when it has committed to something.
Interviewing for a Teaching Job
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Preparing for the conversation
Know the school's numbers before you arrive
Enrollment, demographics, and state assessment results are usually public. Reading them first lets you ask what the school is doing about a specific pattern instead of asking how students are performing.
Choose five questions and order them
You will get a few minutes at the end. Put the assignment, the roster, and support for students first, because those are the answers that would actually change whether you take the job.
Bring the artifacts, then ask about fit
A unit plan or student work sample on the table makes your questions about curriculum and autonomy concrete. It also lets the principal answer with reference to something real.
What to listen for
- Numbers over adjectives. Roster size, observation counts, planning periods, and duty hours are checkable; "supportive culture" is not.
- Whether the principal describes systems or intentions. "There is a form and a person" holds up in November; "my door is always open" may not.
- How they speak about the teacher who left. Candor about a hard year is more reassuring than a polished answer.
- Whether the support they describe has time attached to it. Mentoring without a shared planning period does not happen.
- What they praise when they describe a good lesson. That is the standard you will actually be evaluated against.
Common mistakes
Asking only about your own growth
Questions about development matter, but a run of them reads as career planning. Balance them with questions about the students you would teach and the work you would take on.
Taking pay questions to the principal
Salary steps, insurance, and stipends belong with human resources and are often on a published schedule. Use the principal's time for what only they know about this building.
Skipping the classroom visit
Ask to see the room you would be teaching in and to spend a few minutes with a teacher on your team. Both requests are normal, and a refusal is worth noticing.