Teaching Talent
A Visionary Framework for Human Capital in Education
Edited by Rachel E. Curtis and Judy Wurtzel, foreword by Michael F. Bennet, Senator from Colorado
paper, 272 Pages
Pub. Date: February 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1-934742-49-5
Price: $32.00
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Teaching Talent presents a framework for human capital development that draws on a two-year initiative by the Aspen Institute Education and Society Program to research sectors that have effective, well-developed human capital systems and point the way toward human capital innovations in public education.
About 80 percent of education spending is devoted to personnel, yet the capacity of schools and districts to recruit, develop, and retain top talent is stunningly low compared with other knowledge sectors. This problem is most profoundly felt in urban school systems, which creates tremendous inequity for the students who most need a high-quality education.
Research findings make it clear that human capital is one of the most important levers we have for improving school effectiveness and student achievement. However, educators, district leaders, and policy makers are just beginning to recognize that strengthening human capital should be their top priority—and to act on that recognition.
The book first identifies the elements of a robust human capital strategy in education—teacher recruitment and career development; the principal’s role in ensuring teacher quality; and the district’s role in creating the conditions necessary to support effective human capital management. It then offers a comprehensive, visionary framework that weaves these elements together.
Praise
We know that most school districts operate in a short-term reactive environment. Few have a strategic vision of the core problems of practice that merit their sustained attention, much less a focused, data-driven plan of action for solving them. This book, with its sharp focus on coherent systems that demand commitment from people at every level in schools and school systems, provides frameworks for new ways of thinking about sustainable transformation.
— Anthony S. Bryk, president, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
If we want better student outcomes in public education, we need to improve how we recruit, retain, and reward our most valuable asset—our teachers. Unfortunately, many school districts are clueless about how to effectively address these core issues. This book provides practical, concrete guidance on how to do it right. For the sake of our children, let’s hope it’s widely read and followed.
— Joel I. Klein, chancellor, New York City schools
It has become clear in recent years that that the best way to improve learning outcomes for kids is to give them exposure to great educators. This book does an outstanding job of clarifying the challenges we must overcome on human capital, and it is a critical primer for anyone seeking to run a great urban school district.
— Timothy Daly, president, The New Teacher Project
Salaries and benefi ts are the largest expenditure in any school district. All of us must manage our human capital more effectively to leverage these expenditures and increase student achievement. This book addresses four major elements: pathways into teaching, induction and tenure, leadership opportunities and performance management, and compensation and rewards. If seamlessly integrated, they constitute a comprehensive management blueprint that will benefi t students and adults.
— Peter Gorman, superintendent, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Charlotte, North Carolina
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About the Editors
Rachel E. Curtis works with school systems, foundations, higher education, and education policy organizations on district improvement strategy; leadership development; and efforts to make teaching a compelling and rewarding career. Her clients include the Aspen Institute, the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, the Executive Leadership Program for Educators at Harvard University, and a variety of traditional and charter school systems. Curtis worked for the Boston Public Schools for eleven years, during which time she devised the district’s instructional coaching model for literacy and math, developed a data-driven school planning process, founded the School Leadership Institute, developed teaching standards and a new teacher induction program, and oversaw professional development for all teachers and school administrators. Her publications include: Strategy in Action: How School Systems Can Support Powerful Learning and Teaching (Harvard Education Press, 2009), The Skillful Leader II: Confronting Conditions that Undermine Learning (Ready About Press, 2008), Ensuring the Support and Development of New Teachers in the Boston Public Schools (Boston Public Schools, 2006), Preparing Non-Principal Administrators to Foster Whole-School Improvement in Boston (Boston Public Schools, 2005), and Professional Development Spending in the Boston Public Schools (Boston Public Schools, 2005). She holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Judy Wurtzel was, at the time she coedited this volume, the codirector of the Aspen Institute education and society program, which provides a forum for education practitioners, researchers, and policy leaders to reflect on efforts to improve student achievement and to consider how public policy changes can affect progress. In May 2009, she was named deputy assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development at the U.S. Department of Education. The Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development (OPEPD) coordinates the department’s policy and budget activities. Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Wurtzel was executive director of the Learning First Alliance, a permanent partnership of twelve national education associations with more than 10 million members. Wurtzel also served as a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton administration, working on a wide range of elementary and secondary education issues, including the reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Wurtzel started her career as an attorney, working as a law clerk to Dolores Sloviter, judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and to Barbara Crabb, chief judge for the Western District of Wisconsin, and then in private practice. She also taught English in a Moroccan high school as a Peace Corps volunteer. She holds a JD from New York University.