State of Education in Tennessee Executive Summary – 2011-12 | Page 14

SECTION 1: Year-in-Revi ew

PROMISING PR AC TICES
Power Center Academy / Teacher support is critical at PCA
Power Center Academy gives new meaning to the phrase “teacher support.”

accountability in order to attract and retain top talent.
MCS also hopes to begin development of another
signature component of the TEI plan this year — design
and launch of a modern compensation structure to
further its efforts at attracting and retaining top talent.
Finally, a number of school districts in Tennessee moved
forward with alternative salary schedules for educators
that will reward teachers and principals for their ability
to increase student achievement levels. In January
2011, the Tennessee Department of Education awarded
Innovation Acceleration Fund grants to four school
systems to assist them in designing and implementing
alternative salary schedules. These grants were supplied
by First to the Top funds.16 This grant followed the
awarding of the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher
Incentive Fund (TIF) grant awarded to Tennessee in
2010. Work on alternative salary structures follows
a 2009 recommendation made by SCORE to fund
differentiated pay plans and to connect the new teacher
evaluation system to compensation decisions.
In total, more than 100 schools in 14 districts across
the state began implementing some form of strategic
compensation for educators in the 2011    2 school year,
–1
supported by federal, state, and local funding. Putnam
County Schools, for example, began implementation
of P.A.S.S. (Putnam’s Alternative Salary Schedule),
which offers bonus pay to educators for targeted
professional development, higher education content
courses and degrees, and mentor and master teacher
roles. Base pay acceleration is determined by teacher
evaluation scores. Teachers hired prior to June 30,
2011 may “opt-in” to P.A.S.S. or stay on the current
step and level pay system that provides salary increases
aligned with the number of years 6W'fVB