TLN-Kansas

A central tenet of the TeacherSolutions alternative compensation framework, detailed in Performance-Pay for Teachers: Designing a System that Students Deserve, was that any compensation system must be flexible enough to allow different schools and districts to make decisions that advance their specific student-learning goals. With the support of the Kauffman Foundation, CTQ has been able to take this type of local lens to the state and various regions of Kansas.

Working with five accomplished teacher leaders from across the state, CTQ has taken advantage of virtual communication tools to facilitate live webinars and ongoing listserv conversations around the potential impact of alternative compensation on student learning, the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, teacher leadership, and local labor market needs. These interactions have helped the group sharpen their teacher leadership and policy advocacy skills, while also developing their knowledge and understanding of the many complexities of teacher pay systems.

A Wichita-based working conference in November of 2007 allowed the core group of teacher leaders to share their thinking and gather the insights of teacher colleagues from across their state, along with other key stakeholders from the state teachers union and Department of Education. Other key outcomes from the gathering included raising the awareness of performance-pay systems and their inherent components and initiating a community of teacher leaders who will network with other teachers around the state about this issue. Check back for an update on findings and conclusions from the November gathering.