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; State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF); or Teacher Quality Enhancement and Enhancing Education Through Technology State Grant programs. In addition, funding is available through the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) program when the professional development 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.

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

Readiness to Pursue Steps

• Create a working group made up of staff members from the state education agency (SEA), teacher preparation programs, and district professional development organizers.
• Develop a set of statewide standards for teacher and principal professional development.

Promising Practices

• Set statewide professional development goals and support districts in implementation of the standards.
• Provide financial support to districts providing intensive and sustained professional development, such as the following:
  • Professional development to improve teachers' instructional strategies
  • Reading and mathematics coaches to teachers in struggling schools
  • Ongoing, differentiated professional development for all teachers, including special education teachers
  • Professional development on the use of data to enhance teaching and school improvement
  • Creation of professional learning communities
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the professional development provided.

Intersects With: Performance Management and Compensation and Incentives 

Funding Stream: All the examples below may be supported using funds made available through Title I, School Improvement, and the SFSF program. In addition, funding is available through the 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, programs 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 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 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 the 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.

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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.

IDEA

• The second phase of IDEA ARRA funds were scheduled for distribution on September 30, 2009. On Monday, August 3, 2009, 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 IDEA fact sheet issued on April 1, 2009, stated that “In order to receive the remaining 50 percent of IDEA, Part B 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 IDEA Part B ARRA funds.

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.

Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants

• On July 1, 2009, the president signed into law H.R. 1777, which makes corrections and other changes to the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. Included in this act are technical corrections to the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program. The technical corrections include the following:
  • Allowing fifth-year initial licensing programs to be eligible to apply along with prebaccalaureate programs under the Pre-Baccalaureate Program Absolute Priority #1
  • Extending the requirement to acquire a master’s degree from one year to 18 months after beginning the Teaching Residency Program (Absolute Priority #2)
• Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: September 21, 2009
• Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: July 23, 2009
• Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: June 26, 2009

Enhancing Education Through Technology State Grants (ED Tech)

• Guidance was published in July 2009 by ED.