Researchers Call Human Resources a Weak Spot

What is

The term human capital management is used by corporate HR departments to refer to business strategies designed to attract, develop, and retain human resource talent. According to the Washington-based Aspen Institute, when public education practices are compared to the best HR practices in the corporate sector, public education comes up short at every juncture. The evidence, they say, is the fact that public school teachers have lower academic skills than other college graduates; that new teachers are routinely allowed to sink or swim; and that there is no career path to identify, nurture, and reward the most effective teachers so they will remain in the classroom.

What could be

The report suggests human capital strategies could be employed by state governments or local districts to unlock teaching potential and enhance student learning. Suggested strategies stem from the three basic tools that governments can employ to advance change according to Michael Fullan, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. Governments can push for accountability, provide incentives, and foster capacity-building.

Pushing for accountability

States can and should exert more quality control in their role as the gatekeeper in determining who can teach. Strengthening accountability for teacher preparation programs and for making appropriate teacher assignments is one way. Another way is using more meaningful tools to identify teaching talent through evaluation of performance on the job.

State licensing standards are not sufficient to identify who will actually be effective in the classroom. That will require better data systems and the ability to track the student achievement of individual teachers. Building a stronger data infrastructure, experts say, is one of the most basic steps that states or districts can take to devise a better human-capital system in education.

The report also calls for expanding the potential teacher pool by removing entry barriers created by state licensing requirements. Easing license requirements and focusing, instead, on more rigorous recruitment and selection of job candidates can increase the pool of prospective teachers and principals. Most alternative teacher preparation programs do not differ much from the licensure requirements in traditional colleges of education.

Providing incentives

Financial incentives can play a major role in attracting and keeping quality teachers. The report suggests making salaries competitive with other professions, rewarding teachers who actually raise student achievement, and formally recognizing and rewarding teachers who take on leadership roles.

To attract high quality teachers to high poverty schools, researchers call for more state incentives. At present, 16 states provide incentives for hard-to-staff subjects and 20 states provide incentives for hard-to-staff schools. Only 10 states provide financial incentives for principals to work in hard-to-staff schools though research shows that the quality of the campus principal is one of the strongest teacher incentives.

Building and supporting capacity

Teachers do not start in classrooms fully prepared to teach. States can play a role by supporting teachers on the job and building their knowledge and skills. One strategy called for is state-funded mentoring and induction programs with standards for the training, selection, and matching of mentors with novice teachers. Another is reducing the workload of novice educators to provide time to observe expert teachers, prepare lesson plans, and otherwise get their feet on the ground. And finally, providing access to professional development on the job that is aligned with local goals and objectives is a key to build and support teacher talent.

The report contends that the current systems for recruiting, developing, deploying, and keeping teacher talent in the nation’s classrooms is broken. Changing human resource practices at the state and local levels will be the key to fixing the system.

—“Human Resources a Weak Spot,” by Lynn Olson, Education Week: Quality Counts 2008/Tapping Into Teaching, Jan. 10, 2008.