Empowering Effective Teachers: Back-To-School Countdown (Day 8)

The Brandon Patch Back-To-School Countdown proceeds with this Day 8 report on news you can use as you get ready for the opening bell of the first day of classes.

Teachers in the Hillsborough County School District go back to school August 15 to prepare for the first day of school for students, August 23.

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If you talk to a Hillsborough County Pubilic School teacher long enough about his or her craft on the local level, you've heard the term: "Empowering Effective Teachers."

You've heard, too, about the "historic" contribution of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to further this intiative with an "Excellence in Teacher Effectiveness Grant.

And maybe you haven’t.

Suffice it to say supporters and detractors have both had their say about the multi-year, $100 million grant that aims to increase student achievement by focusing on teacher training and performance pay.

Online at the Hillsborough County School District website are two Webcast discussions about the grant and the initiative.

“This is not something we’re doing to teachers,” says Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia in the shorter of the two discussions. “This is something we’re doing with teachers.”

Toward that end, Elia discusses, “in reverse order," 10 things to know about the Empowering Effective Teachers initiative:

10. Purpose

• “This isn’t about getting a big grant, although I like the money that comes with it,” Elia said. “This is about increasing student achievement.” To increase achievement, Elia adds, “teachers are absolutely the greatest resource we have."

9. Funds for specific purposes.

• "As with any grant,” Elia notes, "the money can only be used to accomplish the goals of the grant.” The money cannot plug holes in the budget, she added, or fund other programs. And at the end of the grant’s seven-year period, any initiatives that take root must stand on their own.

8. School District Contribution

• "Some people have the mistaken impression that we have to match the $100 million that the Gates Foundation is putting into this project,” Elia says. Truth? No, she adds, and the grant allows for “initiatives we wanted to do but we never had the money to do them,” such as retooling teacher training.  

7. Not the end of established merit pay

• The so-called MAP merit reward program is a state-mandated merit-pay program and it is not going to go away just because the Hillsborough County School District seeks another merit-pay program that is “reliable, valid, fair and easy to understand,” Elia said.  

6. Teachers can opt in — or out.

• Greater rewards for exceptional results are the goal with the new pay for performance system. “All new teachers coming into our system will be paid under the new system,” Elia said. But, she adds, ”Continuting teachers who choose not to opt in to the new compensation system will continue to be eligibe for some form of pay for performance, or MAP."

5. Career ladders and mentoring.

• “We believe that great teachers shouldn’t have to leave the classroom to advance their careers,” Elia says. “So we intend to make it possible for great teachers to become teacher leaders.”

4. Subject to collaborative bargaining

• “There’s a lot of work to be done,” Elia says, in the areas of teacher recruitment, evaluation and compensation. “To get where we need to be we will need meaningful input from our teachers.” New contract language will be required and the district will work with the Classroom Teachers Association in that regard.

3. Open communication

• “We realize teachers have lots of questions,” Elia says, noting attempts to communicate with teachers via email, surveys, webcast, live podcasts and school-based meetings.  

2. Evaluation process

• Teams of "highly trained peer evaluators” will be involved in the process. And 40 percent of the plan will be based on “student learning gains.” 

1. Again, the purpose.

• No. 1 is the same as No. 10, Elias says, “but it really is that important.” The purpose of “this whole effort,” she adds, “is to raise student achievement."

So, what do you think of this initiative? Are you a teacher, with work-based views to share? Let us know in the call for comments box below.

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ABOUT THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL COUNTDOWN:

This is the eighth posting in a 41-day effort that counts down the days before the opening bell of the 2011-12 school year for the Hillsborough County School District.

Previously posted:

• Back-To-School Countdown (Day 1) — FANG Fesitval