News
Posted by Kari on June 10th, 2010
The Federal Guidelines for the $439 million Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant program are out, and the deadline for applications is July 6, 2010. TIF is a five-year Federal grant to improve education in high-need schools and districts by funding innovation in increased teacher pay. Districts seeking ways to improve teaching through faculty dialogue and a new approach to teacher evaluation and compensation are potentially a good match for TIF.
To help California Districts navigate the application process, Full Circle Fund’s Alternative Teacher Compensation Project Team and PACE (Policy Analysis for California Education) have made a collection of tools available. On June 9th, they hosted a 45 minute webinar, viewed by 20 participants from across the state, with slides and audio narration by the US Department of Education’s Jo Anderson, Jr. and Dr. Julia Koppich, renowned expert on teacher compensation. The recorded webinar is now available for reference on Full Circle Fund’s TIF Page.
PACE, an Education Circle Grantee, has also published a Guide to the Teacher Incentive Fund for California School Districts, written by Julia E. Koppich, now available on the PACE website.
What makes TIF different from others is that unlike other grants, high-need districts and unions can apply for TIF support directly. There is no need to negotiate with state organizations — districts just make their plan and apply.
According to the Alternative Teacher Compensation Grant Project Lead Stephen Dodson, 2010 is the year to apply for TIF.
“This grant program has been significantly expanded — money is available. It has also been modified significantly based on feedback from prior grant recipients. For example, this year’s TIF program requires recipients to evaluate teachers based on multiple measures rather than exclusively on test score gains.”
Full Circle Fund and PACE hope districts will take advantage of the opportunity to develop a TIF proposal, and the resources they’ve made available to support the application for this important program.
We are also excited to announce that new Full Circle Fund Member and Community Fellow Katherine Casey will be taking over as the Project Lead in July 2010. By day, Katherine works at Education Pioneers. Thank you and congratulations to Stephen on his leadership for the past several years.
Posted in webinar, Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), Alt Comp Dialogue, education
