UC San Diego

A body of research suggests that human capital--educators' and employees' training, education, and experience--is a key factor in school improvement efforts. Social capital, which may be defined as relations that can be mobilized to facilitate action, is another factor that may be as important as human capital. The synergistic interplay of human capital and social capital can generate intellectual capital--the knowledge and knowing capability of a collectivity. This study explores the characteristics of the relationships between site principals and central office administrators in one area of the San Diego Unified School District. The research questions are : (a) What is the structure of interactions between principals and central office administrators (b) What are the conditions under which expertise is shared across relationships between principals and central office administrators (c) What are the characteristics of the interactions between principals and central office administrators (d) What is the nature of the information and knowledge that flows through the relationships between principals and central office administrators. The context for this study is the educational landscape under No Child Left Behind and the movement to implement Common Core State Standards. A key assumption of the study is that the district office, as a unit, may well matter in the schools' efforts to accelerate the achievement of all students. In this mixed methods study, extant data from a previous study was used to drive the sampling as well as to inform the qualitative portions of the study