Teachers at an elementary school in Richardson ISD are singing the praises of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), a program that provides the opportunity for teachers to advance in the profession and focuses on improving student achievement. Teachers believe the program has saved their school.
Five years ago, Richardson ISD’s Audelia Creek Elementary School was in deep trouble. Today, the school boasts some of the district’s highest test scores. Retention levels show that teachers want to teach at Audelia Creek. What happened? District and school officials say part of the answer is TAP, a national teacher evaluation and training system that includes annual cash bonuses for high-performing teachers.
TAP began in Texas with three pilot schools including Audelia Creek in Richardson ISD. There are now 36 additional schools across nine Texas school districts using TAP.
TAP is touted as an effective way to turn troubled schools around at every level but its own data shows a greater effect at the lower grades. While it’s generally effective, TAP isn’t free. Extra staff, annual bonuses, and other TAP-specific expenses run about $1.2 million a year for the three Richardson ISD schools. Most of that is covered by grants, but those grants run out in another two years. The district has not expanded the program yet due to concerns about the availability of funds in the future.
Richardson’s three schools have all improved since TAP was introduced. Changes have been most dramatic at Audelia Creek, where 85 percent of students are classified as economically disadvantaged. Since 2004, TAKS scores have gone from 19 percent of the economically disadvantaged fifth-graders passing science to 88 percent in 2009. The campus went from a Texas accountability rating of “Academically Acceptable” to “Exemplary” in just four years.
The year before Audelia Creek brought in TAP, about 36 percent of the staff resigned. Last year, only 7 percent of the staff quit. Principals in Texas TAP schools report that the system has had a positive impact on teacher recruitment by attracting more and better qualified applicants to their schools. TAP is also credited with decreasing teacher turnover by retaining more effective teachers and drawing more qualified candidates to fill vacancies.
Most school districts use a teacher evaluation system similar to what Richardson uses in its non-TAP schools—the Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS). TAP schools use a different evaluation model in which school administrators evaluate every teacher on a five-point scale across 19 specific categories. Nationally, TAP evaluations look more like a bell curve, in contrast to PDAS, where a few teachers are judged unsatisfactory, a few more are judged exemplary, but the vast majority are judged proficient.
Those more meaningful evaluations—along with individual staff development goals—are combined with data about student performance both in the teacher’s own classroom and in the entire school. Teachers who do well are eligible for a cash bonus at the end of each school year. For Richardson ISD, most of their TAP teachers earned an extra $2,800 last year.
The money isn’t life-changing, Audelia Creek Principal Mike Savage acknowledged. But it’s a significant sign of respect and recognition that the teacher is doing extra work at an unusually challenging school, he said.
Teachers who have bought in to the extra work required with TAP are often solid backers of the program. Annie O’Kelly has been a teacher for 25 years. She spent four years teaching at a TAP school in Louisiana and looked for another TAP school when she moved to North Texas two years ago. “It’s the best teaching model I have ever seen,” she said. “But it’s not for the faint-hearted.” Specifically tailored weekly instruction, plus assigned group collaboration and regular inspection from master teachers, is not generally found in non-TAP schools, said Savage.
In March at the TAP Conference in Washington, D.C., TAP founder Lowell Milken surprised Savage and his staff by presenting them with the prestigious TAP Founder’s Award from the California-based National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, the organization that administers TAP. Presenting a $50,000 check that accompanies the award to Audelia Creek Elementary, Milken said, “Principal Mike Savage and his team have created a culture of excellence that has inspired everyone to reach new heights.”
—“Richardson ISD school’s test scores soar with Teacher Advancement Program,” by Jeffrey Weiss, The Dallas Morning News, April 22, 2010.
