Our Leaders - The Master Plan
The basic assumption of the Haberman Educational Foundation (HEF) is that no school can be better than the teachers who teach in them and the administrators who lead them. Over the last decade the HEF has helped over 220 school districts hiring educators and institutions preparing educators to select teachers and administrators who can help equalize the educational opportunities for diverse children and youth in poverty.
The Haberman International Policy Institute in Education is the division of HEF devoted to extending the mission of; improving the educational opportunities for children and youth in poverty to schools and preparatory institutions internationally. To achieve this goal hipie will engage in the following functions.
Assist institutions preparing educators to develop policies and procedures for selecting future educators who are committed and capable of serving children and youth in poverty.
Educating youth in poverty is a special and unique mission. Children from environments with multiple resources have many choices; if they need special help to succeed, it is available. But youth in poverty from under-resourced families and communities often have no choices: they must attend their assigned school; if they need special approaches or extra help, they rely on the teachers and leaders in that school to provide it. Commitment to these children is non-negotiable. This is a high stakes mission. Without effective education, these youth will remain in poverty; their country or city will have to support them; they will be vulnerable to whatever forces will help them get the basics of food, housing, medical care, and employment – regardless of the humanitarian or ideological implications.
Assist government educational agencies at national and local levels in the development of policies and procedures for securing effective educators.
How countries choose their teachers and leaders is largely bound by policy. Yet, ironically, research affirms that the platforms upon which these choices usually rest (ie., certification, training, college credits, grade point average) do not predict success in the classroom. Whether or not the teachers and leaders who complete preparatory programs and can actually build relationships with children, be decent people, and support a democratic vision of the classroom is a critical policy question. The Haberman Educational Foundation is well versed in alternative certification procedures that will ensure alignment of research and policy to the most powerfully effective strategies for personnel selection, training, induction, and retention.
Assist in the planning and conducting of research and evaluation of programs aimed at improving the preparation and performance of teachers and school administrators.
Personnel at HEF bring no less than 70 years of experience in aggregating qualitative data and evaluating the results of projects to select, train, induct, and retain “star” educators. And since evaluation is an indispensable component of any initiative, this expertise applies as well to international projects in which not the planning, budgeting, or proposing of any project, but the actual implementation is the crucial component. Expertise includes formulation of baseline data, establishment of quantitative performance indicators, assessment of implementation timelines, and extent to which the project was implemented.
Assist national and local school agencies to develop the policies and practices for creating the conditions of work in schools that support effective teaching and administration.
Teacher and leader turnover results from policies that create conditions for work that are not sustainable or nurturing for the individuals who work in those environments. Turnover not only costs gains in student achievement: it is expensive. Reputable research institutions verify that every personnel turnover costs the organization 2.5X the individual’s salary to replace that person. Research-based personnel selection in tandem with policies that support the establishment of motivating and rewarding working conditions result in the alignment of high-functioning organizational processes and systems.
Conclusion.
The Hipie is committed to developing policies and practices cooperatively with countries seeking expertise in this area for implementation in diverse cultural contexts and regions. For more detail on the work of The Haberman Educational Foundation, see www.habermanfoundation.org.
