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AFTON — As a state-funded teacher leadership grant enters its second year in Iowa, administrators and teachers at one of the first schools to receive the grant say it’s making a positive impact.
East Union was one of 39 schools to receive Iowa’s Teacher Leadership Compensation (TLC) grant for 2014-2015, the grant’s first year. The grant awards schools about $300 per student to fund teacher leadership programs.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has called the TLC grant the “centerpiece” of an education reform package he signed into law in July 2013. He projects it will send $150 million per year to schools once it’s been fully phased in. Whether schools apply for the grant remains a local decision, with the application process open through the end of this year.
As of December 2014, 198 of Iowa’s 338 school districts have received TLC grants, including Nodaway Valley and Lenox. Creston Schools will be applying in October.
Teacher Advancement Program
East Union used the TLC grant money to begin a teacher leadership program called the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP). TAP, which is used by several schools across the nation, involves two “master teachers” — one at the elementary level and one at the middle-high school level — whose full-time job is to regularly observe and meet with teachers in individual and group settings. Under each master teacher are two “mentor teachers” who take 25 percent of their school day to also work with other teachers. Master or mentor teachers meet with each teacher in a one-on-one or group setting about once a week.
Jason Riley, who taught social studies last year and moved into the middle-high school master teacher role this fall, said as a teacher, he valued the increased opportunities for feedback and the exchange of strategies the new program encouraged.
“If I had a question or an idea, Gail (Thatcher, last year’s middle-high school master teacher) was there for me to bounce ideas off of,” Riley said. “Being able to see things I normally wouldn’t or getting resources I don’t normally have time to get — as a teacher that was kind of nice.”
Elementary master teacher Angel Sorden, now in her second year in that position, said she has also heard mostly positive feedback from elementary faculty.
“We’re seeing teachers be supported in the classroom, and we’re seeing an effect of that,” Sorden said. “(Wednesday) morning, the teacher I met with commented, ‘I feel that I’m a better teacher because of everything we did last year. I’m trying things that I wouldn’t normally try.’”
Year two goals
East Union’s administrators say the end goal of the program is to increase student achievement by using research-based teaching methods. As part of the program, East Union’s teachers are evaluated on how they use these methods in their classrooms.
“What we’re looking for are indicators,” said Joan Gordon, East Union’s elementary principal. “They’re just good, basic, strong, effective teaching practices, and they can apply to any grade level and any subject area.”
Last year, Gordon said, the elementary leadership team identified these practices and worked to make them routine. This year, she said the plan is to look closer at each grade level’s needs using student data and having teachers work together to address needs. Sorden said those mainly involve reading and math.
Mark Weis, East Union’s secondary principal, said the middle and high schools also spent most of last year putting the program and these roles into place.
“I think in that first year you can’t really think that it’s going to change things that quick, but I think it’s really started to identify and started teachers thinking about what areas do I need to improve on,” he said. “We saw a lot of teachers basically getting together, collaborating, talking about what quality instruction looks like, talking about what they need to do to improve.”
In the future, the success of the program will be measured by student test scores and teacher evaluations. Riley said the middle school has already seen gains in reading scores, although whether that is attributable to TAP is hard to tell this early.
Surrounding schools
The Nodaway Valley School District applied for the TLC grant last year and is introducing TAP at its school this fall. The school received more than $200,000 and has installed two master teachers and six mentor teachers.
Superintendent Casey Berlau said the school adopted the program based on teacher interest.
“We felt like it could help us provide what we think is a missing piece,” Berlau said. “There’s always that struggle of taking what we learn and work on in professional development and implementing it in the classroom, so the TLC grant allows us to implement a system that gives our teachers support.”
Berlau said as the program progresses, student achievement and classroom observation will be measurements of success.
The Creston School District is also currently applying for the TLC Grant, which Kevin Teno, Creston’s director of educational services, said would amount to about $440,000 for the district. Creston will use the money to help fund its current teacher leadership system and hire more master teachers.