Teacher Incentive Fund Grantee Profiles

Philadelphia Teacher and Principal Incentive Project

Beginning in fall 2007, approximately 175 classroom teachers and 5 school principals in Philadelphia Charter Schools will participate in the Incentive Fund Project, which implements performance-based bonuses and opportunities for career advancement. Student growth standards to be established via the Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System (PVAAS) will be used as a primary determining factor in eligibility for bonuses.

Location(s)) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Award Date November 2006

Grant Amount
Five-year total: $20,500,215

Duration 5 years

Partners School District of Philadelphia, teacher and principal unions

Needs Assessment Results and General Information
By Fall 2008, the program will be expanded to include twenty (20) high-need urban elementary schools (grades 3 to 8) serving approximately 12,000 stu-dents. More than 70 percent of the District’s students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch; more than 80 percent are African-American or Latino. In 2005-06, the city experienced its fourth consecutive year of growth in math and reading scores, and the percent-ages of students scoring at proficient levels in math increased to 41.8 percent overall and 38 percent in reading. In 2004-05, 14 percent of teachers were not highly qualified and 9 percent were teaching with emergency certification. Approximately 12 percent of classrooms will be staffed by new teachers and one out of five classrooms will have teachers with less than 3 years of experience.

Background
The overall purpose of the initiative is to pilot a performance-based staff development and compensation system that provides teacher and principal incentives tied directly to student achievement growth and classroom evaluations. The current compensatory system is based on seniority and certifications/degrees and is not tied to student achievement. The existing PVAAS model will be used to support the Incentive Fund Project.

Incentives
The program will include cash bonuses for individual teachers, principals, and instructional support staff, as well as opportunities for career advancement with salary increases. Mentor and master teacher roles will be established. Bonuses for teachers will be based on a combination of student achievement at the classroom and school levels, and a classroom observation process. For principals, 50 percent of the bonus is targeted for student achievement at the school level and 50 percent is to be based on a leadership assessment rubric. Other teachers and staff bonuses will be based on schoolwide or grade-group performance. Opportunities for full or partial bonuses will be available.

Evaluation
An external evaluator will be contracted to conduct the program evaluation, in collaboration with the district’s own Office of Research and Evaluation. A rigorous evaluation plan includes baseline data collection for the non-equivalent comparison group interrupted time series design. Under this plan, two non-equivalent comparison groups will be identified and tracked over time. PVAAS will be used to measure year-to-year teacher and student progress to determine school and/ or teacher effects on students’ academic achievement. Valid, reliable, standards-based observation rubrics will be used to assess teacher and principal effectiveness. Implementation measures include surveys and quarterly meetings.

Resources
The district is partnering with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) to implement the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in participating schools. The TAP model is the basis for delivering professional development services to school leadership teams. Funds will be allocated to build the necessary infra-structure to support the project. By the fifth year of the project, the district will cover 75 percent of the costs (more than $2.4 million). The district will allocate funds from its annual budget to cover costs of the differentiated compensation and infrastructure but will also leverage additional funds to expand the project.

Data Systems
Philadelphia has created a single, secure, online data warehouse that collects student-level data, which can be linked to individual schools and teachers. The district will issue a separate contract with the SAS Institute to conduct individual classroom-level analysis needed to measure teacher impact on student academic growth.

Year 1 Program Activities and/or Outcomes

Adopted core elements of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) as a means to finalize program design details.
Selected five Philadelphia Charter schools, representing approximately 175 teachers and 2,500 students, to participate in the TIF program.
Provided TAP training to school leadership teams and established infrastructure to provide ongoing support and training to participating schools.

Outlook for Year 2

Provide intensive, ongoing support to participating schools in order to implement essential elements of the Teacher Advancement Program.
Partner with the SAS institute to establish classroom level value-added (PVAAS) measures.
Distribute bonuses to teachers, principals, and instructional support staff based on student academic growth and classroom observation scores.
Recruit and select an additional 15 schools to begin TIF program implementation for the 2008-09 school year.
Track performance and baseline data for assessing progress on program goals and objectives.

This page last updated on: January 17, 2008.