Best Minds Sought for Central Office, Startups

Cultivating leadership talent for managerial roles seen as ‘desperate’ need

The central office isn’t being overlooked in the movement to find and develop top talent for school districts.

Although ways to recruit, groom, and keep top teachers and strong principals tend to dominate discussions of “human capital” needs in education, a handful of nonprofit organizations and foundations also see providing smart managers as essential.

The best-known of these is the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation’s residency in urban education, which recruits professionals with backgrounds in management, law, and public policy to work in school systems’ central offices full...