K-12 Talent Manager
Battelle for Kids Human Capital Director Emily Douglas explored effective human capital strategies for recruiting, selecting, developing, and recognizing educators and non-instructional staff in schools to ensure the best learning experience for students. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: recruitment & hiring and retention.
School & District Management
Opinion
Learning to Love Math: How One Teacher is Using MOOCs to Transform Instruction, Inspire Passion in Students
Let's take a moment to imagine a world in which people not only "get" math... but love math. Where would we be as educators? As individuals? As a workforce? As an economy? As a country?
Student Achievement
Opinion
MOOCs Offer Promise for K-12 Talent Managers
The New York Times called 2012 the "Year of the MOOC," or Massive Online Open Courses for those of us just learning the lingo. The Society of Human Resource Management recently featured a large article in their August issue on the future of MOOCs. And, the headline of an article in TIME Magazine last year asked, "Will Massive, Open Online Courses Revolutionize Higher Education?" Even Gallup is asking university presidents and faculty across the United States for their views on the issue.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Compensation Trends Offer Lessons for School Districts
Several leading business consulting firms, including WorldatWork, Mercer, the Hay Group, and The Conference Board, are predicting an average increase of more than 3 percent in base pay for U.S. workers this year.
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
PDK/Gallup Poll Reveals Americans' Views on Common Core, Other Education Issues
On Wednesday, Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) and Gallup released the results of their 45th annual Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, which offers interesting insights about the public's views on a variety of issues, from education funding to teacher performance to school safety. For decades, PDK and Gallup have asked Americans to grade the public schools in their community as well as the nation's public schools as a whole. This year, a record 53 percent of respondents gave the schools in their communities an A or B, while most people rate the nation's schools as just average, which has been fairly consistent over the years. Further, 72 percent of Americans say they "have trust and confidence in the men and women who are teaching children in the public schools," and 65 percent have trust in principals.
Student Achievement
Opinion
Common Core Implementation Part of Principals' Evolving Role
This following guest post was written by Dr. Jared Bigham, the Director of College & Career Readiness with Tennessee SCORE, the State Collaborative on Reforming Education. He is a former elementary and high school principal in Tennessee. For more information on his work, you can follow him on Twitter at: @JaredBigham.
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
Yes, HR Has An Image Problem
"It is practically a business truism that the HR function is not well respected at many organizations."
Job Hunting Tips & Advice
Opinion
8 Ways Talent Managers Can Support Volunteer-Service
In my last post, I shared results from the UnitedHealth report, Doing Good is Good For You: 2013 Health and Volunteering Study, which revealed some important connections between volunteerism and personal and professional success. Volunteerism can also be a powerful tool for K-12 Talent Managers in selecting, developing, and retaining staff. Based on my experience as an HR professional and leader of a nonprofit organization for more than 20 years, here are eight ways talent managers can use volunteer-service to strengthen their organizations.
Student Well-Being & Movement
Opinion
Volunteering: Good For Your Health, Good For The Workplace
I will be one of the first people to tell you that volunteering is good for your body, mind, and soul. I owe much of my drive, creativity, problem-solving skills, and success to the years I've spent as a volunteer, as well as the people who taught me the value of giving back.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Teacher Engagement Data Released
Today, Gallup released its latest findings around teacher engagement, based on survey data collected between January and December 2012. In the article "In U.S., Newer Teachers Most Likely to Be Engaged at Work," Shane Lopez and Preety Sidhu discuss how years of experience affect workplace engagement. In their work, Gallup defines "engaged" employees as, "those who are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and contribute to their organization in a positive manner." In their explanation of the findings, summarized below, data show's that new teachers are the most engaged in their job, and that engagement drops for teachers with more than a year of experience.
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
Millennials Reshaping the Workplace
As an alumna of The Ohio State University and an individual involved in the surrounding community, I was recently invited to a dinner hosted by the university's Institute for Civic Engagement to speak with incoming freshman about their hopes, dreams, and goals related to college, work, volunteerism, and life. After some introductory conversation, I asked the group at my table if finding a job after graduation was an important factor in selecting a major. While they had all chosen different areas of study--engineering, dentistry, finance, hospitality management, neuroscience, and more--I was surprised to hear every student say, "Yes."
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
New Report Examines Direction of K-12 Leadership
Today, the nonprofit Education Pioneers released The Invisible Lever: A Profile of Leadership and Management Talent in Education, an analysis of the current state of leadership in K-12 public education. The report offers three major findings developed using survey responses from more than 1,300 alumni of the organization's Graduate and Analyst Fellowship programs, as well as other data and research from across the country. Education Pioneers' fellowship programs recruit law, policy, education, and business graduate students for internships working with school district staff on special projects, performing academic, financial, human capital, or operational data analysis, and more.
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
Engagement Critical To Retaining Top Performers
Retaining the best and brightest employees is critical to the success of any organization. A recent article from Compdata Consulting, "Engaging Your All-Stars: How Successful Companies Retain Their Top Performers," explains that a key to keeping top performers, or "All-Stars," is increasing employee engagement and developing programs that make it easier for employees to be successful. They identify high performers as:
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Survey Provides Insight into National Salary Trends
According to a recent survey conducted by the large consulting firm Mercer, employers are planning to increase salaries by an average of 2.9 percent in 2014. The survey targeted 1,500 mid and large size companies from 14 industries which employ approximately 10 percent of the U.S. civilian workforce. While it can be challenging to compare salary trends from a large company to those in schools, the data does provide an important barometer for K-12 Talent Managers to consider as discussions continue around educator compensation in districts and states across the country.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
All Faiths Must Be Welcome in the Workplace
Around the world, 1.6 billion Muslims are observing the Islamic holy month of Ramadan by fasting without food or water from dawn to sunset. Many also increase their salat (prayers), Quranic recitation, and charitable giving. For talent managers, this is a perfect opportunity to review your organization's policies and practices protecting employees of all faiths in the workplace.