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P4430
ST. LOUIS BOARD OF EDUCATION POLICY PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN A. Purpose The Board of Education of the St. Louis Public Schools believes that professional employees should be acknowledged and rewarded for their contribution to student achievement. To that end, the Board establishes a Professional Accountability Plan. B. The Establishment of Goals and Standards for Schools The Superintendent shall identify specific “Annual Performance Standards” for each school in the district. These standards will reflect progress toward “Long Term Performance Goals,” also set by the Superintendent for each school. In setting these goals the Superintendent may take into account the length of time it will take individual schools to achieve the desired Long Term Performance Goals. The time may vary depending on the amount of improvement required to reach goals, the resources available to the school, and the teaming characteristics and needs of the students assigned to the school. The Goals and Standards shall be based on the factors listed below: • Student achievement on the MAP tests
Using data collected annually for each of these factors listed above, the Superintendent shall place schools into one of the following four categories: Category 1: Schools that have reached their Long Term Performance Goals and continue to maintain them. Category 2: Schools that have made significant progress toward their goals by successfully meeting their Annual Performance Standards. Category 3: Schools that fail to meet their Annual Performance Standards, but make progress. Category 4: Schools that make no progress toward their Annual Performance
Standards D. Sanctions The Superintendent shall identify the lowest performing schools in the district and designate them as “Schools of Opportunity.” These schools shall receive supplemental support to assist them in developing and implementing plans designed to improve achievement. To be removed from the list of Schools of Opportunity a school must meet its long term goal two years in a row. If satisfactory progress is not made in meeting Annual Performance Awards, Schools of Opportunity are subject to “reconstitution.” Reconstitution means that a principal, other administrators, and/or any or all certified staff may be reassigned or otherwise removed from the school. E. Rewards The schools and professional staff that meet their annual performance
standards and who reach their long term goals should be rewarded. To that
end, the Board establishes three types of accountability rewards.
In order to provide incentives to certified staff and schools that meet or exceed their Annual Performance Standards and who reach their Long Term Performance Goals, the Board creates School-Based Professional Accountability Awards. These are cash awards given to schools and the certified staff in these schools to recognize the efforts they have made to improve student achievement in the school. These awards are made for the year in which a school first reaches Category I status, as defined above. Schools and certified staff are also eligible for an award the first year in which they reach Category 2 status. Once a school reaches Category I or Category 2 status they shall continue to receive awards although in a lesser amount than that awarded in the year in which Category I or 2 status was first achieved. One half of the money awarded to schools that reach or maintain Category I or 2 status under this program shall go directly to certified staff in the school. (Principals are excluded from this plan; they are the focus of a separate Board Policy.) The other half will go to the school itself to be spent in a manner approved by a vote of the majority of the certified staff. This money may only be spent for expenses permitted by state law such as equipment, supplies or instructional materials. The certified staff may vote to share a portion of the money given to the school to non-certified district employees in the building who the certified staff believes have contributed to the overall effectiveness of the school. These awards may be provided to employees such as paraprofessionals, long term substitutes, clerical workers, food service workers and/or custodians. (No individual may be singled out for these awards; they must be given to all individuals within an employee category.) 2. INDIVIDUAL PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AWARDS Recognizing that individual teachers can make a unique contribute to
the achievement of students whether or not their school has met its Annual
Performance Standards or Long Term Performance Goals, the Professional
Accountability Plan makes provision for recognizing the accomplishments
of individual teachers regardless of the category in which their school
is placed. Participation is voluntary. These will be called Individual Professional Accountability Awards. Small groups of teachers who work together instructionally can apply as a team. To participate the teacher (or team of teachers) uses guidelines approved by the Superintendent to propose a plan that will demonstrate that his or her teaching effort substantially improves student achievement over one or more years. This plan must include provisions for the use of objective evaluation data to substantiate that the effort made by the teacher resulted in the targeted level of improvement in student achievement. Each plan must be approved by a committee appointed by the Superintendent. The committee shall include people with technical expertise in assessment and evaluation as well as teachers and administrators. Those teachers who successfully achieve the goals approved in their plan will receive a financial reward. The amount awarded to these teachers will be the same as the reward given to individual teachers under the first type of award, the School-Based Professional Accountability Award. All members of a small team of teachers succeeding at the level designated by an approved plan will receive the same award given to successful individual teachers who met their approved performance goals. 3. RECOGNITION OF NATIONALLY CERTIFIED TEACHERS In recognition of the value the Board places in teachers who have secured
certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards,
the Board directs the establishment of a modified Career Ladder Plan as
allowed by the actions of the State Board of Education on May 20, 1999.
This plan gives teachers the maximum annual amount of supplementary salary
allowed under the state policy that makes state funds available when matched
at a specified rate by the school district. A teacher is eligible for
this award so long as the teacher remains in district’s service,
continues to hold national certification and so long as the teacher continues
to effect satisfactory levels of student achievement. To receive the compensation
tied to this provision of the plan a teacher must continue in service
in the classroom.
The Board shall review this policy annually. Policy Adopted: February 08, 2000 |
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