Using ARRA Funds to Improve Teacher Effectiveness and Equitable Distribution: An Interactive Mapping Tool

Funding Stream: All examples provided below may be supported using funds made available through the Title I, Part A; Title I, School Improvement; IDEA; and State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) programs. To the extent consistent with program requirements, districts and schools also may use SFSF funds for approved activities under Title I and IDEA, Part B, funds to support these or similar strategies and are encouraged to do so. The U.S. Department of Education will supplement these examples over time with ideas about best practices from schools throughout the nation. Current guidance documents are available for Title I, IDEA, and the SFSF program at http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/programs.html.

Release of Funds: These funds are available during Phases 1 and 2.

Readiness to Pursue Steps

• Convene a working group made up of various education stakeholders (e.g., teachers, principals, union representatives, district administration, state policymakers) to determine what effective induction looks like.
• Conduct a statewide study on new teachers, including the effectiveness of current induction programs.
• Align induction goals with state improvement goals.

Promising Practices

Although the implementation of induction and mentoring programs occurs at the district and school levels, there are a few actions that states can take to support the programs:

• Create a grant program that provides funding and other resources to support induction programs.
• Require induction programs to include high-quality mentoring and provide financial support to districts to develop new induction programs.
• Develop and support new state policy on induction programs.
  • Set statewide standards for effective mentors.
  • Require that new teachers be assigned classes within area of licensure.
  • Give new teachers novice status.
  • Require that new teachers be given a manageable number of classes for which to prepare.
  • Require that new teachers be assigned classes of reasonable sizes.

Timing and Requirements for ARRA Funding

Title I

• The second phase of Title I ARRA funds were scheduled for distribution on September 30, 2009. On Monday, August 3, 2009, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued a press release announcing that the release of the second half of these funds will accelerate to “on or around September 1, 2009.”
• The Title I fact sheet issued on April 1, 2009, stated that “In order to receive the remaining Title I, Part A ARRA funds, a state must submit, for review and approval by the Department, additional information that addresses how the state will meet the accountability and reporting requirements in section 1512 of the ARRA.” At the Title I directors meeting held the last week in July, however, ED announced that no additional information would be required to receive the second half of the Title I ARRA funds.

Title I School Improvement Grants

• A fact sheet on the Title I School Improvement Grants on the ED website states that the proposed program requirements will be published in the Federal Register. At the education stakeholders meeting on August 4, 2009, Deputy Secretary Tony Miller indicated that the comments for the Title I School Improvement grants will be due after the Race to the Top comments (deadline August 28, 2009) and before the Teacher Incentive Fund comments (Federal Register notice anticipated for August). Therefore, it is anticipated that the proposed program requirements will be published in August.

SFSF

• On July 29, 2009, a notice of proposed requirements, definitions, and approval criteria for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, Phase II, was published in the Federal Register. The deadline for comments on these draft materials is August 28, 2009.
• The metrics by which ED will monitor state progress are contained in these documents and identified as “assurance indicators and descriptors.” ED also published a table that indicates, for each reporting item, whether the state is required to provide new information or if it is already being reporting to ED.