A teacher may get good, even astounding, results from his pupils while he is teaching them and yet not be a good teacher; because it may be that, while his pupils are directly under his influence, he raises them to a height which is not natural to them, without fostering their own capacities for work at this level, so that they immediately decline again as soon as the teacher leaves the classroom. Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889 – 1951. It is difficult to measure effectiveness in not-for-profit organisations like schools, colleges and universities. There is no ‘bottom-line’ against which to gauge performance, they have limited technical development and managers struggle to make meaningful comparisons between outcomes and targets. In education, well-publicised attempts have been made to establish - some would say impose - a set of criteria by which organisations judge success or failure. These have been largely subjective - the percentage of inspected classes regarded as good, the extent to which staff is involved in decision making, the appropriateness of the leadership shown by senior managers, and so on – if occasionally peppered with quantitative measures, like the percentage of students achieving certain grades in public examinations, to sustain the illusion of objectivity. This is not to fault the aspiration necessarily, though initially at least it created a surveillance culture in schools that did justice to neither the inspected nor the argument for inspection. Happily, this is changing.

A rigorous, pathbreaking analysis demonstrating that a country's prosperity is directly related in the long run to the skills of its population. In this book Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann make a simple, central claim, developed with rigorous theoretical and empirical support: knowledge is the key to a country's development. Of course, every country acknowledges the importance of developing human capital, but Hanushek and Woessmann argue that message has become distorted, with politicians and researchers concentrating not on valued skills but on proxies for them. The common focus is on school attainment, although time in school provides a very misleading picture of how skills enter into development. Hanushek and Woessmann contend that the cognitive skills of the population—which they term the “knowledge capital” of a nation—are essential to long-run prosperity. Hanushek and Woessmann subject their hypotheses about the relationship between cognitive skills (as consistently measured by international student assessments) and economic growth to a series of tests, including alternate specifications, different subsets of countries, and econometric analysis of causal interpretations. They find that their main results are remarkably robust, and equally applicable to developing and developed countries. They demonstrate, for example, that the “Latin American growth puzzle” and the “East Asian miracle” can be explained by these regions' knowledge capital. Turning to the policy implications of their argument, they call for an education system that develops effective accountability, promotes choice and competition, and provides direct rewards for good performance.

Stories from participants in Professional Development Schools.

Strategic Management of Human Capital in Education offers a comprehensive and strategic approach to address what has become labeled as "talent and human capital." Grounded in extensive research and examples of leading edge districts, this book shows how the entire human resource system in schools—from recruitment, to selection/placement, induction, professional development, performance management and evaluation, compensation, and career progression—can be reformed and restructured to boost teacher and principal effectiveness in ways that dramatically improve instructional practice and student learning. Strategic Management of Human Capital in Education guides educators towards putting more effective teachers, teacher leaders, and principals in the country’s schools—especially in poverty-impacted urban and rural communities—equipping those teacher and principals with instructional and leadership expertise, and rewarding and retaining those who are successful in attaining these objectives. Drawing from cases, experiences, and deliberations from a national task force, this book outlines a comprehensive framework for how to transform current human resource management practices into authentic, strategic talent management systems in order to improve student achievement.

Visionary in scope, Intellectual Capital is the first book that shows how to turn the untapped knowledge of an organization into its greatest competitive weapon. Thomas A. Stewart demonstrates how knowledge--not natural resources, machinery, or financial capital--has become the most important factor in economic life. Through practical advice, stories, and case histories, Stewart reveals how organizations and individuals can create and use the knowledge assets they need. Dazzling in its ability to make conceptual sense of the economic revolution we are living through, this ingenious book cuts through the vague rhetoric of "paradigm shifts" to show how the Information Age economy really works. Intellectual Capital should be read as if the futures of your company and your career depend on it. They do.

The knowledge society arises from the combination of four interdependent elements: the production of knowledge through research, its transmission through education, its dissemination through information and communication technologies, and its exploitation through innovation. For this reason, higher education institutions (HEIs) are the main component of the formation of intellectual capital because they are the key element of the knowledge society, so it is necessary that they continue to be the main source of the necessary skills that allow the increase of economic competitiveness, sustainability, and citizen welfare within the framework of quality education and equity. The Formation of Intellectual Capital and Its Ability to Transform Higher Education Institutions and the Knowledge Society is an essential research publication that provides systemic research on the formation of intellectual capital in higher education and its impact on the knowledge society. Highlighting topics such as educational programs, management strategy, and educational studies, this book is meant for educators, educational technologists, students, researchers, professionals, and administrators.

The future of learning depends absolutely on the future of teaching. In this latest and most important collaboration, Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan show how the quality of teaching is captured in a compelling new idea: the professional capital of every teacher working together in every school. Speaking out against policies that result in a teaching force that is inexperienced, inexpensive, and exhausted in short order, these two world authorities--who know teaching and leadership inside out--set out a groundbreaking new agenda to transform the future of teaching and public education. Ideas-driven, evidence-based, and strategically powerful, Professional Capital combats the tired arguments and stereotypes of teachers and teaching and shows us how to change them by demanding more of the teaching profession and more from the systems that support it. This is a book that no one connected with schools can afford to ignore. This book features: (1) a powerful and practical solution to what ails American schools; (2) Action guidelines for all groups--individual teachers, administrators, schools and districts, state and federal leaders; (3) a next-generation update of core themes from the authors' bestselling book, "What's Worth Fighting for in Your School?" [This book was co-published with the Ontario Principals' Council.].