Understanding Human Resources in Broad-Access Higher Education

Broad-access higher education institutions play a large and increasing role in American human capital development, yet our knowledge of how these institutions function and of the factors that contribute to their effectiveness is sparse. If instructors and managers play a central role in promoting human capital development at the higher education level –as they do in elementary and secondary schools– then research efforts to understand what it takes to recruit, develop, and retain effective educators are likely to be particularly useful. In this chapter we identify lines of research related to instructors and managers of broad-access higher education that are likely to be productive both for understanding the effectiveness of these institutions and for identifying possible avenues for improvement.