The Teacher Advancement Program was started by the Milken Family Foundation as a model to help school districts attract, retain, and reward high quality teachers, while keeping them in the classroom where they have the most direct impact on student achievement. Today, TAP is being used in over 180 schools, impacting over 60,000 students.
TAP focuses on recruiting, training, and retaining high quality educators by providing professional compensation system.
Operated by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET), TAP consists of four major elements, which when implemented together, lead to greater results for students. Multiple career paths provide teachers with ways to advance in their careers by becoming master and mentor teachers, without having to leave the classroom. Ongoing and applied professional development gives teachers consistent time to collaborate on developing teaching strategies to meet their professional needs and increase student achievement. Instructionally focused accountability and performance based compensation marry a teacher evaluation program that assesses skills, knowledge, and responsibilities, as well as student academic growth, with a system that rewards teachers for their classroom performance, and student’s achievement. It also serves to encourages school districts to offer incentives for hard to staff schools and subjects.
Since it began in 1999, TAP has been expanded to school districts in 13 states and five charter schools, and is being used by over 5000 teachers. TAP schools consistently report higher levels of collaboration between teachers then those in non-TAP schools. According to state data for all states implementing TAP, teachers in TAP schools outperformed teachers in non-TAP schools in producing an average year’s growth or more for their students. TAP schools outperformed non-TAP schools in producing growth in both reading and math.
Pam Wells, a Master Teacher from Indianapolis, Indiana said, "I am a veteran teacher and before TAP I had been wondering whether I wanted to continue teaching. Becoming a mentor teacher gave me a leadership role in my school without going into administration completely. I am still involved with my students, which I love, but I have the added reward of collaboration and leadership. I believe it has truly extended my teaching career."
Vision 2015 recommends:
National Institute for Excellence in Teaching website: www.talentedteachers.org