News

Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) is an independent, non-partisan research center based at the University of California – Berkeley, the University of Southern California, and Stanford University. In September 2009, PACE and Full Circle Fund hosted two Alternative Teacher Compensation seminars, in Northern and Southern California, in anticipation of the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF). The TIF is a $200 million grant program to fund school districts’ performance-based teacher compensation systems. Full Circle Fund has been making significant progress with PACE as a partner on the Alternative Teacher Compensation Project, under the Systemic Change umbrella in the Education Circle.

Project Lead Stephen Dodson, Circle Chair Jeff Camp, and member Merrill Vargo worked with PACE Executive Director David Plank to put the opportunity at hand in context for the educators, union leaders, and administrators in attendance. Alongside experts from Stanford, UC Berkeley, and the US Department of Education, Full Circle Fund leaders advised that the availability of TIF funds opens up a unique opportunity to think creatively about how teachers are paid in California schools.

Ten school districts were represented at the seminars, and at this time at least two to three major school districts in California have expressed a keen interest in moving forward with the TIF applications. Full Circle Fund’s Education Circle will be taking action on this and serving in key roles to help them facilitate the process.

These seminars were a follow-up to March’s landmark conferences (also a partnership with PACE), “Learning About New Forms of Teacher Compensation,” which began this conversation on a statewide level and had nearly 400 participants and 61 district teams represented from Northern and Southern California.

Posted in Merrill Vargo, Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), Alt Comp Dialogue, jeff camp, education