November 19, 2008
National Human Capital Project Acclaims TNTP's Holistic Approach to Improving Teacher Quality
Strategic Management of Human Capital (SMHC), a national action project seeking to radically improve the management of human capital in large public school districts, has profiled The New Teacher Project as a leading nonprofit in human capital strategy. The TNTP case study is one of nine released by SMHC on promising strategies and initiatives among education nonprofits, school districts and a state.
TNTP’s holistic approach is explored at length in the SHMC case study, including the organization’s Teaching Fellows recruitment programs, school-level staffing initiatives, training and certification programs, and policy and research work. TNTP shares with SMHC the belief that all aspects of the human capital continuum must be addressed for lasting improvements in K-12 education to be seen.
“TNTP has observed that too many individuals currently in the education system, as well as many outside of it, have accepted the notion that high academic achievement for poor and minority students in large urban districts is close to hopeless,” the study notes. “TNTP, however, has concluded that producing large achievement gains is possible, but that it will take relentless effort and changes in deeply ingrained approaches to talent and human capital management.”
Based at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, SMHC is co-directed by Allan Odden, co-director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, and James A. Kelly, founding president of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The SMHC Task Force is chaired by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and includes a wide-ranging group of national education leaders, such as Sir Michael Barber, a former chief advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Joel I. Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education; James B. Hunt, Jr., Former Governor of North Carolina; and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. SMHC is a project of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, the nation’s oldest federally funded education policy center.
Download the SMHC Case Study of The New Teacher Project (PDF 93K)
More information about SMHC and all nine case studies can be found at www.smhc-cpre.org.
