As many school districts struggle to recruit and retain top talent and ensure equitable access to excellent educators, the need for knowledgeable and skilled human capital leaders in schools is evident now more than ever.
In an effort to build the capacity of human capital professionals in education, Battelle for Kids worked with the American Association of School Personnel Administrators (AASPA) to develop new professional standards for human capital leaders in education. The standards—which were informed by feedback from hundreds of educators from across the country,—outline the competencies that human capital leaders should master to:
- Develop comprehensive human capital management systems (HCMS)
- Manage key human capital decisions, in areas, such as workforce planning, recruitment, hiring, placement, compensation, promotion, and professional development
- Balance strategic and transactional HR practices
- Promote consistency and build engagement through branding and communication
- Maximize the use of data for continuous improvement
- Implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and other regulations impacting human capital in education
Download a copy of the professional standards for human capital leaders in education.
Battelle for Kids also collaborated with AASPA to create a Professional Human Capital Leader in Education (pHCLE) certification program with professional learning rooted in the standards. The learning was piloted with 115 human capital leaders from school districts in Arizona, Iowa, Oregon, and Texas through a series of face-to-face workshops.
"The HCLE program provided me with invaluable resources that allowed me to return to my district and establish processes with immediate positive results," shared Steffanie Frost, Director of Human Resources, McMinnville School District in Oregon.
The HCLE Certification program can be beneficial to anyone in a school district who is responsible for managing people, including superintendents, principals, HR or human capital professionals, and teacher leaders, among others.
“As a school administrator, my training is in school leadership and not human resources. The HCLE training has opened my mind to think more strategically and returned the sense of leadership that has been missing in my career since the principalship,” said a participant in the North Texas pilot.
Visit HCEdLeaders.org to learn more about the HCLE Certification program and register your interest in organizing a cohort.