Central Oregonian

School district selected to receive teacher incentive grant

Grant is based upon the CLASS project whose goal is to raise student achievement

CENTRAL OREGONIAN

Teachers will be recognized and rewarded for new roles and responsibilities and excellence in the classroom, with the Teacher Incentive Fund grant.

Ramona McCallister

April 21, 2011

On the heels of the recent CLASS Project, Crook County has once again been selected to receive funds to continue the work that was began in 2010.

Crook County is among seven Oregon districts that have been selected to share an $11.2 million grant from the federal government as part of career and compensation reform initiative through the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF).

“We will receive dollars for compensation for approximately $360,000 for 2011-2012,” said Dennis Kostelecky, Crook County School District Curriculum Director. The grant will be spread over a total of four years, and the amount that CCSD is scheduled to receive is $1,600,000.

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) is based upon the work of the CLASS (Creative Leadership Achieves Student Success) Project. The purpose of the CLASS Project is to raise student achievement and strengthen teacher leadership through four different components of effective teaching. These include expanded career paths for instructors, rigorous performance evaluations for teachers, professional development for teachers, and new compensation models.

Crook County School District joined other Central Oregon schools in implementing their own version of the CLASS Project in 2010, and according to Kostelecky, the grant has the same components as the Chalkboard Project.

The TIF grant is a performance-based compensation system, and teachers will be paid on top of their salary (like a bonus) for meeting certain performance criteria explained Kostelecky.

“Chalkboard believes that educators should be recognized and rewarded for new roles and responsibilities and for excellence in the classroom,” said Chalkboard Project President Sue Hildick. “But we know that new compensation models alone will not improve practice or strengthen student learning. Systems to recruit, train, support, evaluate, and retain effective educators must be comprehensive to make the most significant impact on student learning.”

Kostelecky said that all teachers will have the opportunity to earn additional dollars based on performance. He said that part of the work includes setting up a preliminary plan for the grant manager by the end of June.

“It centers around the teacher and principal evaluation systems that we have, and what is called the Value-added Model.” He explained that this is a statistical analysis of progress that students make in a particular school.

“We’re learning as we’re going,” added Kostelecky.

Unlike the No Child Left Behind initiative, the TIF model is based on student growth, using equal comparatives to measure growth. For example, if a school has certain demographics that set it apart from other schools or districts, the school would be measured according to other schools with similar demographics.

The Teacher Incentive Fund was carried over from the Bush administration to President Barack Obama’s administration, and it’s one of the few educational investments that has strong bi-partisan support.

Governor Kitzhaber commented, “I’ve asked Oregonians to bring their best thinking to the table to improve education outcomes for our children. Educators are innovating and driving important changes through the CLASS Project, and I am proud to see Oregon attracting federal dollars to support this work.”

“Both Republicans and Democrats on the hill are very supportive because it is driving reform and innovation,” said Don Jamison, Vice President of Education Policy for the Chalkboard Project.

Jamison said the criteria for the grant include two qualifying factors. The first includes schools that are above 50 percent in the free and reduced lunch rate.

“The grant is interested in targeting students who are at risk, and they define that through measures of need.”

The second qualifier takes into consideration the schools that are underperforming in at least one tested area when contrasted with schools that have similar demographics.

“In the last 12 months, about 22 states have fully adopted new policy and laws that explicitly link student achievement to performance evaluation,” said Jamison. “The second development is that we get a growing and clear indication from the federal government that all future dollars will be exclusively linked to measures of student achievement.”

He said in Oregon, they are interested in teachers defining the many measures of student growth that can help inform instruction and improve it, and this is part of the work that the TIF grant will facilitate.

To find more about the Teacher Incentive Fund project and the CLASS project, go to http://crookcounty.k12.or.us/Departments/CurriculumandInstruction/CLASSPROJECT.aspx