TeacherSolutions

TeacherSolutions(SM) creates opportunities for teachers to surface their knowledge about successful teaching and learning and then engage policymakers, practitioners and the public in what needs to be done to transform their profession and improve public schools.

In its first venture, TeacherSolutions has assembled a representative national team of 18 accomplished teachers which will focus its inaugural work on professional compensation and the teacher "pay for performance" proposals now being heavily debated in states and school districts across the United States. They will search for the most effective ways to link professional compensation to teacher and student performance.

This team of highly accomplished teachers will hone in on the advantages and disadvantages of using different professional compensation models, defining how different models are most likely to recruit and retain accomplished teachers—including teachers for low performing, hard-to-staff schools in both urban and rural settings—and how to best use a variety of student learning results to validly and reliably support school improvement, teacher learning and professionalism.

The first TeacherSolutions team includes six state teachers of the year, four winners of the Milken National Educator of the Year award, two Presidential Award recipients, a recent winner of the National Outstanding Young Educator of the Year award, and other nationally recognized educators. Fourteen team members have earned certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The project is supported by grants from the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, the George Gund Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio and and the Stuart Foundation, based in San Francisco.