A capital investment: The effects of teacher human and social capital on student achievement in improving schools

s accountability policy presses for higher student achievement, elementary schools across the nation are enacting a host of reform efforts with varied outcomes. Mounting evidence suggests reforms that support greater collaboration among teachers may enhance the intellectual capital available in a school. In this study, we argue that intellectual capital is important in the process of reform and increasing student outcomes. In exploring this idea, we deconstruct intellectual capital into its primary components, human and social capital, and examine their influence on student achievement using social network analysis and hierarchical linear modeling. Our results indicate that teacher human and social capital independently have a significant and positive predictive effect on student achievement. Moreover, both teacher human and social capital together, as core aspects of intellectual capital, has an even stronger effect on student achievement than either human or social capital alone. Implications around research, teacher practice, and policy are discussed