Transcript Slide 1

Human Capital in Education:
State Strategies to Boost Teacher
and Principal Effectiveness
Allan Odden, Co Director
Strategic Management of Human
Capital (SMHC)
Education Reform
• Goal: Dramatically improve student
performance, focusing initially on urban
districts
• Needed to attain goal:
– Education improvement strategy
– Budget plan to fund the strategy
– People plan to implement the strategy
• SMHC is focused on teacher and principal talent
SMHC Project
SMHC addresses two basic questions:
1. How can urban districts acquire top teacher,
principal and central office talent so that all
schools and classrooms are staffed by highly
effective individuals?
2. How can that talent be managed so it delivers
the instructional practice that is successful in
getting all children, especially children from
low-income backgrounds and of color, to
achieve to high- and rigorous-performance
levels?
SMHC in 2008
• Defined SMHC (see Odden & Kelly, and Lawler
papers on web site)
• Created a National Task Force of 33 leaders,
chaired by MN Governor Tim Pawlenty, and
conducted 2 task force meetings
• Conducted 1st annual SMHC Conference
• Completed several case studies of leading edge
SMHC practices around the country
• Launched 2.0 Web site: www.smhc-cpre.org
Case Studies
• Boston, Chicago, Fairfax County, Long Beach,
New York City, Teach for American, The New
Teacher Project, New Leaders for New Schools –
www.smhc-cpre.org
• State of many urban districts/turnaround schools:
– 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 scores of vacancies
– Other
• Low levels of student achievement, large achievement gaps,
disjointed educational improvement strategies
Case Findings
• Big Finding #1: Urban districts can recruit topquality teachers and principals by deploying a
multi-faceted human resource strategy.
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
“If you recruit it, talent will come.”
Create multiple recruitment strategies simultaneously
Tap only the best traditional university pipelines
New pipelines--TFA, TNTP, NLNS, leadership
academies (Chicago, New York)
“Grow own” programs and new university partnerships
Two pipelines for teacher talent – pre BA and post BA
Move up budget and hiring calendar
Revise bumping and seniority transfer – site selects staff
Hire mainly principals who go through a district training
program
Case Findings
• Big Finding #2: Urban districts that have
developed the 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, automated and reformed.
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 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 for teachers
– Need a rigorous system for providing tenure
– Major new emphasis of the Gates Foundation
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 had stable leadership at the
top for several years.
– Strong ties between district chief executives
and very powerful mayors
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.
SMHC in 2009
• Created both a District and State SMHC Reform
Network focused on implementing appropriate,
cohesive policies to acquire, develop, pay and
retain top teacher and principal talent
• Induce more urban districts to mount
comprehensive teacher/principal recruitment
strategies – webinars and supporting TNTP
• Develop, pilot and begin using an assessment
system that measures teachers’ instructional
practice to various performance levels and begin
using to anchor HR programs, with one level for
tenure
SMHC in 2009
• Identify the practices and requisite skills and
competencies for Principals as the human
capital manager at the school site key so s/he
can effectively recruit, screen, select induct,
distribute fairly, develop and reward teachers in
ways that boost 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.
7 Key State Implications
1. Develop student-teacher linked data
systems to track effectiveness of various
teacher and principal training pathways and
programs – track impacts re producing
student achievement – teachers and
principals
2. Create understanding that there are two
pipelines that produce teacher talent – pre
BA traditional teacher prep, and post BA for
early and mid career changers
–
–
Develop practical standards for post BA entrants
Track impacts of all post-BA and pre-BA programs to compare impacts
7 Key State Implications
3. Provide state funding to any teacher
recruitment/training organization that
produces teachers effective generally and
particularly in high need schools
4. Create a statewide system of measuring
teaching practice that covers initial and
professional licensure and performance
levels for teachers in years 4-8
–
–
Level 2 for licensure and level 3 for tenure to be earned after a
minimum of 4-5 years in the system
Put the system online so it can function as a training and
benchmarking platform as well as an external measurement of
teaching practice
7 Key State Implications
5.
Enhance state/district/university policy and practice re
developing teachers’ clinical skills in the first 3-5 years
of teaching; perhaps provide professional license only
after a significant residency period.
Include sufficient funds for effective professional
development in the state’s school funding formula which
would be:
6.
•
•
•
•
At least 10 pupil free days for training
Instructional coach positions in schools at the rate of 2.0 FTE
coach positions for every 400 or so students – require that
these funds be used for coach positions
Funds for training for either district folks or consultants at the
rate of about $100/pupil
This is adequate for both new teacher induction/residency and
ongoing professional development
7 Key State Implications
7. Provide state funding for developing new
approaches to teacher salary schedules
that trigger base pay increases for
teachers on a validated measure of
teaching performance, to link pay levels
with practice levels
–
–
–
Augment with bonuses based on student learning
gains, for both teachers and principals
Augment with incentives for teachers in subject
shortage areas
Prime funding source is current teacher salary
budget – it is there and want to transition all teachers
to new system within 3 years.
• SMHC Web site: www.smhc-cpre.org
• Allan Odden
– arodden @wisc.edu