The district will submit applications for the TIF and i3 grants

Contact: Laurie Hogan (336) 370-8307
Created: 6/25/2010 9:53:14 AM

Guilford County Schools (GCS) will have the opportunity to address several of its Strategic Plan goals if the district is awarded more than $17 million in federal grant funding.

The Guilford County Board of Education approved Thursday for the district to submit applications for the Teacher Incentive Fund III (TIF) and Investing in Innovation (i3) grants. If received, both grants would help GCS recruit and retain teachers and administrators for hard-to-staff schools, put a strategic compensation plan in place and provide professional development opportunities for staff.

The TIF grant would provide $12.25 million to GCS to support the strategic compensation plan approved by the board in March. The plan is scheduled to take effect in August 2011 and will provide both individual teacher incentives and school-wide employee incentives to schools in the program.

The federal funding for the district's current incentive program, Mission Possible, expires after the 2010-11 school year. The TIF grant would fund the new strategic compensation plan in 10 elementary and middle schools that have a high teacher turnover rate and a historically low performance composite on end-of-grade tests. The schools cannot be participants in the Mission Possible program, which currently serves 30 schools.

Since the launch of Mission Possible in 2006, research has shown reductions in teacher turnover and improvements in schools meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals. On the first day of school for the past three years, 100 percent of the Mission Possible positions have been filled. For the 2008-09 school year, the attrition rate for Mission Possible schools was 11.7 percent and was lower than the district's overall rate of 12.8 percent. Also, the AYP goals achieved by Mission Possible schools increased by 18.5 percentage points and by 11.8 percentage points across GCS.

The i3 grant will provide $5 million in support of nine Strategic Plan goals if it is received. The resources of the grant would be directed at the recruitment, retention and development of employees that are effective in improving student achievement. It would support upgraded human resources technology that could provide analysis of teacher effectiveness data, and it would provide funding for additional recruitment, induction and professional development staff.

"The Strategic Plan calls for staff to put strategies in place that will lead to increases in student achievement, and educators are the greatest factor impacting student success," said Dr. Amy Holcombe, executive director of talent development. "At least 80 percent of our budget is devoted to people. An investment in educators is an investment in our students."

The i3 grant will provide $5 million in support of nine Strategic Plan goals if it is received. The resources of the grant would be directed at the recruitment, retention and development of employees that are effective in improving student achievement. It would support upgraded human resources technology that could provide analysis of teacher effectiveness data, and it would provide funding for additional recruitment, induction and professional development staff.

"The Strategic Plan calls for staff to put strategies in place that will lead to increases in student achievement, and educators are the greatest factor impacting student success," said Dr. Amy Holcombe, executive director of talent development. "At least 80 percent of our budget is devoted to people. An investment in educators is an investment in our students."