Also critical to a district's ability to effectively manage human capital are solid partnerships with existing stakeholder groups. These partnerships must distribute responsibility for and leadership of human capital management to provide the best chance for success. Perhaps the most common example of such a partnership-one that is too often ineffective-is that between a district administration and the local teachers union. As the membership organization for teachers, unions must become, as United Mind Workers puts it,"the guarantors of quality standards [for teaching] and the processes thai cause them to come about' (Kerchner, Koppich & Weeres 1997, p 60).