As a mentor teacher, your first priority will be your own classroom with additional release time for evaluations and mentoring.  You will work with Master teachers and your school's leadership team while coaching classroom teachers.  You will monitor goal setting, conduct objective evaluations, and support teachers' individual growth plans.  As a Mentor teacher, you will also work closely with students in the classroom.

All Master and Mentor teachers and all Administrators will complete TAP CORE training.  This will consist of 7 additional days of training at the end of this school year.

Ten days will be added to the Master and Mentor teachers' contract (10 month 10 days).  The Master teacher could possibly teach one class and may relieve a Mentor teacher of some teaching responsibilities.  Mentor teachers will receive release time in order to carry out his/her duties.

Usually the Mentor teacher has additional release time per week for mentor duties.

The selection of hiring the District Executive Master teacher (DEMT), Master teachers, and Mentor teachers is based on competitive hiring.  Those that apply will interview with a committee which usually consists of the Director of Schools, principals, TIF Grant Coordinator (Dr. Ann Shaw), and other district office personnel.

The number of Mentor teachers depends on the size of the school.  Each school will be assigned a Master teacher.  Two schools may share a Master teacher.

If funding can be found, the career paths will continue.  If not, the positions of those educators in Master and Mentor positions will be secure within the district.

Positions will be secure within the district.

Master teachers will be placed based on individual school needs.

Yes.  Master teachers, Mentor teachers, and Career teachers will be eligible for pay-for-performance bonuses.

Depends upon the size of the school

Since the Mentor teacher is always tied to their own classroom, they will remain with their classroom.

The amount is really determined by the amount of teachers in the pool.  A pay-for-performance presentation will be presented at every school.  For additional information look at the TAP Portal for the Pay-for-Performance manual, which is online at 

No

No

2012-13 is the planning year of the grant.  The implementation year will begin 2013-14.  The total grant cycle runs from October 1, 2012, thru September 30, 2017.

They would be tied to the 50% evaluation-50% school value-added pool connected to their respective school.

Within a school, you may have several pools.  In a PreK-12, there may be several pools yet to be finalized.  Example:  SAT10 may be a K-2 pool, TVAAS may be a 3-5 or 6-8 pool, or 9-12 may have multiple pools tied to a series of items such as graduation rate, EOC.

50%-50% split; teachers who have established integration with subjects that have scores may tie in with the 50%-30%-20%.

The number of schools choosing to participate could impact the amount of funds available.  The grant was written to cover 8 schools.  If a school votes not to participate, it could reduce the size of the grant for Morgan County.

Performance pay is based on evaluations, student growth, and school growth.

Principal, Assistant Principal, Master teacher, Mentor teacher, and District Supervisors

With the new evaluation under First to the Top, the TAP rubric was adopted for the TEAM evaluation.   There are minor differences in two indicators:  Problem Solving and Thinking.  Under the TAP rubric, these indicators will be evaluated over multiple observations. 

Cluster meetings will replace the school PLC meetings.  Clusters will meet weekly during the school day.

Cluster groups will differ from school to school.  We recommend, if scheduling permits, that you attend the cluster that best meets your students' needs.  Special area teachers, graduation coaches, media specialists, curriculum coaches, counselors, and other similar groups  may join grade-level clusters.

Cluster groups will differ from school to school. We recommend, if scheduling permits, that you attend the cluster that best meets your students' needs. Special area teachers, graduation coaches, media specialists, curriculum coaches, counselors, and other similar groups may join grade-level clusters.

See the job descriptions of the TAP Principal, TAP Assistant Principal, Master Teacher, Mentor Teacher, and District Executive Master Teacher.

These individuals are responsible for conducting quality cluster meetings and for documentings that they are leading to more effective teaching.

Schools will develop schedules that allow for 50 minutes of cluster meeting times during the school day.  Clusters will meet once a week.

Yes.  One of the most important benefits will be the professional growth, which will impact your student's achievement.  All educators are eligible for additional salary, depending upon their position, their evaluation results, and school and student achievement growth.

We will develop a communication committee and ask parents to serve on this committee.  We will make a concerted effort to keep parents information of the school goals and how we intend to reach these goals.

The grant will be developing a partnership with higher education.  The evaluation  rubric will be integrated into pre-service courses for teachers.  Student teachers will participate in the cluster meetings and receive the feedback and follow-up.  The grant also encourages mentor teachers to be paired with student teachers.

It will be included in annual income for retirement purposes, which could significantly affect the amount of your retirement benefit.

Teachers will meet, ballots will be distributed and collected, the school's teacher of the year or other designee will count the votes, and the results will be announced.