Teachers in St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools will receive more than $340,000 in additional compensation for their performance during the 2017-18 school year.
The additional pay was made possible through the school district’s participation in LA BOLD, a federal Teacher Incentive Fund Grant awarded to the district in partnership with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) in 2016. While the first year focused on implementation, the second year added the compensation system.
“As part of the Teacher Incentive Fund grant from the USDOE and in partnership with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, schools in the St. John the Baptist Parish Public School District each received a check totaling the amount of performance-based compensation their teachers received for growth in student achievement and instructional improvements for the 2017-18 school year,” said NIET LA BOLD Project Executive Director Vicky Condalary.
As part of the grant, St. John has implemented TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement. Through TAP, educators in St. John are given powerful opportunities for professional growth and advancement, rigorous instructional evaluation and feedback and a multi-layered performance-based compensation system. NIET’s performance-based compensation system provides compensation for teacher leaders based on their additional roles in supporting teachers and offers all teachers and principals the opportunity to earn additional compensation based on multiple measures of performance, including competencies defined in evaluation rubrics, as well as student growth.
“What’s exciting about the partnership with NIET is the opportunity for teachers and school administrators to earn performance pay for growing students and their school,” St. John Superintendent Kevin George said. “It’s great to be able to tell a teacher, ‘Hey, you did an amazing job improving student outcomes and here’s a check to show our appreciation.’ The expanded teacher leadership opportunities, the collaborative structures and the laser-like focus on instructional practices make this a huge win for our district.”
As a result of their hard work in the 2017-18 school year, teachers and school administrators in St. John will receive this additional compensation based on their performance in the classroom, their students’ achievement gains and the entire school’s achievement growth. The payout for classroom teachers and school-based leadership teams in all 10 schools amounts to $341,513.
“The TAP process has enhanced our teachers' reflective practices and ensures that we keep a sharp focus on the needs our students within St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools,” said Angela Davis, executive master teacher for the district. “Teachers receive consistent support with guiding their instructional practices to meet the expectations of standards. We receive daily awards from this process as we watch students growing within classrooms across the district.”