Building Human Capital

Despite Louisiana’s progress over the last decade, one out of every three students in Louisiana is performing below grade level. This is unacceptable and requires a systematic approach to achieve meaningful and sustainable improvement.

Research shows that the efficacy of teachers and school leaders is the most important school-related factor affecting student performance.  Therefore, as we attempt to create a world-class education system for all students in Louisiana, our most powerful lever is advancing the capacity of administrators and teachers to improve student achievement. 

With this strategy in mind, in 2010, the Louisiana Department of Education established its Human Capital Office (HCO) under the Division of Innovation.  The mission of the Human Capital Office is to improve teacher and school leader effectiveness.  The vision of the Human Capital Office is to have an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective educational leader in every school in Louisiana.  By achieving its vision and mission, the Human Capital Office will substantially contribute to the Department’s efforts to accomplish its nine Critical Goals. 

History

Louisiana has a history of prioritizing educator quality.  The state has taken a bold stance in its requirements for certification renewal, pioneered alternative pathways for teachers and leaders, greatly improved the percentage of Highly Qualified Teachers in our classrooms and led the nation in implementation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP).  Most recently, Louisiana’s Blue Ribbon Commission, tasked with improving teacher quality and educational leadership in the state, recommended compensation reform.  And Act 54, which was enacted during the most recent legislative session, now mandates new definitions of effectiveness and new supports for teachers.  Despite this strong history of supporting educator quality, there is still much work to be done.  LDOE – and the education community as a whole –must change the way they have traditionally operated to ensure that every classroom and every school building is led by an effective educator, and the Human Capital Office is dedicated to this mission.

Mission

The Human Capital Office will achieve its mission by:

• Creating policies that support educator effectiveness;
• Creating rigorous and replicable tools to support educator effectiveness;
• Supporting and providing services to districts to expand effective human capital practices;
• Gathering, analyzing and disseminating educator effectiveness data to drive resource allocation and priorities for the Human Capital Office.

Human Capital Office Core Functions

• Authorizing, monitoring and expanding teacher and leader preparation programs that produce highly effective educators who increase student achievement; improving programs that do not increase student achievement;
• Leveraging the certification process to increase educator effectiveness, through: issuance, records maintenance, renewal and rescission of teacher and leader certifications;
• Eliminating teacher shortages by increasing the pipeline of high-potential teacher and leader candidates to meet needs (with a particular focus on high priority and hard-to-fill vacancies);
• Creating tools to differentiate educator effectiveness based on common, rigorous standards;
• Providing support to local districts and charter schools in the implementation of exemplary, aligned, differentiated educator support to improve educator effectiveness and high-quality human capital management practices (including tenure, compensation, promotion, retention);
• Expanding effective school and district embedded professional development, such as Louisiana’s Teacher AP;
• Gathering, analyzing and disseminating key information about human capital practice to drive decision-making;
• Conducting research and development to identify and then expand best practices in human capital management throughout Louisiana schools.

Leadership

The Human Capital Office is led by an Executive Director of Human Capital, an Assistant Director of Human Capital and two Division Directors.  The Executive Director will work in conjunction with staff to design and lead strategy to improve teacher and leader effectiveness in order to meet the LDOE’s Critical Goals.