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Human Capital

Overview

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green arrowBuilding a High-Quality Education Workforce: A Governor's Guide to Human Capital Development

This guide includes recommendations for state action on each strategy. It includes examples of both cost-neutral strategies and strategies that require new and sustainable investments to provide states with a range of options as they consider improving the education workforce.
Research now demonstrates that the most important factors influencing student achievement are the quality of a school's human capital—the teachers and leaders responsible for setting high expectations and delivering top quality instruction. Yet low-income and minority students—the very students poised to benefit most—are least likely to have the best teachers and leaders in their schools. Although we know that teachers and leaders are essential to reform, we often overlook the crucial element linking teaching and leadership.

That missing element of change is the human element. The right human capital policies are fundamental to turning around low-performing schools. In fact, research confirms that three out of every four education dollars are invested in human capital— the collective group of professionals responsible for driving student achievement.

To address education workforce issues more broadly, the NGA Center for Best Practices has partnered with the Kauffman Foundation and the Wallace Foundation to provide on-site technical assistance and produce best practice research on several issues related to human capital education reform to encourage states to strive toward adopting innovative policies that result in placing a talented teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every school.

Focus of Center Activities

School Leadership—The NGA Center for Best Practices has identified leadership as a crucial issue for states as they move forward in implementing initiatives in standards, teacher quality and school improvement. In the past, The NGA Center has worked alongside a consortium of four other national organizations on the State Action for Educational Leadership Project (SAELP) convincing 20 states to reinvent their policies on educational leadership. Current NGA Center leadership work includes a forthcoming Governor’s Guide on human capital reform and a learning lab that will educate state policymakers on best practices that improve the recruitment, retention, preparation, professional development, licensure, and governance policies that impact the supply of excellent school leaders.

Teacher Quality—Research increasingly confirms the importance of teacher quality for student achievement, and governors are taking action to ensure an adequate supply of qualified teachers. NGA Center staff provide governors and their staff with information and customized assistance as needed on a variety of policy topics related to teacher quality, including recruitment, preparation, licensure and certification, induction, professional development, and compensation, as well as school leadership, K-16 partnerships, and higher education.