STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN CAPITAL: - The Project -Key Case Findings -Future Efforts Allan Odden and Jim Kelly

2 SMHC Project Goal: Dramatically improve student performance, focusing initially on urban districts: –Meaning to double student performance and reduce achievement gap as measured by state or local tests –For example, increase percent at or above proficient from 40 to 80 percent, or increase percent at advanced levels from 30 to 60 percent, or get all averages and sub-group scores above the 90 percent level

3 SMHC Project Our focus for accomplishing the goal: Strategic Management of Human Capital (SMHC) SMHC includes Two Basic Strategies: –Recruiting and retaining top teacher, principal and central office talent, which are key to tackling the complex educational challenges of big, urban districts –Managing that talent around the knowledge, skills and expertise to make every teacher effective – produce large student learning gains

4 SMHC Project SMHC argues that: –Large urban districts can acquire top teacher and principal talent –Talent management systems – recruitment, induction, mentoring, professional development, evaluation, pay, and career progression – should be aligned and anchored in the instructional expertise needed to produce large student learning gains

5 SMHC Graphic from TNTP Training Recruitment Selection Hiring Minimum requirements, little consideration for quality. No post-hire selection rigor, such as tenure decisions. Archaic slotting procedures impede creation of effective teams. Not targeted to high-need schools or subject areas. HR dysfunction deters applicants. Market driven by what providers want to offer, not what schools or teachers need. Development Budgeting Little concern for impact of timing on teacher hiring. Disjointed professional development, often not focused on instructional skills. Compensation No differentiation or sorting among teachers, regardless of performance. Dollars concentrated at senior end of career. An effective teacher in every classroom The foundational systems and institutions that are responsible for generating and maintaining quality teachers are almost universally unaligned with the goal of an effective teacher in every classroom. Evaluation Systems fail to identify teachers on a spectrum of performance, making it difficult to develop high performers or remediate or remove low performers.

6 The Solution: Realigning the teacher quality continuum to the prime objective of an effective teacher in every classroom (from TNTP) Underlying priority must be the closing of the achievement gap. School districts and policy makers have made sporadic efforts to realign specific pieces of the continuum but most efforts have been modest and limited. Success requires a comprehensive approach that includes: –Leadership: Change requires rallying stakeholders around the goal of maximizing teacher quality and effectiveness. –Coordination: Most districts lack a chief strategist for their most important function – developing and maintaining quality human capital. –Political will: Realignment requires engagement with hot-button issues and entrenched interests. –Data: Necessary in order to identify needs, measure progress, and allocate time and resources. TrainingRecruitmentSelectionHiringDevelopmentBudgetingCompensation An effective teacher in every classroom Evaluation

7 SMHC in 2008 Defined SMHC (see Odden & Kelly, and Lawler papers on web site) Created a National Task Force of 35 leaders, chaired by MN Governor Tim Pawlenty, and conducted 2 task force meetings Conducted 1 st annual SMHC Conference Completed several case studies of leading edge SMHC practices around the country Launched 2.0 Web site:

8 Cross-Case Findings State of many urban districts: –Dysfunctional HR systems: Paper and pencil systems; late and inaccurate salary checks; large numbers of teacher shortages; larger shortages in math, science, special education; lack of sufficient teacher quality, especially in high-needs schools; few recruitment strategies; opened school each fall with hundreds of vacancies –Other Low levels of student achievement, large achievement gaps, disjointed educational improvement strategies

9 Cross-Case Findings Big Finding #1: Urban districts can recruit top quality teachers and principals by deploying a multi-faceted human resource strategy –“If you recruit it, talent will come” – Create multiple recruitment strategies simultaneously – New pipelines--TFA, TNTP, NLNS, leadership academies (Chicago, New York) –Move up budget and hiring calendar –Revise bumping and seniority transfer –“Grow own” programs and new university partnerships –Hire mainly principals who go through a district training program

10 Cross-Case Findings Big Finding #2: Urban districts that have developed systems to recruit and retain high quality teachers and principals and improve student performance have restructured and automated many human resources transactional processes –Paper and pencil and dysfunctional HR systems are not in the DNA of urban districts; they can be modernized and reformed

11 Cross-Case Findings Big Finding #3: Processes for strategic management of teacher and principal talent have barely begun to address the need to develop valid and practical measures of teaching performance and student achievement, and use them to manage all aspects of HR decision making –Need to identify and use a system of teaching standards and performance rubrics to serve as an “anchor” for all HR programs

12 Cross-Case Findings Big finding #4: Stable leadership from the school district, often buttressed by strong support from city officials, is necessary to build and sustain an effective system for strategic management of human capital –All five districts have had stable leadership at the top for several years –Strong ties between district chief executives and very powerful mayors

13 Cross-Case Findings Big Finding #5: Union-management collaboration is requisite to many SMHC advances –Issues commonly negotiated include transfer and assignment procedures, evaluation procedures, professional development, compensation levels and arrangements, and, in some cases, mentoring and induction—decisions related to teachers’ professional lives –SMHC reforms cannot be accomplished without working with the teacher union or association

14 SMHC in 2009 Create nationwide effort to induce more urban districts to mount comprehensive teacher/principal recruitment strategies Develop, pilot and begin using assessment system that measures teacher’s instructional practice to various performance levels and begin using it to anchor HR programs

15 SMHC in 2009 Identify key SCHOOL level SMHC practices used in recruiting, screening, selecting, induction and developing, and rewarding teachers that result in more effective teaching practice and higher levels of student learning Identify key STATE level policies and practices that can enhance district SMHC, create model rules and regulations for those practices, and gets states to begin enacting them

16 SMHC in 2009 Create new urban district partnerships with degree granter and talent provider organizations to produce more talented teachers and principals with the skills needed to be effective in urban districts, focusing initially on individuals entering education after earning their bachelors degree