Hillsborough School District Hosts New Teacher Orientation

Teachers in the Hillsborough County School District go back to school Aug. 15 to prepare for the first day of school for students, Aug. 23.

Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia is scheduled to address all  of the district’s new teachers July 27.

The greeting at Freedom High School in New Tampa highlights the third day of a four-day induction and orientation for some 600 instructors new to the Hillsborough County School District this upcoming school year.

Along with the superintendent, School Board members will make their welcome known.

Group sessions over the four-day period will include training in:

Classroom management,

Instructional strategies,

Exceptional Student Education (ESE),

Ethics, and

Focusing on the needs of diverse learners.

The district has received a grant to institute the Empowering Effective Teachers initiative. Under this program, new teachers are assigned a district-based mentor to work with throughout the year. The new teacher will meet with their mentors over the course of the orientation.

Optional training sessions will be available to the teachers in the fall.

If you talk to a Hillsborough County Public School teacher long enough about his or her craft on the local level, you've probably heard the term: “Empowering Effective Teachers” and the “historic” contribution of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to further this initiative with an Excellence in Teacher Effectiveness Grant.

Supporters and detractors have both had their say about the multi-year, $100 million grant that aims to increase student achievement by focusing on teacher training and performance pay.

Online at the Hillsborough County School District Web site are two Webcast discussions about the grant and the initiative.

“This is not something we’re doing to teachers,” says Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia in the shorter of the two discussions. “This is something we’re doing with teachers.”

Toward that end, Elia discusses, “in reverse order," 10 things to know about the Empowering Effective Teachers initiative:

10. Purpose

“This isn’t about getting a big grant, although I like the money that comes with it,” Elia said. “This is about increasing student achievement.” To increase achievement, Elia adds, “teachers are absolutely the greatest resource we have."

9. Funds for specific purposes.

"As with any grant,” Elia notes, "the money can only be used to accomplish the goals of the grant.” The money cannot plug holes in the budget, she added, or fund other programs. And at the end of the grant’s seven-year period, any initiatives that take root must stand on their own.

8. School District Contribution

"Some people have the mistaken impression that we have to match the $100 million that the Gates Foundation is putting into this project,” Elia says. Truth? No, she adds, and the grant allows for “initiatives we wanted to do but we never had the money to do them,” such as retooling teacher training.  

7. Not the end of established merit pay

The so-called MAP merit reward program is a state-mandated merit-pay program and it is not going to go away just because the Hillsborough County School District seeks another merit-pay program that is “reliable, valid, fair and easy to understand,” Elia said.  

6. Teachers can opt in—or out.

Greater rewards for exceptional results are the goal with the new pay for performance system. “All new teachers coming into our system will be paid under the new system,” Elia said. But, she adds, ”Continuing teachers who choose not to opt in to the new compensation system will continue to be eligible for some form of pay for performance, or MAP."

5. Career ladders and mentoring.

“We believe that great teachers shouldn’t have to leave the classroom to advance their careers,” Elia says. “So we intend to make it possible for great teachers to become teacher leaders.”

4. Subject to collaborative bargaining

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Elia says, in the areas of teacher recruitment, evaluation and compensation. “To get where we need to be we will need meaningful input from our teachers.” New contract language will be required and the district will work with the Classroom Teachers Association in that regard.

3. Open communication

“We realize teachers have lots of questions,” Elia says, noting attempts to communicate with teachers via email, surveys, webcast, live podcasts and school-based meetings.  

2. Evaluation process

Teams of "highly trained peer evaluators” will be involved in the process. And 40 percent of the plan will be based on “student learning gains.” 

1. Again, the purpose.

No. 1 is the same as No. 10, Elias says, “but it really is that important.” The purpose of “this whole effort,” she adds, “is to raise student achievement.”