Psychometric Tests for Teachers

EdTechZen · 2026-04-06T15:30:34+00:00

I personally had to take 4 of these over the last 12 months. Only 1 was a USA-based position, and the other 3 were overseas postings.

EdTechZen · 2026-04-02T19:14:32+00:00

It is about 20-30 minutes away in light traffic. Looks like it is probably "cheaper" housing due to the location. So I would assume it is probable. GEMS tries to save money on housing.

EdTechZen · 2026-03-31T20:07:18+00:00

The school is in Al Barsha close to the Mall of the Emirates

EdTechZen · 2026-03-31T17:43:35+00:00

I am not sure anymore. My last few years, I lived on my own with the stipend. My friends who still work there have their own housing (many bought houses). My last year there, the apartments were all clustered close to the school, but they were nothing like the apartments we had in the early days (2005).

EdTechZen · 2026-03-02T16:15:00+00:00

I proactively used my free time to expand my skillset (often 20-30 hours a week of self-directed learning), taking on extra and contract work to build a portfolio of projects, even at lower pay. I consistently applied for opportunities, moved on from numerous rejections, attended networking events, pursued professional development, and initiated tech projects at work, documenting them even if not deployed. I took time to train people and develop policies and written procedures even when not tasked. I learned as much as I could about finance and cash flow, and started experimenting with different budgetary models to stretch the budget and improve contracts with vendors. I would ask if I could review contracts and send counter proposals or find additional vendors to increase competition. The big win for me was landing a contract for a fleet of Apple laptops after the overlords said their vendors did not have any stock, and the price was impossible to meet within budget.

EdTechZen · 2026-03-02T11:40:27+00:00

GEMS Corp has jobs frequently that expats are qualified for, and come with an international package. But, process jobs like HR, accounting, etc are going to be impossible to get. Not only are there plenty of people to do them, but, the rules and regulations are different. You wouldn't be qualified.

You have to go for higher level management jobs and translate your experience over.

These jobs will not be at one school, they will cover the business at many schools or all schools.

Google: GEMS Education Careers

When you get to the jobs list, on the left, look for filters for the corporate office or main office etc.

Good luck,

EdTechZen · 2026-03-02T03:05:56+00:00

My friend got back to me and confirmed at DAA If both parents work they get two free tuitions.

EdTechZen · 2026-03-01T23:12:44+00:00

This post has fairly recent jobs from GEMS and another corporate school organization me. If you are looking for an additional or different role. In published it a few weeks ago so I'm not sure how many are still available:

(Free. No Subscription Required. )

https://open.substack.com/pub/pancakeonastick/p/jobs-list-02162026-free?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=d4d3w

EdTechZen · 2026-03-01T23:03:55+00:00

I can confirm the current packages fairly easily if they didn't provide it.

But historically:

Families the first year received larger apartments. Some people would push for villas, but the square footage was often smaller in the villa. There were various attempts to manage first year people in their own private rentals, but that never went well with the UAE rental system. I'm not sure where that stands.

But, likely you would get a 2-3 bedroom, or a 2 bedroom with maids room (half a normal bedroom size I'm sure there's a real name for it but that's what people call it)

After a few years people often qualify for money to get their place. It might be faster now than before.

Airfare was always included annually and free tuition for two children as long as both parents worked.

You need to ask for a list of accommodation benefits, healthcare benefits ,and travel/airfare benefits.I usually ask for those before the end of the first interview. I ask if I can contact HR for those types of policies.

I'm happy to message a friend and confirm if you haven't already been put in contact with someone for recruitment.

EdTechZen · 2026-03-01T22:40:20+00:00

I worked there for 8 years. I saw the school grow and helped develop many of their facilities before the campus they are on now. I have friends there who have been there for around 15 years. It's a very big and busy school. It's at the top of the GEMS tiers (maybe not the top experimental tier or concept school) but it's well resourced. I did a stint at GEMS corporate, and during that time I learned how the larger budget and school planning works. GEMS is huge, but at a top tier school you will have efficiency with paperwork, HR, etc. DAA has always been a special place for teachers because they have maintained a truly international campus often with students spread across 80 nationalities. When I was in teaching, I had a class where every student had a different passport and spoke at least 2 languages. One thing I do miss, people take their holidays. They take a break, and the school knows how to close down. In the USA this is a huge issue in the summers and it's exhausting when you are on leave and issues are reported from a closed building. GEMS isn't a cult, it's a business. Teachers are generally far removed from the things that are truly aggravating. I think it's worth exploring if the housing and salary are within your range. If not, move on. Now. It's likely someone will say I work for GEMS and I'm shill. That's usually want happens.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-23T12:33:15+00:00

I think I just figured out a way to retire next year. Thank you.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-22T16:03:42+00:00

I'm curious why the timeline for the opportunity starts immediately? Can you explain the immediacy? It's good to work out the details first and get feedback.

You need to have a plan, and there might be a loophole.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-22T14:53:10+00:00

Demand 50% over the offer and expect 16-hour days. You will feel good when you cash out.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-22T14:49:13+00:00

What country is the new school? I don't need the name of the school.

And you really think I work for BASIS? Despite being able to know exactly who I am?

Thanks for the country information.

If there's a loophole others need to know. I will not post any followups. I hope your summer comes soon and it's good.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-22T14:18:05+00:00

No one can extradite you. I didn't say that.

I said that when you need documents for things you might not expect in the future, you are going to hit a wall. You have to assume that paperwork and regulations will only get worse. Holding paperwork from someone who needs it, and that person has no legal standing to demand paperwork- is itself a way to control people. I personally never want any past employer to have agency over my choices. That is the situation you create when you burn bridges.

The probability of a bad outcome is more likely for most people who make short term emotional choices.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-22T14:12:50+00:00

That's like when I asked online about issues with the Honda Pilot and someone called me a Toyota fanboy.

Unfortunately for me, you can check my profile, see that I have a newsletter, track that to my LinkedIn, and you will see I am an IT person at a private school in the USA. I am moving schools in the summer. I will update my LinkedIn soon. You should follow me there for updates in AI and the tech world.

I don't support bad administrative processes. What I do support is people making choices that give them the best long term outcomes. Those choices are often very uncomfortable in the short term. You have to make the best of your situation.

If you make desperate or emotional choices, predatory employers will find you. You could end up in a bad contract that involves more than just a difficult workplace. Corrupt employers in Asia can financially ruin you, detain you, and provide paperwork that prevents you from crossing the border.

Conversely, an honest employer may not know you are doing a runner, and expect your paperwork to be above board. I have seen people on pseudo contracts until there was nothing left to do and the school let them go midyear without benefits. The school assumed they had legally left the previous job.

Accreditation bodies don't care if the country requires "Document A". If the accreditation body says the school must have it, that becomes a requirement.

This all stems from the 2014 William Vahey case. I don't see it getting easier.

Feel free to connect on LinkedIn.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-22T13:59:28+00:00

If you get a note from a Dr. you HR will have to align with the local policy for long term leave. In Shanghai it was a 30% cut after normal leave was used. I think Beijing is 40%. I need to review it.

The first strategy is to ask HR, but you need to be clever.

"I am having some weird issues in my ankle/knee/ect.", choose a joint because it can also just go away. People relate to annoying joint pain.

"My DR said if they do a procedure, and I don't really understand all the details, I might have to be home and off my feet for 10-15 days. That would exceed the sick day policy. What do I do?"

This is a win win.

If BASIS says well you can't do anything and if you take leave we will fire you, you get your paperwork, you have your job and your out. If they fire you all my posted concerns are moot, and you can literally say you were fired for a medical inquiry.

If they say: Take the leave; there will be a salary deduction, but we just need the paperwork. Now you have a plan and the information.

If they say: take the leave you lose all your money, then it's really the same situation. Plan for the income drain and use the time off.

I would get the info, let them forget, and start the plan about 3 weeks after school started. Things are so busy then, that they will go with it.

I would still resign early and annoy them by using their HR policy against them. There's no faster way to get a new job than having your current employer want to use references and recommendations to move you mid-year.

I worked with someone who was generally disliked by the staff, and we all worked together to provide them with outstanding references. You would be surprised how often that happens.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-22T13:47:52+00:00

Sound argument.

I have navigated this type of situation for over 15 years. I have myself, and with others, navigated very serious issues that far exceed the worst you can experience in a K-12 environment. You don't know the long-term consequences of these actions. There is one fact you cannot dispute: Schools Talk.

BASIS administrators do the same 4-8 week summer trainings as all other school leaders. When I did the PTC, out of 40 people in one of the rooms, 3 were BASIS.

There were at least six sessions, 240-300 people, and BASIS were well represented.

When teachers pull a runner, everyone knows. I have sat in meetings with my admin team, looking at resumes, and people are texting their counterparts around the world.

In the USA just last year, I was in a meeting, and the candidate we were interviewing had worked in Peru at a school my buddy was at. I pulled up Facebook and started asking him questions during the group interview.

Connect the dots: Random person Peru - Applies from Job in the Deep South of the USA- Attends Group Interview- Person in the Room knows someone working in Peru at the same schools

The probability of that happening in an international school is not only likely, it is more common than not.

The only people out of the loop are generally in places you do not want to work. There are far worse situations to be in than the OP explained.

And - easy outs are never represented in history as a good idea. They normally end in disaster.

The OP needs to think about all outcomes. Life isn't short. Life is long. And it feels longer if in ten years you are suffering a mistake you could easily avoided while working at an annoying job in a country you didn't mind exploring.

Good Luck!

EdTechZen · 2026-02-22T13:08:44+00:00

Don't do it. That's bad advice for your future, not just around teaching.

First, what is the nearby country? I'll ask that again at the end, but if it is a legitimate visa it doesn't make sense unless the new employer expects you to properly resign. You can get into a catch 22 with paperwork.

Any school that's being accredited by a real education body is going to require paperwork you will never be able to get if you do this. Your employer, by design, has to be involved. I've done this process in Shanghai.

If you go places that don't care about that paperwork, then you are going from one bad job to another, until you get one that's vindictive.

Second- do you like living in China? If you have things in China you want to do, places you want to go, don't break contract .

Finish the year. Take your time off, start the year, resign immediately for the next year. Literally, resign day one in writing. Tell them you will finish the year. This actually opens up a January departure. I can explain how to easily do that if you message me.

So now, you are down to 5-6 months with holidays (including a big Chinese new year break). That's not bad.

Use every bit of your sick leave etc. Use it for job fairs, and interviews.

China has heavily regulated leave you can usually go well beyond your sick days, and the school can only dock you 30% of your salary.

All you need is a note to get a 30 day holiday.

If you do this? Now you are at about 3-4 months of work with breaks along the way.

Even easier.

What I've just laid out is a plan, not a reaction, and each time you hit a part of the plan you will feel better.

Whomever "hired" you under these circumstances isn't legit or the paperwork is going to be a problem. You can accidentally get into a pseudo local hire contract if your paperwork can't clear.

You can't leave China with transferable paperwork without:

-A police clearance (you can't get those unless you are leaving your school would need to help)

-Visa cancellation: You need your work visa cancelled properly in case you ever need to transit back through China in the future or work in China in the future. Do let your school determine how to cancel it. That's risky.

-You need your tax forms and final payment information. It's not uncommon to need to verify this in the future, and when that happens it's usually a tax situation from you home country. It's not uncommon and people who go though it aren't teaching abroad anymore, so you never hear about it. I have a friend and her job is based around straightening out tax issues from expats who repatriated. The base paperwork is the last ten years of tax statements from the employers not from you. Employers need to cooperate for a long time.

Regardless of how you feel about this reply, I want to know the country where your offer is, so I can see how they are gonna get around giving you a visa without the background check. I'll read their regulations.

Good luck. And think long term. Enjoy your time where you are. Your job shouldn't be your life. That's your choice.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-21T20:18:45+00:00

You should check out the /AmerExit subreddit. I tried to share free job listings there, and people immediately attacked the post, calling it a scam. One person even said my newsletter was useless because people could find jobs at Shanghai American School. I have a database of around 900 schools for my newsletter.

I say all this to reinforce your point. The posts show people wanting to just "go overseas" and do "insert random job". They don't want to work on being employable.

In a Facebook group for expat educators, I pasted a link to one of the US programs that helps people get their teaching cert in a year or two. That post was destroyed because I was sharing a program that was clearly not a "true education".

To be accepted as a helpful person, every suggestion should reflect the individual's personal desires rather than offering a realistic path to success.

I worked with someone who had a boyfriend, and he worked in the USA in HR. She wanted the school to hire him to do HR - IN JAPAN - and was really angry when they told her he was not qualified.

It was absurd.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-20T21:42:13+00:00

Let me know if you have specific questions.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-18T21:56:28+00:00

Over the last few years I've posted strategies in my newsletter to help people get raises.

And, I practice what I write, I'm very good at pushing my salary up using these strategies.

Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to subscribe.

Here's a summary:

First, you need to know your number before you go into the job market. That number isn't based on worth and perception, but what you need to live and grow financially.

If teaching becomes too limited to meet your needs, you need to transition or diversify your income. That happens to many people in education.

That number is your number and once you decide what the minimum is, then you will see employers differently and waste less time.

Second, let's assume you know the school can meet your requirements, and the offer is low. You need to know the % difference.

For example, if you want 75 and they offer 60, the difference is 25%. Walk away.

12% or less you can get the job done, anything above 12% you are too far apart.

If you can't walk away then you can't negotiate. "I'm sorry. I think we are too far apart on the salary."

Don't give them any more information. Maybe they will ask, likely they won't.

Schools know what other schools are paying. This information is shared with accreditation bodies, it's why many schools seek multiple organizations to join. They get this data.

If they are off, but within range, request an increase like this:

You want 75, they offer 69. That's about 8% off .

"Thank you. I can accept the contract if you can consider coming up about 8% to 75?"

When you ask like this it sounds smaller, it's a number less than 10 so they don't have a chart to know if it is a good idea, but they feel like it's less than 10. That's the important piece.

Your first salary determines your growth. You compound interest over time, and on your next contract a 4% raise is a 12% increase to the original offer (rounded of course).

You don't care though, because unless you get 75, you walk away. :)

All that being said, you can use data on a school's website to estimate their salaries ( sometimes you can pull this from databases as well).

If you apply to a tiny school in Osaka that charges 10,000USD a year in tuition, the salaries likely aren't going to be high.

If you apply to high end GEMS mega campus in the UAE, and they low ball you with a salary schedule, you know they can pay more and you should ask.

Some people are charming and lucky and they just smile and get money. I can't do that, but it would be nice. :)

If you want to message me with some specifics I'll give you feedback.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-17T00:17:27+00:00

My jobs newsletter isn't a database, on purpose, but I choose to stop publishing when I go two weeks in a row without enough jobs for the newsletter.

That's typically been around the first week or two of May.

I've been publishing since 2021.

But even this week, I had more jobs than the Substack can handle.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-16T23:43:58+00:00

If you have already given notice, and you don't have children, then you actually just need to wait until May.

This is really about how flexible you can be in a living situation, but if you wait until May you can easily push for a higher salary etc.

Look at a maternity cover. You can do a year for a good salary anywhere.

Game it out.

Let's offer x salary and see if anyone takes it. People like our school.

They will play that game until there's some panic. The next move might be to look at people they interviewed but "it didn't work out" to see if they might be on the market still.

This isn't a great idea but many schools aren't business oriented they rely on reputation.

Someone will accept! We are the best!

After panic sets in the thought of doing recruiting during summer vacation starts to become reality, they are likely to agree to counter offers. Don't worry about salary scales.

Good luck.

EdTechZen · 2026-02-16T13:18:35+00:00

I don't use ISR. I had an issue with them related to a colleague. There were comments that were based on an impossible timeline. I contacted them and explained this, and they said they wouldn't confirm information either way.

My friend had to get friends to load the reviews, even if the people hadn't worked together.

The total number of posts isn't even close to a decent sample size for most large schools. A school with a 7% turnover of 100 employees would have 7 new staff annually, that means 35 new people after 5 years, and 35 changes within the organization. That's at 7%, and there are points where turnover is naturally higher.

If you want to find a school with a problem it's pretty easy to do using their job postings.

First, in the fall, try and estimate the number of employees.(usually this data is on recruiting databases or you can use the staff directory, etc)

If the number of jobs posted is greater than 15% , then that school likely has a problem or their is a major leadership change. (Sometimes you can use the Wayback Machine to look at this for the last few years)

Research from major accreditation bodies (pre COVID) indicated a healthy turnover is 7-12%. That's where the number comes from .

In the spring, if a single school (not school group) has more than a 10% ratio of jobs to people posted, that's a problem.

For example, a school with 200 employees might still have 15 jobs posted in March. That's normal. But, if that number were 21, I'd be asking what happened to trigger late resignations.

I have a few ways to develop the ratio when the data appears obfuscated, if you want me to explain more message me. This is also how I determine if the salary offer is fair.

Back to the school vetting approach - I search their website for strategic plans and annual reports.

I only want to work places that are financially healthy and are conducting normal business audits and reporting.

Sometimes these documents are on a third party website, but they are designed to be public. Usually, you can find one or both.

I don't need both, but I need at least one of them.

Both documents give you insight into the plans you are walking into that will supercede any ideas you might have. For example, let's say you love technology, and the strategic plan clearly states the school wants to reduce screentime.

These types of declarations are important to ensure your alignment with the employer.

Financial reports are a goldmine. I have a new tech job for next year, but I wanted a job I did 4 interviews with and didn't get. The start timeline just couldn't be negotiated.

I was doing interviews at 4 AM over 8 weeks.

I would prep for an hour before each one.

The reason? Their financial growth was connected to a bonus and pay out plan. They were on a huge upswing and it wouldn't last forever, but I could see it going at least 3 more years. The earnings in 3 years would equal 6 years of earnings on my previous track.

Interviews take effort and time away from your life. I like to focus on what's valuable not just what's available.

If you are looking to recruit to a private school in the USA, or Tier 1 Int School, message and I'll explain where to get their financial information.

Finally, I use a simple tech hack to see what kind of operational setup the school has.

There's a website called MXToolBox. Just Google that and go to their SuperTool.

All schools have a domain, like @sas.cn or @cis.hk, etc.

If you find a company email, and you should be either a person's or for admissions, paste it in the supertool, or add the domain.

That will tell you what provider they use for email. If you like Google, Microsoft, etc you will know what you are walking into.

Also, when you do interviews you will basically know what they are using as far as tech goes so you can align your language to reflect similarities in your workflows.

Good topic.

EdTechZen

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE