Supporting Effective Teaching in Tennessee: Executive Summary | Page 48

profit, works closely with school districts to design programs to
address their staffing needs. In 2004, TNTP began working
with Memphis City Schools to implement an earlier hiring
timeline and capture top teaching applicants. In 2006, TNTP
launched the Memphis Teaching Fellows, which aggressively
recruits, selects and trains accomplished career changers and
recent graduates to teach in shortage subject areas. After an
intensive summer pre-service training, Fellows teach full-time
while they complete certification coursework. In the past two
years, the Fellows program has attracted over 1,600 applicants
and produced 62 teachers with an average GPA of 3.25. In
2007, TNTP launched a Model Staffing Initiative (MSI) in
Memphis to provide intensive staffing support to the district’s
20 lowest-performing schools. In 2008, TNTP channeled 278
high quality teacher applicants to MSI schools, an average of
14 candidates per vacancy. Based on its success in Memphis,
TNTP is launching both a Teaching Fellows Program and
Model Staffing Initiative in Nashville in 2009. The first cohort
of 75-100 Nashville Teaching Fellows will begin teaching in
Fall 2009.

Distinguished Professionals Education Initiative
Knox County Public Schools
The Distinguished Professionals Education Initiative (DPEI)
seeks to address the need for highly qualified math, science,
and foreign language teachers by recruiting professionals from
these fields to teach these courses as “adjunct” high school
teachers. Founded in 2005 by the Public School Forum of East
Tennessee, Pro2Service Professional Project Services and Knox
County Schools, DPEI recruits, trains, mentors, and licenses
experts from these specialty fields and places them in part-time,
adjunct teaching positions. DPEI teachers continue to work in
their profession while teaching part-time. All DPEI teachers
must have a master’s or bachelor’s in the field they want to teach,
at least ten years of work experience in the field, and complete
50 hours of pre-service online training. DPEI teachers currently
serve as instructors for 31 courses in Knox County Schools and
local principals have identified at least 60 additional courses
that could benefit from future DPEI teachers.

Talent Transfer Initiative
Knox County Public Schools
Knox County Public Schools’ Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI)
incentivizes top-performing teachers to teach in some of the
district’s lowest-performing schools. Funded by a federal grant,
Knox County’s TTI program recruits some of the district’s
most effective teachers, as measured by TVAAS teacher effect
scores, and provides them a $20,000 bonus over two years

if they are willing to move and teach in one of the district’s
lowest-performing schools.95

Benwood Initiative
Hamilton County Public Schools
Launched n 2001, the Benwood Initiative focuses on improving
student achievement through teacher professional development
and principal leadership development. Initially funded by a $5
million grant from the Benwood Foundation and a $2.5 million
grant from the Public Education Foundation, the initiative
initially targeted the eight lowest-performing elementary schools
in Hamilton County. When the program was launched in 2002,
the superintendent required that every teacher at one of these
eight schools reapply for their job. A comprehensive incentive
package including financial bonuses, reduced mortgage loans,
and a tuition-free master’s degree were offered to recruit,
motivate, and retain highly qualified teachers in these schools.
Teachers in these schools were also provided intensive oneon-one and group professional development. Teachers whose
students significantly increased their TVAAS scores were given
additional compensation. Student achievement dramatically
increased, with the percent of students scoring proficient or
advanced on the TCAP increasing by 25 percentage points
in reading and 34 percentage points in math between 2003
and 2008. Moved by these results, the Benwood Foundation
and Public Education Foundation are currently expanding the
program to eight additional schools.

Teacher Advancement Program
Knox County Public Schools
In collaboration with the Great Schools Partnership, Knox
County Public Schools piloted the nationally renowned
Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in three of its schools in
2006. TAP aims to improve student achievement by focusing
on teacher professional development. The TAP program has
four components: multiple career paths; ongoing, applied
professional growth; instructionally focused accountability; and
performance-based compensation. TAP schools create positions
of me ntor and master teachers, who observe and evaluate their
colleagues and hold them accountable for results. Mentor and
master teachers receive annual stipends of $2,500 and $6,000
respectively. To encourage professional growth, TAP requires
teachers from the same grade level or subject to hold weekly
collaborative planning meetings. Teachers can earn bonuses
of up to $3,500 a year based on their performance, which is
determined by a combination of their supervisor’s evaluation,
their individual classroom student achievement gains, and their
school-wide student achievement gains.96

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