South Carolina Teacher Advancement Program (SCTAP)
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The situation for K-12 education in South Carolina's public schools is critical. Over the next decade we will face a shortage of as many as 40,000 teachers. And this state of affairs is occurring at a time when our entire U.S. economy is experiencing fierce competition for a limited pool of high quality human capital.
The South Carolina Teacher Advancement Program (SCTAP) is based on the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) developed in 1998 as an initiative of the Milken Family Foundation. TAP encourages teachers to grow and allows them to prosper by offering new models for professional entry and training, with new compensation and career advancement possibilities. It honors the essence while changing the structure of the teaching profession.
Key elements of TAP
Multiple career paths. Teachers move up the ranks knowing that compensation will increase, as do responsibilities, qualifications, performance, and professional development requirements.
Market-driven, performance-based compensation. Master teachers may earn as much as $75,000 each year.
Performance-based accountability. Determined by student progress, academic achievement, and performance demonstration. Peer reviews may be an element of advancement.
Ongoing, applied professional growth. Occurs several times each week through the professional growth blocks built into the teacher's work schedule. Collaboration among instructional personnel is important with time for reflection, planning, sharing, research, and learning.
Though each principle of TAP is unique, they are highly interrelated and dependent upon each other. For example, without a rigorous accountability system and performance-based compensation, the multiple career paths principle will simply be a traditional career ladder program. And a comprehensive professional growth program is necessary to support the rigorous accountability system. What makes TAP unique is that is combines these various reforms into a single, comprehensive, systemic model.
Although elements of this model can be found in other reform efforts, the SCTAP, based on the Milken Family Foundation's TAP, is unique in that it combines rigorous accountability and performance compensation with a multiple career ladder and professional development throughout an educator's career. This model is a data-driven pilot for the value-added concept for determining student gains and promoting teacher quality through leadership and applied professional development.
The ultimate goal of the SCTAP is to develop policies, practices, and procedures regarding evaluation, certification, and teacher quality, which will be implemented in all of South Carolina's public schools. The program allows us to gather valuable information regarding these decisions. Even in tough economic times, several schools and districts have agreed to provide matching funds in order to have the opportunity to participate in SCTAP. In the demonstration schools, the program costs approximately $425 per student, since we have not adjusted the step salary schedule. The interest is high, but the potential of SCTAP is even greater.