FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Frank San Felice
Tel: 212-302-8800
Email: [email protected]
U.S. Department of Education Awards $21 Million
to Support Teachers and Principals at independent Charter Schools
New York, NY, September 27, 2012 – The Center for Educational Innovation—Public Education Association (CEI-PEA) has been awarded two Teacher Incentive Fund grants by the U.S. Department of Education to implement the Partnership for Innovation in Compensation for Charter Schools (PICCS) project with public charter schools in New York City and across the state of New Jersey. The five-year grants will be used to help schools establish a comprehensive human capital management system that includes performance-based compensation. CEI-PEA’s Teacher Incentive Fund grants are two of only 35 Teacher Incentive Fund grants awarded by the Department of Education from a pool of more than 120 applications.
PICCS is an established school improvement model that makes rigorous teacher and school leader evaluation the driving force in determining a range of human capital management decisions, including professional development, mentoring, promotion and performance-based compensation. The PICCS model was first implemented in 10 New York City public charter schools in 2007 and expanded to 13 additional public charter schools in New York City and Buffalo, NY in 2010. Each PICCS project has been funded by a Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant.
The partnerships funded through the 2012 TIF grant are named “PICCS4NYC” and “PICCS4NJ.” Both grant programs will be managed by CEI-PEA, in coordination with the partner schools. The six schools that comprise the PICCS4NYC partnership are the Imagine Me Charter School, Inwood Academy for Leadership, John W. Lavelle Preparatory Charter School, La Cima Charter School, New Dawn Charter High School and Tech International Charter School. The five schools that comprise the PICCS4NJ partnership are the Academy for Urban Leadership Charter School, Charter Tech High School for Performing Arts, Millville Public Charter School, Oceanside Charter School and Vineland Public Charter School. The schools currently enroll a total of 2,832 students in grades K-12 and will enroll approximately 4,800 students by the close of the grant period. The schools currently have 357 staff members who will take part in the initiative. By the end of the grant period, the number of staff will rise to approximately 576. All of the participating schools are independent charter schools, and are not affiliated with a Charter Management Organization.
Through the grants, each public charter school will institute a human capital management system centered upon performance evaluations that include multiple measures of effectiveness. The evaluation system was developed in partnership with the participating schools and includes student growth as well as professional performance rubrics to assess educator effectiveness. Annually, teachers and school leaders will engage in the evaluation program and those who earn a rating of “effective” or “highly effective” will be eligible for salary increases as well as other forms of professional reward and recognition.
Sy Fliegel, President of CEI-PEA, notes the significance of the grant award and the PICCS project: “The PICCS initiative helps schools realize one of the main goals of the charter school movement: provide educators with autonomy in exchange for real accountability. The teachers and school leaders at the participating schools are embracing personal accountability for the education of their students by rigorously evaluating their own effectiveness. In exchange, these educators are able to gain significant rewards both in the form of monetary compensation as well as a wealth of professional support and prestige. CEI-PEA is proud to be partnering with these educators who are willing to be personally accountable for the success of their students.”
The Center for Educational Innovation – Public Education Association (CEI-PEA) is a nonprofit organization that creates successful public schools and educational programs. For more information about CEI-PEA and its programs go to www.cei-pea.org.
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