Schools establish goals for new teacher-advancement initiative

Districts hope changes in compensation, training, career paths will increase student achievement

The Bend Bulletin

BY Sheila G. Miller

Bend, OR December 6, 2009

In August, five area school districts received planning grants from an education reform nonprofit to change teacher advancement, development and compensation in the hopes that those changes will improve student learning.

Now, the districts are deep into the planning process, having selected design teams and started identifying the main goals for how to improve their districts. The next step will include how to change teacher compensation to fulfill those goals.

The Chalkboard Project gave $85,000 in planning grants to Bend-La Pine, Crook County, Redmond, Sisters and High Desert Education Service districts as part of the Creative Leadership Achieves Student Success (CLASS) Project.

The project has four principles: increasing career paths for teachers, improving teacher evaluations, offering teachers more professional development opportunities, and implementing new pay structures that give teachers incentives to take on leadership and mentoring roles.

During the 2009-10 school year, the districts are to work to create plans that they believe will increase student achievement by improving teacher competency.

By August, districts should have completed their planning and secured grants that will allow them to implement the plans by the start of the 2010-11 school year.

In 2007, the CLASS project started in Sherwood, Tillamook and Forest Grove school districts. The districts created the plans during the 2007-08 school year and implemented them in 2008-09.

Kate Dickson, the vice president of education policy for Chalkboard Project, said those districts have made significant changes to the way they do business.

“All three of the current districts implementing CLASS have changed career paths for teachers,” she said.

The three districts have added new levels to their pay scales. Teachers who offer evidence of their mastery by creating a portfolio with proof like additional endorsements, greater professional development or classroom proof of student learning, will earn higher compensation.

The districts have also changed teacher evaluations, putting principals through yearlong training that helps them better understand what effective teaching looks like.

“So when they go in and do observations they are more skilled and effective at identifying areas of strength and areas of improvement,” Dickson said.

The Central Oregon districts each put together design teams that include teachers, administrators and school board members. The groups have identified what they want as outcomes of the project. Each district’s outcomes could be different.

For example, Crook County’s team wants to identify a list of basic skills it will look for in all teachers, hire based on that list, and evaluate and plan for professional development during the workday as ways to improve employee knowledge and skills. In Redmond, meanwhile, the team wants to provide opportunities for teachers to observe each other, and align college and university teacher education programs with the local school districts.

Bend-La Pine Superintendent Ron Wilkinson said the conversations that have taken place among the design teams have been helpful.

“It’s nice to take a step back and take a look at things like career ladders and career advancement,” he said. “We’re having good dialogue and I’m hopeful that some positive things will come from this.”

While the end result might look different for each district, Redmond Superintendent Vickie Fleming noted the Central Oregon districts all took on the project with similar goals.

“Different districts have different priorities,” she said. “We’ll all end up with a similar commitment to rewarding groups of teachers who are increasing the achievement of students. What we’ll be doing to make that happen will be very similar.”

In the coming weeks, design teams will go into district schools to speak with teachers and staff about the CLASS Project. And during December, the teams will also begin working on blueprints that create career paths for teachers, some of which could include increased compensation for leader or mentor teachers.