Frequently Asked Questions
Measuring and rewarding teacher excellence is complex and, potentially, a politically charged issue. We are committed to sharing information in a thorough and clear manner. Here are some frequently asked questions about this program. We will continue to update this FAQ as new questions are posed. If you have a question that is not answered below, please feel free to send an e-mail to peak@fwisd.org.
What is the PEAK Rewards Program?
PEAK stands for Public Educators Accelerating Kids. It’s a pilot program to provide financial rewards and incentives for Fort Worth ISD educators who show exceptional ability to improve student achievement growth.
What is being piloted?
This pilot program will take advantage of an opportunity to provide incentives and rewards in recognition of excellent teams and educators for their ability to accelerate student success.
What are the criteria for picking schools?
We looked at criteria in two ways. As we chose the PEAK incentive and rewards schools, we looked for a history of poor academic performance, demographics, unequal distribution of experienced teachers and a trend of high teacher turnover.
As we chose the PEAK rewards schools, we again looked at trends indicating a past performance of low levels of academic achievement but had recently shown momentum in improvement. We acknowledge there are many schools that fit these criteria. However, given one of our guiding principles to start small, we focused on our most critical needs schools for the pilot.
When will this pilot initiative be implemented in the Fort Worth ISD?
If all goes according to plan, the pilot will commence with the 2008-2009 school year. There’s been
task force working on this effort to develop a draft design and approach.
Who is involved in developing this idea?
We’ve assembled a task force that includes teachers, principals, administrators, and representatives of the UEA, FWEA and others.
We would like to continue to solicit feedback and design ideas in a variety of ways. There are several information sessions scheduled, and all comments and questions are welcomed to peak@fwisd.org.
Why is this being approached as a team concept?
“Teaching is a team sport,” says Dr. Melody Johnson. “In fact, my basic philosophy is that teachers must work together in order to find the greatest success.” Many of the District’s investments over the last few years have been focused on this idea – from academic teaming at the secondary level, lead content teachers and cluster coaches to the IFL principles of learning. As one of the guiding principles indicate, “Our students will benefit the most when teachers are supported, enabled and recognized for their ability to effectively collaborate, coach and grow in their craft.” We believe that is true and thus our focus is on rewarding excellent teams of educators.
Which schools will participate?
As this is a pilot program, we wanted to start small and potentially evolve the program as we learn what works. There will be two types of pilots:
- Piloting incentives to attract high quality teachers to some of our hard to staff schools. These schools will also be a part of the pilot for rewards program.
- Piloting a set of schools that only participate in the rewards program.
Although the list of pilot schools has not been confirmed, our initial plan is to include 10-15 campuses across these two types of pilots. Criteria have been determined for a potential list of schools for each pilot type and final selections will be made from there.
What criteria will be used to select campuses?
We will choose schools where it is critically important to accelerate student academic growth.
Will a teacher at an identified potential pilot school have to participate?
We want everyone to have a voice in this process. We will have an “opt in” vote at campuses selected as pilots.
How will this initiative be funded?
The initiative is being funded through the DATE grant, a state funded $147.5M program that will reward some Texas teachers who work in the most challenging situations. Participating school districts will split the money. As of this writing, about half of the state’s school districts have decided to participate. However, all of the large districts, including the big urban districts, have expressed a desire to take part.
Will the TEEG and GEEG grant money be redirected to this project?
No. Most of the TEEG and GEEG programs are already under way (TEEG Cycles 1 and 2 and GEEG). Those are existing campus based initiatives, and they will continue independent of the PEAK program.
There is one campus based TEEG grant program, which is currently under development at ten campuses in Fort Worth ISD for the 2008-09 school year (TEEG Cycle 3). Those schools participating, if they wish, may use components of the PEAK program, but they are not required to.
What does “value-added” at the campus level mean?
In this pilot program, aggregated individual student scores will provide a measure of campus and/or team growth and all of the teachers at individual campuses may share in the reward to some degree.