Press Advisory

ADVISORY: Reforming Teacher Compensation

What Can We Learn from Recent Programs?

Featured Panelists:

Joan Baratz-Snowden, President, Education Study Center

Robin Chait, Senior Education Policy Analyst, Center for American Progress

Stacey Hunt, Teacher Advancement Program Manager, Chicago Public Schools

Brad Jupp, Senior Academic Policy Advisor, Denver Public Schools

Moderated by: Cynthia G. Brown, Director of Education Policy, Center for American Progress

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There is growing recognition that the way we compensate teachers isn’t helping states and districts attract or retain effective teachers, particularly in struggling schools. Over the last couple of years, policy makers have responded by implementing a number of alternative compensation strategies, including pay for performance. What can we learn from these recent efforts to inform future policies and programs? What are the key elements of promising programs?

Join us for a lively discussion of two new papers from the Center for American Progress about effective strategies for reforming teacher compensation. The first by Joan Baratz-Snowden looks at the factors driving the adoption of performance pay programs as well as the elements of the Denver school system’s successful effort to implement a radically different pay plan which was created with the full cooperation and involvement of the local union. The second by Robin Chait examines recent developments in state programs to reform teacher pay. This event will feature comments from experts who have been intimately involved in policy development and implementation of local teacher compensation programs.

Monday, November 05, 2007 Program: 9:00am to 10:30am Admission is free.

A light breakfast will be served at 8:30 a.m.

Center for American Progress 1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor Washington, DC 20005 Map & Directions

Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center

Biographies

Joan Baratz-Snowden is president of the Education Study Center, an organization devoted to helping organizations and institutions develop policies and implement practices that improve the equal educational opportunities of poor and minority students. Prior to directing the Education Study Center, she was the Director of the Educational Issues Department of the American Federation of Teachers, where she managed a staff of 35 and a multimillion dollar budget and was responsible for moving professional issues in the field and helping affiliates understand the complexity of education reform and the roles that the union can play in improving schools and student achievement. Prior to her work at the AFT, Baratz-Snowden was Vice President for Assessment and Vice President for Education Policy and Reform at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. She has also served as the Director of the Policy Information Center at the Educational Testing Service and the Director of the Education Policy Research Institute program on testing.

Robin Chait is a Senior Education Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress. Prior to this position she worked as an independent consultant with Practical Strategy, LLC, Education Policy and Management Consulting to provide on-site assistance to the National High School Alliance. She has also worked with Cross & Joftus, LLC, providing research support to the National Governors Association, Holland and Knight, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on a number of projects. A former third-grade and high school reading teacher, Chait also served as a Program Analyst in the U.S. Department of Education’s Planning and Evaluation Service, where she designed and managed several evaluations of federal education programs and wrote sections of the congressionally mandated National Assessment of Title I reports and other Department of Education-issued reports.

Dr. Stacey Y.S. Hunt is the Teacher Advancement Program Manager in the office of Recognizing Excellence for Academic Leadership for Chicago Public Schools. Dr. Hunt’s primary responsibilities for REAL are to provide ongoing professional development, training, coaching, and mentoring to school leadership teams and to monitor implementation of the TAP. Dr. Hunt has been an educator for over 15 years and has worked in a number of school districts outside of Chicago. Her experiences include: middle school building principal, elementary school building principal, middle school assistant principal, middle school dean, and a teacher of American Literature and Language Arts for grades 6-12.

Brad Jupp is Senior Academic Policy Advisor to Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet. Before taking that position, Jupp worked for 19 years as a teacher and an activist in Denver’s teacher union, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. From 1999 to 2005, he led the joint district/union effort to develop and implement Denver’s Professional Compensation System for Teachers. ProComp is a nationally recognized, path-clearing effort to reform the way teachers are paid so that their earnings are based, in part, on the performance of the students they teach. In his most recent classroom assignment, Jupp held his dream job as lead teacher at the Alternative Middle School of the DPS Contemporary Learning Academy. There, he worked with at-risk sixth, seventh and eighth graders. From 1989 to 2002, he volunteered as a member of the negotiations Team for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. He has been a teacher in the Denver Public Schools since 1987.

Cynthia G. Brown is Director of Education Policy and served as Director of Renewing our Schools, Securing our Future National Task Force on Public Education, a joint initiative of the Center and the Institute for America’s Future. Cindy has spent over 35 years working in a variety of professional positions addressing high-quality, equitable public education. Prior to joining the Center for American Progress, she was an independent education consultant who advised and wrote for local and state school systems, education associations, foundations, nonprofit organizations, and a corporation. From 1986 through September 2001, Brown served as Director of the Resource Center on Educational Equity of the Council of Chief State School Officers. She was appointed by President Carter as the first Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education (1980) and prior to that position served as Principal Deputy of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s Office for Civil Rights. Subsequent to this government service, she was Co-Director of the nonprofit Equality Center, worked for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law, the Children’s Defense Fund, and began her career in the HEW Office for Civil Rights as an investigator.