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

Component 5: Performance Management

Nexus Point: Develop evaluation instruments to measure teacher and principal effectiveness.

Intersects With: Professional Development and Compensation and Incentives

Funding Stream: All examples provided below may be supported using funds made available through the Title I, School Improvement, and State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) program. In addition, funding is available through the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) program when the development of evaluation instruments is linked to a compensation and incentive program. To the extent consistent with program requirements, school systems 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 online 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

Establish a working group comprised of teachers, principals, union representatives, district administration, and state education agency (SEA) staff.
Create state standards for effective teaching practice.
Determine whether the SEA has sufficient information technology capacity to collect the necessary data.
Develop a plan to implement the new teacher evaluation system.
Estimate the cost of developing new evaluation instruments and ongoing implementation costs.
Develop a plan to identify funding sources beyond ARRA, if needed, for sustainability.

Promising Practices

Although district and school officials perform the observations of teachers and principals, the state can help support local education agencies (LEAs) in the following ways:

Set state standards for effective teachers and leaders.
Provide funding and support for high-quality teacher performance management systems.
- Support teacher performance management systems that are clear, differentiated, and timely.
- Align support for teacher performance management with support for professional development and with broader reform of the state's school improvement goals or vision.
- Monitor the effectiveness of the teacher performance management processes that are supported.

Nexus Point: Use evaluation instruments to identify and train teachers to serve as leaders.

Intersects With: Leadership Development

Funding Stream: Title I, SFSF Program

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

Citation: SFSF Guidance, Title I Guidance on U.S. Department of Education Website

Readiness to Pursue Steps

Establish a working group comprised of teachers, principals, union representatives, district administration, and SEA staff.
Create state standards for effective teaching practice.
Determine whether the SEA has sufficient information technology capacity to collect the necessary data.
Develop a plan to implement the new teacher evaluation system.
Estimate the cost of developing new evaluation instruments and ongoing implementation costs.
Develop a plan to identify funding sources beyond ARRA, if needed, for sustainability.
Establish and implement a fair and reliable teacher evaluation system that provides ongoing feedback to teachers about their performance based on objective measures.

Promising Practices

Although district and school officials perform the observations of teachers and principals, the state can help support LEAs in the following ways:

Require goal setting with respect to performance.
- Provide teachers with the guidelines, expectations, timelines, and purpose for evaluations.
Ensure that the evaluation process is differentiated to meet the individual professional needs of all teachers.
- Expand the number of people involved in evaluation.
- Consider a variety of teaching skills and evaluation techniques.
- Use established rubrics and evaluation tools throughout the process.
- Include preobservation and postobservation meetings when conducting an observation.
- Work with teachers union to ensure that the process is in compliance with local bargaining agreement.
Provide timely feedback and appropriate steps.
- Provide written feedback to teachers in a timely manner.
- Plan and write recommendations collaboratively with evaluator(s) and teachers.
Provide incentives for effective job performance.
Link teacher evaluation to professional development (See http://www.tqsource.org/publications/practicalGuide.pdf).

Nexus Point: Use evaluation instruments to provide incentives to effective teachers, teacher leaders, and principals.

Intersects With: Compensation and Incentives

Funding Stream: Title I, Educational Technology State Grants, SFSF Program, TIF Program

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

Citation: Title I Guidance, SFSF Guidance

Readiness to Pursue Steps

Establish a working group comprised of teachers, principals, union representatives, district administration, and SEA staff.
Create state standards for effective teaching practice.
Determine whether the SEA has sufficient information technology capacity to collect the necessary data.
Develop a plan to implement the new teacher evaluation system.
Estimate the cost of developing new evaluation instruments and ongoing implementation costs.
Develop a plan to identify funding sources beyond ARRA, if needed, for sustainability.
Establish and implement a fair and reliable teacher evaluation system that provides ongoing feedback to teachers about their performance based on objective measures.

Promising Practices

The Center for Educator Compensation Reform (CECR), a center funded by the U.S. Department of Education and created to support the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grantees, developed a national map that highlights compensation reforms across the country and provides links to more information. See http://cecr.ed.gov/initiatives/maps/ for more information. These profiles provide examples of the vast array of performance-based compensation programs across the country, including the use of evaluation instruments to base teacher pay on classroom performance.

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.

TIF

A fact sheet on the TIF ARRA on the ED website states that ED anticipates the proposed program requirements will be published in the Federal Register before the end of August 2009.