* Only book in the field to align strategic talent management efforts with two sets of standards, NELP and PSEL. * Special attention is paid to addressing human resource barriers in impoverished rural and urban contexts to maximize the opportunities of placing effective educators in the presence of all students regardless of their geographic residence. * In addition to considering teachers, this book covers matters relating to critical support staff such as counselors, media specialists, and other essential personnel with student-contact roles, such as attendance clerks, receptionists, bus drivers and food service workers. * To help ground the main points in this volume, chapters feature "Managing up" case studies that address how principals can work with the district office or impact district policy to address chapter related issues and "When it's not rosy" case studies with discussion questions at the chapter's conclusion for students to consider how to address chapter related issues in less than ideal circumstances * To help instructors use this book in their courses, each chapter includes various learning activities that connect research to practice, such as case examples with discussion questions, applications, and field assignments * Each chapter includes definitions of relevant terms and discussion of the associated topics from a strategic talent management perspective and Key highlights at the conclusion of each chapter. * Includes samples of exemplar strategic HR practices from progressive organizations in education and from leading companies, prompting students to consider how school districts can learn from the examples. * Chapters include a "warning box" to aspiring school leader candidates for areas particularly susceptible to implicit bias/discrimination/antithetical influence on diversity.