Technical Assistance for Teacher Incentive Grants Funded under the ARRA

Many performance incentive systems include observations of teacher practices as part of a balanced approach to determining teacher effectiveness. Many organizations in both the private and public sectors use observations or evaluations of employee practice along with (or instead of) measures of performance based on outcomes. Although not as easily quantifiable as test scores, these performance evaluations reflect the judgment of an evaluator or set of evaluators against a set of standards.

In the realm of teacher evaluation, they often include teacher behaviors and attitudes, as well as elicited student behaviors, as the evidence base for making a rating of performance. They also frequently use rating scales that attempt to capture the range of performance on a set of pre-defined performance quality dimensions.

This project provides technical assistance through a two tiered and 3 phase approach. The Technical Assistance Team includes Core Staff (Tier 1 assigned to 6-10 Grantees as primary contact) and Content Experts (Tier 2 assigned to work with grantees in particular areas of need). The Core Staff collaboratives with the grant Monitors in a 3 Phase Approach (Needs Assessment, Active Technical Assistance Outreach, and Content Specific Seminars).

During the startup phase we will engage in an intensive analysis of all proposals and supporting documents to assess the ranges of needs and establish a hierarchy of need to target assistance rationally. We will assign technical assistance resources to grantees and catalog the services provided and document grantee responses to TA.

We will institute a quarterly review of TA results and changes grantee needs to reassess the alignment of technical assistance to those needs. The third phase of technical assistance will include the delivery of training sessions that address common needs–communication strategies, evaluation techniques, measurement instrument development, etc.