Schools Tarried In Spending Teacher Money

Abbey Seaman stays two hours after school three days a week to give kindergarteners extra help in reading and math — and gets paid for the extra work.

The first-grade Clemente School teacher (pictured) is part of a cadre of talented New Haven teachers getting paid through a five-year $53.4 million grant to spend extra time on student teaching and professional development. For the past three years, the district has used the federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant to allow teachers opportunities to increase their pay and responsibilities at their schools while collaborating with peers on innovative practices.

Recently, the grant has been the subject of scrutiny by those who want to know exactly how that money has benefited students and teachers in the past three years and how district officials plan to spend the last year and a half of funding. Because the school system got a late start spending the money, it will likely need federal approval to extend the grant to a sixth year — or else will lose some of it.

District officials said they were surprised to receive as much money as they did in 2012 and so took their time spending it over the first couple of years—appointing Michael Crocco as talent director to manage the grant only in 2014.

Before Crocco was hired, a ​“talent council” of three teachers and three administrators was solely responsible for allocating money to educators and now advises the office on how to spend the grant. New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT) representatives Dave Cicarella, Tom Burns and Pat DeLucia represent teachers on the council. School Administrators Association representatives Cheryl Brown and Keisha Hannans as well as district science supervisor Richard Therrien represent administrators.

“Before the talent office, work was going on all over the place” to promote teacher development, Crocco said. Now, he said, the talent office is ​“catching up with the grant” and ​“getting a sense from the talent council of why we are doing what we’re doing.”

Now past the halfway point in the grant, Crocco, the talent council and other district leaders are beginning to evaluate whether the money was used wisely and how to keep some of the best programs in place when the money is gone.

Budgeting TIF

Superintendent Garth Harries wrote the TIF grant proposal back in July 2012 when he was assistant superintendent. The proposal furthered a resolution that gained New Haven national recognition several years ago — creating an evaluation system that holds teachers accountable for student performance while giving them support and a chance to improve their skills.

In October 2012, Harries was pleasantly surprised to find out New Haven had received the grant, for the full requested amount of $53.4 million. ​“We had to figure out what we could put in place for that year and what we could do for the following,” Harries said.

The grant rollout was also slowed down as he transitioned to his role as superintendent in 2013 – 14. The district budgeted to use just $3.2 million of the grant in the first year and $8.8 million in the second year. Since it spent less than expected the first couple of years, Harries said, he hopes the federal government will approve a ​“carryover” of that grant money into a sixth year.

“The feds have been very reasonable with us to this point in understanding the way we have had to implement given the timing and the work of actually launching a program like this,” he said.

Since 2013, about $3.5 million annually of the grant goes to $5,000 stipends for teachers rated at least ​“effective” on teacher evaluations (TEVALs) to take on expanded roles as ​“super tutors,” ​“curriculum facilitators,” ​“student support facilitators” and ​“teacher facilitators.” About 126 high-performing teachers receive $5,000 stipends this year for serving in schools with high needs. (Click here to read the abstract for the 2015 – 16 TIF grant allocation.)

The district budgeted to use about $14 million of the grant this academic year. In addition to the expanded roles, the grant pays Crocco’s salary, several full salaries for teachers who are on leadership paths to becoming administrators, and raises for teachers and administrators who receive at least ​“effective” TEVAL scores.

About $1.5 million is budgeted to pay organizations to do professional development, calibrate the TEVAL, and help the talent office comply with federal regulations, Crocco said.

Super Tutors

Some schools have been creative about the way they use the money and talent. Roberto Clemente uses its ​“super tutors” to staff a daily afterschool program for students from each grade. About 160 students in the 500-student K‑8 school attend the program, said Principal Pam Franco.

The after school program is a success because teachers spearheaded the process of getting it up and running, fueled by the lack of time for small-group instruction on core subjects during the regular school day, Franco (pictured above) said.

“We have no problem getting teachers here at all,” she said. In the second year of the after school program, the number of teachers involved has increased from 10 to 18. Of those 18, seven are ​“super tutors” funded through TIF. Super tutors work with small groups of struggling students to target their academic needs.

In fact, the super tutors are taking on ​“more than the the required hours” for their positions, said Cara Cuticello, a language arts coach who coordinates the program.

Three grants fund the afterschool program — the federal TIF grant, a 1003a state grant, and a federal 21st Century initiative grant. Super tutors join with teachers paid through the other grants to work on academic lessons Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with students separated by grade.

Mondays and Fridays, Clemente pays community partners to run ​“enrichment” programs including yoga, dance, art and music, and pays teachers to offer electives such as photography and yearbook. The grants also pay for late transportation home for students who need it.

Reading intervention specialist Joan Meehan (pictured) said super tutors are more effective staffing the after school program en masse than they were working outside of it. Two years ago, super tutors worked with small groups of students flagged as needing help an extra two to three days a week, she said.

“Parent appreciated it and asked if there were more opportunities” for small-group instruction, Meehan said.

This year, Meehan is receiving a TIF stipend to serve as a curriculum facilitator, and being paid through another grant to work with second-graders in the after school program. (Teachers can only receive a stipend for one role through TIF.)

Student progress was easy to see, she said. As a fourth grade classroom teacher last year, she checked in with teachers who were working with her students after school to see how they were improving and coordinate targeted instruction.

“It would be great if there were more resources for getting teachers so more students could participate,” she said.

Other schools have not been able to utilize the TIF grant to the same degree as Clemente.

Wexler/Grant School Principal Sabrina Breland said the high turnover rate of teachers makes it difficult to establish a solid core of super tutors like Clemente has. One super tutor makes much less of an impact than a team who can run a regular afterschool program, Breland said.

Teachers are overworked dealing with severe disciplinary issues and do not feel they have more to give, even for a stipend, she said. Some student facilitators are working to coordinate the BOOST! programs, which provide non-academic support for students.

Tracking Progress

The talent office needs support managing the grant because it has been operating for just a year, Crocco said. But others in the education community have been skeptical of that claim.

In early November, members of the Operations and Finance Committee decided to table a discussion on whether to approve a $175,000 contract for a consultant this year to get advice on how to use the TIF grant over that time.

The district has contracted Fairview Agency over the past three years of the grant and its role was designed to taper off over time, Crocco said.

Cicarella, president of the teachers union, said the talent council was ​“kind of scrambling” when put in charge of the grant in 2012. ​“I remember thinking they were joking,” he said, when the feds gave New Haven $53 million. Fairview’s consultant communicated any concerns to the federal government, including working to get the district permission to carry over any funds to the next year.

One year, the talent council budgeted for 10 months of salary increases for new expanded roles, but then spent three months soliciting and reviewing applications. Teachers were only paid for the seven months they served in those roles — leaving extra money at the end of the year approved for use in the following year.

“We’re constantly having to ask questions of the federal government,” Crocco said. Fairview has ensured the district is ​“compliant” with the grant requirements and using the money to its full advantage.

“There is someone internally doing that work. Because that office hasn’t been around until just this past year, this is really the first year that we have all really been together,” Crocco said.

As the new Board of Ed president, Mayor Toni Harp has rolled out a 10-point plan incorporated into the district’s updated school reform ​“2.0.10” goals for the upcoming year, some of which could be achieved through TIF funding, Crocco said. The mayor proposed establishing Saturday academies to allow students opportunities to learn outside of the average school day; the leaders of those academies could be supported through TIF, Crocco said.

Newly elected Board of Ed member Edward Joyner said at the November meeting that he did not understand the proposed contract.

“I’m not aware of any grant that hires the same person that wrote the grant as a consultant to ask questions that the principal investigators of the grant can ask themselves on how money can be spent,” Joyner said.

Harries (pictured) told the Independent that it’s ​“pretty common” for the district to contract ​“external support in managing the implementation of a grant, in part because their folks have expertise.” He is reviewing the contract for Fairview Agency to see whether it should be scaled back — based on how it has been used in prior years.

Committee Chair Daisy Gonzalez asked to table the discussion at least until the next meeting, until she and fellow board member Alicia Caraballo have time to ask questions.

Caraballo said she wants a fuller explanation of the way the grant has been used in order to ​“make sure we get the maximum that we can for the money.” Some staff members are receiving large amounts of money, either the $5,000 or larger raises tied to TEVAL scores. ​“In Finance [and Operations Committee], we keep pushing because we’re not talking about a little bit of money. We’re talking about a specific amount of money that’s specifically directed to our talent,” she said.

In past board meetings, Caraballo asked why the district’s average state Smarter Balanced test scores were not higher, given the influx of federal money. She pressed the grant managers to present their plan to use the money over the next two years.

“No other district got the money that we got, certainly not in Connecticut, and the best we can do were the scores we got?” she asked.

But teachers union leaders on the talent council said the grant could not be directly tied to the state test scores. Instead, they urged board members to look at whether teachers and administrators are collaborating more often and receiving more opportunities for professional development.

Cicarella said some of those results are very tangible. Curriculum facilitators worked on creating assessments aligned to the new state Smarter Balanced exam and writing new curricula aligned to Common Core. ​“The district couldn’t possible do that much work this well and this quickly without them,” Cicarella said. ​“The district would have had to pay someone,” either a consultant or educators, for that extra work.

Defining Leadership

The district contracted the University of Connecticut to evaluate the expanded roles program over time and file annual reports on its progress starting last year. (Click here to read the most recent report assessing 2014 – 15.)

Crocco (pictured) said the survey showed that some teachers and administrators did not understand how their new roles through the grant tied in with work they already were doing in their schools.

“The thing we have to do a better job at is tying together the idea that the professional development and work they’re doing in expanded roles is essentially the same thing as a program for future leaders,” Crocco said. ​“It’s not specifically about a career trajectory up. It’s about expanding your sphere of influence over students.”

In a survey of 256 people, the report found that the percentage of teachers surveyed who felt the changes in professional development reflected their needs decreased drastically between 2013 and 2014 — from 66 to 38 percent. But most, especially teacher facilitators and student support facilitators, said they thought their experiences were valuable.

Teachers reported they had access to more effective professional development, but were divided on whether their expanded roles qualified as leadership opportunities in their schools. Most of the 256 teachers surveyed said they had not been motivated to participate by the $5,000 stipend and many said they had not yet received checks for their work.

One teacher facilitator said the role was not a ​“leadership role … The principal is a leadership role .. I would like to see teachers as leaders, but it’s not treated that way .… If there’s a disciplinary issue, you don’t touch it. You can’t do anything. It goes directly to administration. If there’s a role of, I don’t know, there’s a parent issue, it directly goes to administration. So anything outside of, immediately outside the classroom, I mean, you should have some type of control over that or be able to impact that, but you don’t.”

Curriculum facilitators generally did not think their roles counted as leadership positions. But super tutors, who work directly with groups of students, were more likely to say that they saw a clear path to leadership opportunities at their schools.

According to the report, fewer teachers in 2014 than 2013 felt the TEVAL changed the way they planned and prepared for their classes. Forty-two percent of teachers said the TEVAL affected their daily instruction; 25 percent said it didn’t and 32 percent were neutral.

Some did not know how their work in expanded roles connected with their work in the classroom — with 46 percent saying their goals in their those roles were tied to the TEVAL and 38 percent saying they were not.

“In part, this finding can be explained by the separation between some roles and teachers’ daily work in classrooms,” the report stated.

The report found that school and district officials did not always clearly communicate the opportunities available for teachers, the way those educators were selected and the benefits they would receive.

Merit Pay?

Harries stressed that the TIF grant was ​“not about merit pay” and teachers are not being paid differing amounts based on their test scores. The goal of the grant is to support teachers as they develop instructional skills and allow them opportunities to collaborate with each other.

Some teachers disagree with that take. Metro science teacher Chris Willems receives a $5,000 stipend to serve as a student support facilitator, working extra hours with his co-facilitator to help the school increase its focus on child development. He supports the school’s planning and management team meetings, and meets monthly for professional development with student support facilitators at other schools.

“It’s the best thing we could have done with these funds,” Willems said.

But he voted against the grant when it first came up for discussion, because he thought it was ​“inappropriate” to tie teacher performance to stipends.

Two years ago, Willems in conjunction with a group of teachers called the Educators’ Collective boycotted the TIF program, arguing that paying teachers for extra work undermined collaboration instead of fostering it.

“A teacher who consistently stays after school to work with students who need remediation or enrichment is devalued when a colleague is offered a $5000 bonus to do the same,” read their petition, signed by 31 teachers.

“I believe it’s merit pay, even though it has been re-crafted as … extra pay for extra work,” Willems said. Teachers must receive a rating of 3 or higher on the TEVAL in order to apply for the TIF stipends.

Merit pay has a ​“history of spectacular failure in New Haven,” Willems said. ​“It divides the community.”

He said he doesn’t keep his TIF stipend for his own use; he donates it to the school or uses it for classroom supplies.

Moving On

There is a lot of work to do before the grant ends.

“Based one what we learned with the work done, what do we want to do moving forward and what are the resources available?” Crocco said. He is putting together a ​“career trajectory committee” of teachers and administrators to measure which of the expanded roles have been most effective and are worth incorporating districtwide.

Some of those decisions will be easy, Cicarella said. Likely, the number of curriculum facilitators can be cut down, since much of the heavy work has been completed. But super tutors are always useful in high numbers. ​“We will always need those guys to service our kids,” he said.

Clemente is at risk of losing its after school program, cobbled together using a patchwork of grants, especially once the TIF money runs out. The state grant is scheduled to end this year, the 21st Century initiative grant the year after that, and then TIF, Principal Franco said.

District officials also used the grant to help support existing experimental reforms in low-performing ​“turnaround” schools, paying teachers stipends for extended time. ​“We as a district do need to address the question of what happens longterm with these turnaround transformations,” Harries said.

Some turnaround schools have ​“improved significantly” while others still need more resources to improve, he said.