Last week, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) announced the recipients of grants in Round 5 of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF). TIF grants give school districts the opportunity to collaborate with teachers, principals, and the community to develop innovative solutions for recruiting and retaining highly effective educators.
The following 13 organizations were selected from 74 applicants:
- , Cherry Valley, AK
- , Houston, TX
- , Baton Rouge, LA
- , Phoenix, AZ
- , Philadelphia, PA
- , Santa Monica, CA
- , New Orleans, LA
- , Greenville, NC
- , Edinburg, TX
- , San Antonio, TX
- , Ft. Lauderdale, FL
- , Dallas, TX
- Youth Empowerment Services, San Antonio, TX
TIF was launched in 2006 by then-Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, with the goal to encourage the education community and others to look at teacher and principal compensation in a different way. Round 1 (2007) and Round 2 (2008) together provided funding for 34 projects across 109 districts in 18 states. In 2010, TIF Round 3 awarded approximately $400 million to approximately 62 projects and TIF Round 4 (2012) awarded approximately $290 million to 35 organizations.
According to , 鈥淭he program has funded 131 projects to improve pay structures, reward effective teachers and principals, and provide greater professional opportunities to educators in high-poverty schools. The projects have served over 2,000 schools in more than 300 urban, suburban, and rural school districts in 36 states and Washington, D.C. based on the core premise that educators have the greatest impact on student learning across various in-school factors.鈥�
Congress also recognized the impact of TIF through passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) last December. The bill preserves the program under a new name, Teacher and School Leader Innovation Program. For those interested, more information on TIF can be found under Title II. Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High-Quality Teachers, Part B. National Activities, Subpart 1: Teacher and School Leader incentive Program ().
Over the past six years, my team and I have had the pleasure of working with districts and state education agencies to support TIF projects. We have seen these grants transform district human capital management systems (or HCMS) when implemented with teachers and building leaders! Congratulation to all the districts, states, and other organizations that were awarded TIF grants last week! I will watch for opportunities to share their progress with readers in the future.
about TIF.
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