The 2008 TAP brochure offers information about TAP’s goals, elements and proven results in raising student achievement across a diverse set of urban, suburban and rural schools throughout the country. It also provides ways in which individuals, foundations and corporations can partner with TAP to help expand and sustain the program.

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The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) and fellow members of the Working Group on Teacher Quality held a roundtable discussion with policymakers, researchers and practitioners with expertise in value-added analysis of student achievement. The purpose of the discussion was to create a broader understanding of how value-added analysis of student achievement can be used as an indicator of teacher effectiveness, and the implications this has for policy and practice. This document presents a summary of the roundtable's major themes, findings and lessons learned. This project was funded with support from the Joyce Foundation and coordinated by NIET.

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The purpose of this evaluation paper is to analyze the impacts of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP). The evaluation is multifaceted, first comparing student achievement gains of individual teachers and schools to similar, non-TAP teachers and schools, next comparing adequate yearly progress (AYP) of TAP schools to their states overall, and third, examining the attitudes of TAP teachers to the attitudes of teachers in general. The paper concludes that TAP teachers and TAP schools have demonstrated higher achievement growth than controls, have meaningful AYP results, and positive teacher attitudes.

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This tri-fold brochure highlights the key elements, results and support of the Teacher Advancement Program.

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This document reflects the findings of the Working Group on Teacher Quality, whose participants share information and build consensus among organizations and experts active on the issue of performance pay and teacher compensation reform.

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This document provides an introduction and overview of the Teacher Advancement Program. It includes some passages from previous publications that speak to fundamental concepts on which TAP was established. The document also reaffirms the underlying ideals and rationale for TAP, and addresses new issues that have arisen over the life of the program. This publication provides a description of the TAP implementation process and includes Stories from the Field that offers real life descriptions of how TAP is making a difference in schools across the country.

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The current issue explores President Bush's proposed Teacher Incentive Fund (page 1) and takes a look at ongoing applied professional growth and performance-based compensation, two of TAP's four elements, in practice (see pages 6-8). Also check out "Governors Support Performance Pay for Teachers" on page 9 for a look at which of our nation's governors are calling for alternate ways of compensating teachers.

For additional issues of What's on TAP, click here.

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PLEASE NOTE: This publication is not available for free download. You may purchase this publication at www.infoagepub.com/www/products/
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Improving Student Achievement: Reforms that Work expands on the first volume in the Milken Family Foundation series on education policy, Talented Teachers: The Essential Force for Improving Student Achievement. The series explains to policymakers, parents, business leaders, and teachers the importance of teacher quality in increasing student achievement. This volume is based primarily on the proceedings from the 2004 Milken National Education Conference (NEC), which was held in Washington, D.C., in May 2004.

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PLEASE NOTE: Only one chapter of this publication is available for free download. To purchase the entire book, go to www.infoagepub.com/www/
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This highly influential group of scholars and policy makers explain to parents, business leaders, and teachers themselves the importance of talented teachers in increasing student achievement. The volume is based on the proceedings of the 2003 Milken National Education Conference (NEC), which was held in Los Angeles in May 2003.

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This paper summarizes the results from the 2006 Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) Principal Survey. The survey asks principals to report on how TAP has impacted their school as well as how effectively the different elements of the program are implemented in their building. The report highlights some of the survey results as well as gives insight into the effects that TAP has on statistical data such as attendance rates, turnover and quality of new hires.

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This paper summarizes the results from the 2007 Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) Principal Survey. The survey asks principals to report on how TAP has impacted their school as well as how effectively the different elements of the program are implemented in their buildings. The report highlights some of the survey results as well as gives insight into the effects that TAP has on statistical data such as attendance rates, turnover and quality of new hires.

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This paper is the most recent report summarizing our ongoing study of teacher attitudes and satisfaction with the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP). This paper reports on both results from the 2005 teacher attitudinal survey, as well as a look at teachers' opinions about TAP over time. Both the 2005 results as well as the longitudinal data reveal that in general TAP teachers accept and support the program and continue to do so over time.

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This study examines the preliminary impact of the Milken Family Foundation's Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) on student achievement and teacher attitudes in Arizona and South Carolina schools.

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This report summarizes a study of teacher attitudes and satisfaction with the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP). The results reveal continued support for most TAP concepts. In particular, over two years of TAP implementation, teachers have indicated growth in their levels of collegial support.

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This study analyzes the growth in achievement of Arizona students whose schools implemented the Milken Family Foundation's Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) compared to the growth in achievement of students from similar schools. In addition, this study analyzes the effects that TAP has had on teacher attitudes and satisfaction.

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This statistical paper by Yeow Meng Thum, assistant professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, develops a procedure for measuring value-added at the school, grade, and teacher levels in a pre-test and post-test situation.

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This publication acquaints the stakeholders in K-12 education with the principles, progress and potential of the Teacher Advancement Program, a comprehensive, business-oriented system with five interrelated principles: multiple career paths; market-driven compensation; performance-based accountability; ongoing applied professional growth; and expanding the supply of high quality teachers.

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This report by Dr. John Schacter, senior research associate at the Milken Family Foundation, examines why state-level efforts to measure teacher performance have proved "woefully inadequate" and outlines a system for performance-based accountability that serves as one of the five principles of the Teacher Advancement Program.

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This study, supported by the Milken Family Foundation in connection with its ongoing teacher quality efforts, links student achievement in mathematics and science to three aspects of teacher quality: (1) teacher inputs such as education levels, (2) professional development, and (3) classroom practices. The study finds that classroom practices matter most.

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We believe that new compensation methods are not only feasible, but necessary, in order to attract the best and the brightest into the teaching profession, keep the most effective of these in teaching, and motivate all teachers. This paper compiles and analyzes the current and historical criticisms of performance-based compensation in K-12 education. Our analysis utilizes comments from a group of Milken Educator Award recipients who were asked to tell us what they believe, or what they have heard others say are the problems with performance-based compensation.

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In this issue we introduce the four updated elements of TAP: multiple career paths, ongoing applied professional growth, instructionally focused accountability and performance-based compensation. There is also an article examining the TAP program review process (see page 3) and a chance for readers to learn about one state's experience with legislating for a pay-for-performance system (see page 9).

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This is a special compilation issue of articles from the first volume of What's On TAP in addition to several new stories. This issue is intended to give readers a general understanding of the Teacher Advancement Program.

Further, this issue discusses multiple career paths for teachers, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and includes select articles from the first volume of What's On TAP to help readers gain a general understanding of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP). Be sure to check out pages 12-14 to learn about the "Places that are TAPped in" and how TAP has been spreading across the nation.

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We have entered an age of increased accountability in education. This issue explores how we arrived at where we are (see "The Yellow Brick Road to Accountability" on page 1), the some of the different measures of accountability that exist in education (see page 3) and how accountability is a major tenet of the Teacher Advancement Program.

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This issue focuses on TAP's teacher professional development. We examine what are the characteristics of effective professional development (see page 3) and highlight the ongoing, applied professional growth that is a part of TAP. For real life examples of just powerful coaching and collaboration can be for teachers check out page 10.

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This is the inaugural issue of What's On TAP. This newsletter is meant to offer readers an in-depth look at issues affecting teacher quality and offer practical solutions for education reform. This publication will also update readers on the progress and success of the Teacher Advancement Program (see article on page 2 for an explanation of TAP). The newsletter will feature regular commentary from Lewis Solmon, director of TAP, as well as contributions on a variety of topics from other MFF researchers and those in the field. Each issue will focus on a relevant theme, pay for performance being the first.

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