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Voices in Urban Education
Archives
Human Capital
VUE Number 20, Summer 2008
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Developing Human Capital
By Robert Rothman
Robert Rothman is a Principal Associate & Editor of VUE at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
> Author's bio
A strong body of research shows that the quality of teaching is the most important school-related factor in student achievement, and school systems devote the overwhelming majority of their resources toward teachers. Nevertheless, there is considerable anxiety about teacher quality in American schools today. Not enough highly able people are going into teaching, and too many teachers leave the profession after a few years. Many teachers lack the knowledge and skills they need to teach all students effectively. And the students who need the strongest instruction often are taught by teachers with the least experience and expertise.
These problems are particularly acute in urban schools, which often have a difficult time recruiting and retaining teachers, and where students come from a wide array of backgrounds and have diverse learning needs.
Why do these problems persist? One reason is that the rules and procedures that affect teacher quality are often haphazard. Teacher education institutions prepare teachers; district human resource departments recruit them; principals evaluate them; collective bargaining agreements determine where they can work; and universities and private organizations provide professional development. Yet, these agencies and institutions seldom work together in a systematic way to ensure that all teachers are capable and effective in the classroom.
In the private sector, leading-edge companies are focusing increasingly on human capital management. They recognize that the individuals who work for them are their most important resources, and they do whatever they can to grow and develop them. To that end, they look at all aspects of their operations that affect their workers – from recruitment to development to evaluation to retention.
How can these approaches be applied to education? This issue of Voices in Urban Education examines some of the elements of a human capital development system.
Many of the efforts described in these articles are new, and there is little data on their effectiveness. But they appear promising because they address human capital in a strategic way. They focus on the system’s needs and bring to bear a wide array of resources to meet those needs.
Significantly, these resources often include support from institutions and organizations outside of the formal structure of school systems — unions, universities, private organizations. Educators increasingly recognize that they can only achieve the goal of improving learning for all students through partnerships, and partnerships to strengthen human capital are vitally important.
Of course, teachers are not the only component of the human capital equation in an education system. Districts and schools increasingly are forming partnerships with community organizations and institutions to enhance children’s learning outside of school, and these institutions need to grow and develop highly qualified individuals who are responsible for youths’ learning and development. Districts need to be sure that they are strategic and systematic in these partnerships so that organizations outside of school meet student needs.
School and district leaders are also vital components of a system’s human capital system. Districts increasingly are forming partnerships to strengthen their efforts at recruiting, preparing, and developing highquality leaders. But that's the subject of a future issue.
Archives
Human Capital
VUE Number 20, Summer 2008
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Developing Human CapitalBy Robert Rothman
Robert Rothman is a Principal Associate & Editor of VUE at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
> Author's bio
A strong body of research shows that the quality of teaching is the most important school-related factor in student achievement, and school systems devote the overwhelming majority of their resources toward teachers. Nevertheless, there is considerable anxiety about teacher quality in American schools today. Not enough highly able people are going into teaching, and too many teachers leave the profession after a few years. Many teachers lack the knowledge and skills they need to teach all students effectively. And the students who need the strongest instruction often are taught by teachers with the least experience and expertise.
These problems are particularly acute in urban schools, which often have a difficult time recruiting and retaining teachers, and where students come from a wide array of backgrounds and have diverse learning needs.
Why do these problems persist? One reason is that the rules and procedures that affect teacher quality are often haphazard. Teacher education institutions prepare teachers; district human resource departments recruit them; principals evaluate them; collective bargaining agreements determine where they can work; and universities and private organizations provide professional development. Yet, these agencies and institutions seldom work together in a systematic way to ensure that all teachers are capable and effective in the classroom.
In the private sector, leading-edge companies are focusing increasingly on human capital management. They recognize that the individuals who work for them are their most important resources, and they do whatever they can to grow and develop them. To that end, they look at all aspects of their operations that affect their workers – from recruitment to development to evaluation to retention.
How can these approaches be applied to education? This issue of Voices in Urban Education examines some of the elements of a human capital development system.
- David Sigler and Marla Ucelli Kashyap define
human capital management and discuss how
school districts should organize themselves to
develop such capital effectively.
> Full text - Barnett Berry, Diana Montgomery, Rachel Curtis,
Mindy Hernandez, Judy Wurtzel, and Jon Snyder examine efforts in Boston and Chicago to prepare
the teachers they need through “residencies,”
modeled after medical education.
> Excerpt - Richard Kahlenberg considers ways that teachers
unions can play constructive roles in improving
teacher quality.
> Excerpt - Thomas Toch and Robert Rothman look at comprehensive
methods of evaluating teachers that
can promote improvements in teaching.
> Full text - Robin Lee Harris describes a partnership to
strengthen science teaching between Buffalo
State College and the Buffalo Public Schools that
has resulted in a significant increase in teacher
retention.
> Excerpt
Many of the efforts described in these articles are new, and there is little data on their effectiveness. But they appear promising because they address human capital in a strategic way. They focus on the system’s needs and bring to bear a wide array of resources to meet those needs.
Significantly, these resources often include support from institutions and organizations outside of the formal structure of school systems — unions, universities, private organizations. Educators increasingly recognize that they can only achieve the goal of improving learning for all students through partnerships, and partnerships to strengthen human capital are vitally important.
Of course, teachers are not the only component of the human capital equation in an education system. Districts and schools increasingly are forming partnerships with community organizations and institutions to enhance children’s learning outside of school, and these institutions need to grow and develop highly qualified individuals who are responsible for youths’ learning and development. Districts need to be sure that they are strategic and systematic in these partnerships so that organizations outside of school meet student needs.
School and district leaders are also vital components of a system’s human capital system. Districts increasingly are forming partnerships to strengthen their efforts at recruiting, preparing, and developing highquality leaders. But that's the subject of a future issue.
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