Part of a special section on public education in the new economy. The writer describes the Broad Foundation, a new foundation with an exclusive focus on elementary and secondary education. This foundation invests its resources in enlisting talented people, redefining roles and authorities, building capacity, providing incentives for results, and honoring success. It believes that these five pillars of human capital will help transform public school systems into high performance organizations and will help lead to higher academic achievement for all students.