TVMS Excluded From Teacher Performance Grants
The first distribution of teacher performance grants from the State of Indiana was distributed last week to more than 1,300 schools with more than $30 million given to reward “high-performing” teachers. Locally, nearly all schools received grants to disperse as bonuses to teachers with only Wawawsee School Corporation (see related) and Tippecanoe Valley Middle School unable to receive the award.
According to Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation Superintendent Dr. Brett Boggs, TVMS was reportedly not able to be awarded money for teachers rating as effective or high-effective due to a low A-F Accountability grade received by the school as a whole (see related)
The school corporation as a whole received a C accountability grade from the IDOE for the second year in a row. The corporation received a cumulative GPA of 2.47/4.0. Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation saw an equal amount of improvements and declines on this year’s report card. Tippecanoe Valley High School declined from a B grade last year to a C grade this year. The high school received a 2.43 score. Akron Elementary saw no change in last year’s score, reporting a C grade. Mentone Elementary also saw no change, reporting a B grade again this year.
Tippecanoe Middle School, which was given an F grade in 2012-2013 and also placed in the school improvement status by the state, received a D grade this year. The middle school received a 1.5 score.
Though TVMS did improve by a letter grade, the improvement was not enough to qualify the school for bonuses for teachers rating as “effective” or “highly effective.” Although the school itself did not qualify directly for bonuses, it is still possible that money given to the corporation may be able to be distributed to individual teachers at the middle school who ranked in the top two effectiveness tiers.
“The way this is being handled by the IDOE is a little confusing,” explained Boggs. “We knew they were sending us this money but didn’t know how much it was going to be. We knew what it was going to be based on, but didn’t know how it was going to be distributed. Right now there are a lot different questions being asked. I think ISTA (Indiana State Teachers Association) is going to get pretty involved.”
Boggs noted that the corporation is currently awaiting word from the IDOE on how bonus funds must be distributed before beginning to give out the funds to teachers within qualifying schools in the district.
“We don’t want to distribute money to teachers before we find out how state wants it to be distributed,” noted Boggs. “We are holding fast.”
Boggs noted that he expects to hear back from the IDOE on how funds must be distributed within the next few weeks.