No matter how modern the facility, how savvy the technology, or how abundant the teaching supplies, the expertise of the teacher and of those who lead teachers has the greatest impact on the quality and extent of student learning. How the school and district are structured and the processes that are embraced to support teaching and learning can significantly affect the performance of teachers and students. Understanding that human capital plays a pivotal role in education leads us to seek answers to the following questions: how do we identify and recruit those individuals who have the heart and expertise to do this work on a daily basis; what training should be provided to them so that their expertise in pedagogy and methodology is superior; how do we retain them once they are hired; what kinds of support and professional development must be sustained to keep them in the profession; who is capable of leading them to a higher level of expertise once they are in the profession; what organizational structures and processes should be embraced to ensure highly reliable organizations that assure success for all students?
This component of the Vision for Public Education in Georgia examines human and organizational capital to determine those elements that are essential for Georgia’s educational system to provide the state’s children a world-class education that prepares them for learning, work, and life in a global society.