Role Group Strategies

Community
Engage policymakers in conversations related to the importance of creating opportunities for advancement within the teaching profession.  Advocate for models such as the Teacher Advancement Program, the Douglas County (CO) Outstanding Teacher Program and the Rochester (NY) Career in Teaching Program.

		Outstanding Teacher Program Douglas County School System http://www1.dcsdk12.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/DCSD.woa/10/wa/staticPage? wosid=YHatM8nNWmkq3v1tWQDrXg&pageName=hr_lic_PerfPay The Douglas County School System, just outside of Denver, Colorado, was one of the first school systems in America to adopt a pay for performance plan in the recent wave of school reform.  This website outlines the pay for performance plan and describes the district's Outstanding Teacher Program, in which teachers create portfolios documenting their accomplishments in the classroom.  The detailed descriptions of these portfolios provide schools and communities with adaptable tools to use to improve their own teacher evaluation systems.
		District Profile:  A Commitment to Craft, Rochester (N.Y.) City School District Career in Teaching Program Scarpa, S. (n.d.)  District Administration Magazine. http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=743 The Rochester City School District established a Career in Teaching Program over 16 years ago with the support of the Rochester Teachers’ Association.  This comprehensive overview of the program explains the mentoring and peer review components of the program, as well as the levels that have been created within the teaching profession in Rochester..
		Teacher Advancement Program Milken Family Foundation http://www.mff.org/tap.taf Recognizing that American schools were failing to attract and retain highly qualified teachers to their classrooms, the Milken Family Foundation developed a program known as the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) to increase teaching quality in schools.  The program outlines three career positions teachers advance through while staying in the classroom: career, mentor, and master teacher.  It restructures the school day to provide teachers time for professional learning and collaboration and rewards teachers with a performance-based compensation system.  The website describes the program in detail,  lists states with TAP schools, and provides answers to frequently asked questions about the program.
		ASCD Capwiz Advocacy Toolkit Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (2004).  http://capwiz.com/ascd/home/ These pages help those interested in education reform become involved in the policy-making process. The site provides links to elected officials, tracks current issues and legislation, and highlights important elections and candidates.  It also includes a feature that identifies the major media outlets serving every zip code and allows users to send an advocacy email directly from this site.
		Making the Connection: A Guide to Involving Policymakers in a Community Dialogue on Education Southwest Educational Development Laboratory http://www.sedl.org/pubs/policy93/policy93.pdf Engaging policymakers in dialogue on education is a practical action step that communities can take to influence school reform.  This resource provides step by step instructions on engaging policymakers in dialogue on education issues.  The authors provide a description of different roles for participants, advice on how to make the most of participation both during and after the dialogue, and a recruiting planner to assist in inviting policymakers to the discussion.
		Calling the Role:  Study Circles for Better Schools Pan, D.T. and Mutchler, S.E. (2000).  The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) http://www.sedl.org/pubs/policy96/callingrole.pdf Engaging policymakers in conversations with community members related to school issues is critical for communities interested in school reform.  Many have advocated for the implementation of community study circles as a strategy for engagement.  This policy research report  discusses the potential of the study circles method to enhance communication between policymakers and the community.  The authors describe SEDL's implementation of the study circles model in their "Calling the Role" program, review literature pertaining to deliberative dialogues, and discuss policymakers' perceptions of the process.