July 29, 2009 - The Austin School District announced today that teachers and principals at 11 Austin schools (seven of which are designated as high-needs) earned more than $1 million in bonus payments. The payouts are to staff who participated in AISD REACH, the District’s Strategic Compensation Initiative, during the 2008-2009 school year.

“Today, we announce that 608 teachers and 11 principals will receive bonuses totaling $1.6 million for meeting student growth targets, and for their continued service at our high-needs school,” said Michael Houser, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Development and Information Systems. “These bonuses are investments in our teachers and principals, which we hope will help us recruit and retain high quality educators, especially at our schools with high-needs student populations. Research  
has shown repeatedly that educator quality is the greatest indicator of student academic success.”  
 
Teachers and principals at the 11 AISD REACH schools will receive payments ranging from $1,000 to $6,000, for successful completion of student achievement gains. These bonus amounts are based upon the needs of the school and vary depending on position. The schools with educators receiving these payments are: Barton Hills, Hart, Jordan, Menchaca, Rodriguez, Sims, and Sunset Valley elementary schools; Dobie, O.Henry, and Webb middle schools; and Lanier High School.  
 
As a central component of the AISD REACH Program, teachers and administrators each set two rigorous growth targets, called Student Learning Objectives, for their classes to achieve during the school year. The results from the 2008-09 school year show that 81 percent of teachers met at least one of their Student Learning Objectives and 59 percent met two.  
 
“AISD REACH is the only program I've seen that helps teachers look at each student's scores and set goals for the year based on the those students' learning needs,” said Webb Middle School teacher Cardette Carroll. “What makes it valuable and meaningful for me as an educator is that it is a program that allows teachers--not the state or the School District --to decide what we will focus on for our classes. My children have made remarkable progress this year.”  
 
"Setting targets of student growth at the classroom level challenges teachers to use data to drive their instruction and, ultimately, to meet the needs of all their students," said David Lussier, Director of AISD REACH. "While we are still refining this work, the voices and expertise of Austin teachers and administrators continue to inform the evolution of the REACH pilot. Today's payouts are well deserved by Austin educators who are achieving results and who choose to work on some of our most challenging campuses.”  
 
Other key components of the AISD REACH Program are a mentoring program for novice teachers with 13 full-time mentors working at the program’s high-needs schools and a National Board Certification preparation program called TAKE ONE!™  
 
“At schools such as Dobie Middle School, the ability to retain high quality teachers is crucial to student academic success,” said Carol Chapman, principal of Dobie Middle School. “We only had one teacher vacancy this year. AISD REACH continues to be a valuable tool that helps me keep my best teachers.”  
 
“This program is helping raise the academic achievement of students by strengthening the knowledge and skills of our teachers and principals, ” said Louis Malfaro, President of Education Austin. “Supporting and recognizing the work of teachers and principals can make the difference in whether quality educators stay in our classrooms."  
 
“Having completed year two of a planned four-year pilot, AISD REACH early results are promising,” said Ellen Wood, CEO of vCFO and 2009 chair of the Chamber’s Strategic Compensation Task Force. “The Austin Chamber encourages Austin ISD administrators and Trustees to continue to support this important initiative.”  
 
Research on the program, while ongoing, is showing some positive early results. Some findings from the program’s first year internal and external evaluation reports:  
74% of teachers agree that AISD REACH components are a positive change to teacher pay practices.  
The validity of Student Learning Objectives as an instructional tool was supported by results showing that teachers who established and met math Student Learning Objectives had students with significantly better performance on the math Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) than did those who established but did not meet their math Student Learning Objectives. Similar results were also found for reading.  
Teachers in the program who met one or both Student Learning Objectives were more likely to indicate that they had altered their instructional practices in response to the program than those who did not meet either Student Learning Objective.  
The retention rate for novice teachers increased by 11% from 2007-2008 to 2008-2009 at high-needs pilot schools compared with a 3% increase for novice teacher retention rate at high-needs comparison schools.  
Both evaluation reports found that major components of AISD REACH are well aligned with teacher preferences.  
 
This is the fourth payout for the AISD REACH Program. Educators in the program may also be eligible to receive additional stipends for school-wide TAKS growth when the Texas Education Agency releases the data in the fall.  
 
 
(For additional information about AISD REACH and complete results from the first year of the program, visit www.austinisd.org/compensation)