Presentation of the Teacher Advancement Program by Lewis C. Solmon Senior Vice President and

1. National Conference on Teacher Compensation and Evaluation Presentation of the Teacher Advancement Program by Lewis C. Solmon Senior Vice President and Director of Teacher Advancement Program Milken Family Foundation November 21, 2002

2. NCLB: Qualifications for Teachers • Any new teacher hired must meet the requirements of a “highly qualified” teacher. • States must establish a plan to ensure that by the end of 2005-06 all teachers in core academic subjects must be highly qualified. The plan must include annual measurable increases towards the goal. • States and districts must begin to report progress toward ensuring all teachers are highly qualified by 2005-06.

3. NCLB: “Highly Qualified” • Fully licensed or certified • No waivers or emergency credentials • At least a bachelor’s degree • Demonstrated subject matter knowledge though state test • Teaching skills also demonstrated through state test (elementary)

5. Nothing Matters More Than a Quality Teacher Rivers longitudinal work found that average achieving students assigned to 4 years of ineffective teachers had only a 40 percent chance of passing the Tennessee high school exit examination. The same students assigned to 4 years of effective teachers had an 80 percent chance of passing.

6. Why Don’t People Choose Teaching? • Salaries not competitive • Costs of training not warranted by salary • Women have more career opportunities now • Little collegiality • Little respect from community • Often unpleasant, dangerous environment • Everyone gets same pay

8. Teachers Who Leave • 20% of teachers leave within 3 years • 50% of urban school teachers leave within 5 years • Twice as likely to leave with no induction program • Twice as likely to leave with top scores on high- stakes exams

10. Teacher Quality Efforts Past Efforts New Ideas

11. New Ways to Attract Teachers • Increase Salaries • School Debt Forgiveness • Housing Subsidies • Perks • PR Campaign • New Recruitment Strategies • Accelerated Teacher Education • More Rigorous Training

12. Drawbacks to Programs for Attracting & Retaining High Quality Teachers • small • isolated efforts • not school-centered • poorly designed • poorly implemented • rather than systemic reforms • solve one problem only to create another

14. Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) GOAL OF TAP: • Increased Student Achievement METHOD FOR GETTING THERE: • Maximize Teacher Quality HOW TO DO THAT: • Comprehensive Reform to Attract, Motivate and Retain High Quality Teachers

15. TAP is a Comprehensive Reform ELEMENTS OF THAT REFORM: • Multiple Career Paths • Market-Driven Compensation • Performance-Based Accountability • Ongoing, Applied Professional Growth • Expanding the Supply of High Quality Educators NOTE: Schools can implement TAP in conjunction with: • Effective curricula • New management methods • Community involvement initiatives, etc.

16. Teacher Advancement Program The expansion of the pool is achieved by: • Initial academic degree and teaching certification attainable in four years • Alternative certification through assessments and classroom demonstration • Outstanding retired teachers continue working on a part-time basis as faculty fellows • Multi-state credentialing • Portable, private pension plans • Opportunity for national certification

17. TAP – Both Old and New Multiple Career PathsCareer Ladders Performance PayOdden, Denver, Cincinnati Assessment Sanders, Danielson, NBPTS Professional ??? Development Expanding the Pool N.J. Alt. Cert, Troops to Teaches, Teach for America TAP is unique because it ties both teacher performance assessment & student value added to teacher compensation & supports that with a unique professional development program.

18. Models for the Teaching Profession: Career Advancement Traditional Model TAP Model • Multiple Career Paths • Senior, Mentor & Master Positions • Requiring increasing levels of: • professional qualifications • responsibilities • authority • assessment rigor • Single Career Path • Teacher Position Only • Requiring the same level of: • professional qualifications • responsibility • authority • assessment rigor

19. Improving Teacher Quality and Career Advancement Currently, significant career advancement in the teaching profession requires moving out of the classroom and out of teaching.

20. Models for the Teaching Profession: Compensation Traditional Model TAP Model Performance and Responsibility Drive Compensation Salary determined by level of responsibilities and effectiveness of performance Salary Schedule Drives Compensation Lock-step salary determined only by years of experience and training units accrued

21. Teacher Advancement Program Higher pay is granted for the following: • If the teacher’s primary field is difficult to staff, and if the teacher is in a hard-to-staff school • Higher teacher training levels and relevant degrees • Excellent teacher performance, as judged by experts • Different functions/additional duties • High student achievement

22. Other plans reject pay based on • Judgment of others • Student achievement/ test scores • Subject specialty

23. How TAP Compensation System Has Evolved • Performance awards • bonus earned each year. • not cumulative • constrained by available funds • augment salaries by $5,000 or less. • supplements traditional step & column scale. • No one earns less than in traditional compensation system, even for poor performance. • Opportunity for all teachers to get a bonus of some amount. NOT: only the top X% will receive bonuses. • Bonuses are criterion referenced, not relative. Any teacher who meets a standard receives the bonus.

24. How TAP Compensation System Has Evolved • 50% of the bonus is awarded for skills and knowledge. • 50% is based upon student achievement (value-added): • 30% school-wide for all teachers • 20% based on achievement of individual teacher’s students • Teachers who score well on skills and can earn bonuses even if students’ scores do not improve. • If teachers work more days, they must get paid for them at least at their former daily rate. • Since subject specific tests are often unavailable, the student achievement element of the bonus for high school teachers is complicated.

25. Models for the Teaching Profession: Professional Accountability Traditional Model TAP Model • Performance-based Accountability • TAP standards, procedures and performance rubrics • Hiring, advancement and compensation tied to evaluation • Support provided for growth • Uneven Accountability • Idiosyncratic evaluation standards & procedures • Rewards and sanction unrelated to evaluation outcomes • Support provided for deficiencies only

26. Past Teacher Accountability Versus TAP Teacher Accountability Efforts TAP Past Efforts • Teaching Performance Standards • Five Performance Levels • Evaluation Includes School and Classroom Achievement • Multiple Evaluators • Evaluation Supports Professional Growth • Performance Tied to Compensation • Checklist of Teaching Behaviors • Two Performance Levels • Evaluation Excludes Student Achievement • One Evaluator • Evaluation Supports Deficiencies Only • Performance Independent of Compensation

27. TAP Performance-Based Accountability Summary

28. Measuring Classroom and School Wide Value-Added Achievement Base decisions on value-added gains Use the TAP value-added statistical model Set leveled criteria for school gains and classroom gains (13%, 8%, 4%, YearsGrowth, Negative gain) Test every year Use reliable and valid tests Tie student level data to teacher each year

29. Models for the Teaching Profession: Professional Growth Traditional Model TAP Model • Ongoing Applied Professional Growth • Schoolwide commitment, weekly, site-based, teacher lead activities • Goals and activities tied to state standards, local SIP & analysis of student learning outcomes • Used to support and reinforce evaluation growth goals • Inservice/Course-based Professional Development • Individual commitment, intermittent activities • Goals and activities tied to personal and financial interests of the individual • Unconnected to evaluation

30. Current TAP Demonstration Sites • Arizona 6 schools • South Carolina 7 schools • Colorado 5 schools (+3) • Arkansas 9 schools • Indiana Archdiocese 4 schools • Active consideration: • Louisiana • Florida • Nevada • Ohio

31. Unions accepting TAP • “Bottom up” not “top down” • Involves teachers at every step • Require >75% of faculty vote • TAP seen as fair • Does not replace traditional salary schedule • Any teacher who qualifies can get award • Implement slowly, gain confidence of teachers • TAP is a whole program

33. The Cost of TAP • Incremental costs = 6% of budget OR $400/student • No current teacher worse off • Salary supplements for Master & Mentor teachers • New teacher positions • New specialists hired • Senior teachers’ summer professional growth • Turnover savings not kept by school • Traditional salary schedule increases in place • Bonus pool must be > current certain raises

34. New Sources of Funds • Current district/school budgets • New state appropriations • Ballot initiatives • Private foundations • Federal Funds

35. Expected Final Outcome Improved Student Achievement

36. Data • TAP Schools were matched to Controls based on: • Achievement , school size, % students receiving free lunch, configuration, and urban/rural classification • 4 TAP Schools • 1,114 TAP Student 2000-2001 • 1,277 TAP students 2001-2002 • 8 Comparison Schools • 2009 students 2000-2001 • 1,372 students 2001-2002

38. Analyses • Value-added assessment • Statistical model to measure growth in student achievement from pre-to-post-testing • Each student must have 2 consecutive years of test data from a reliable and valid test • Data needs to be linked to school, and ideally, teachers each year

39. Interpreting Results • Gap Reduction • each school is given an achievement target to reach, and their goal is to reduce the gap between their initial achievement and the target each year • Level of Certainty • Statistics involves the study of probable occurrences • Whenever a statistical result is reported, so too is the likelihood of achieving that result

40. Gap Reduction Example If my school’s pretest was the 50th percentile rank and their posttest was the 55th percentile rank, they made a 5 percentile point gain. Their gain to the target, however, would really be 14 percent, because the school has 35 percentile rank points to make up (85-50), and dividing 5 by 35 is .14, or 14 percent.

41. Level of Certainty

42. Level of Certainty • For TAP teachers/schools we want to be at least 70 percent certain that their classroom achieved a gain. • Teacher #1 achieved a gain under that criteria • Teacher #2 did not • We use statistics to calculate a certainty level associated with the gain for each teacher and each school.

43. Research Question # 1 • Do TAP schools improve student achievement on a yearly basis?

44. Research Conclusion 1 The average TAP school gain per year was 11.5 percent, or 23 percent to standard over two years.

45. Research Question # 2 2. Do TAP schools outperform comparable schools on a yearly basis?

46. Research Conclusion 2 Over the course of two years, TAP schools out-gained their controls by approximately 13 percent.

47. Research Question # 3 3. Do a greater proportion of teachers in TAP schools achieve student learning gains than teachers in comparable schools?

49. Research Conclusion 3 In both 2001 and 2002, 10 percent more teachers in TAP schools compared to controls achieved student learning gains.

50. Research Question # 4 4. Does each individual TAP school outperform its comparable control schools?