SMHC

Sir Michael Barber, Vice Chair of the SMHC task force, head of McKinsey & Company’s Global Education Practice, executive director of the Education Delivery Institute in Washington, D.C., and a former top advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was featured at a recent meeting of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence in Louisville, KY.  Barber stated that in order for any education system to be world class, it needed to address:

1. Standards and accountability
2. Human capital
3. Structure and organization

He also laid out the following four principles for improving education systems:

1. The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.
2. The only way to improve student outcomes is to improve instruction.
3. High performance requires every child to succeed.
4. Great leadership at the school level is a key enabling factor.

He pointed out that the Human Capital part of the education puzzle includes recruiting great people and training them well, continuously improving pedagogical skills and knowledge, and providing great leadership at the school level.  All of these ideas are parallel to the SMHC principles and have been outlined in the “What is SMHC?” paper.  The State and District Roadmaps for Federal “Race to the Top” Proposals offer states and districts a framework for addressing these human capital issues in policies and practices.

Filed under: Education Community News, SMHC Task Force News