Federal Grant to Support Innovation in Arkansas Schools

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Teacher Advancement Program, a partner of the UA College of Education and Health Professions, has received important financial support for its innovative school improvement efforts. A $1.8 million U.S. Department of Education grant to the Milken Family Foundation will bring $581,200 to ARTAP and its 14 affiliated schools statewide.

The Teacher Advancement Program was introduced by the Milken Family Foundation in 1999, and ARTAP welcomed its first schools in 2002. Currently, schools from Lincoln, Little Rock, Nettleton, Rogers and Van Buren participate in the program.

"TAP offers a fresh approach to the goal of rewarding high quality teachers and keeping them in the classroom," said Reed Greenwood, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions. "It is an important part of the college’s responsibility to Arkansas to study innovative educational models and to put them to the test."

The TAP model applies business principles to education and offers teachers an opportunity to progress professionally without leaving the classroom. Schools that adopt the TAP model feature collaborative working relationships among teachers and opportunities for increased responsibilities and pay.

Greenwood noted that ARTAP serves rural and urban schools in large and small districts, including schools that have difficulties in attracting and retaining good teachers.

Gary Stark, executive director of ARTAP, spends much of his time away from the UA campus working closely with the program’s schools. He knows first-hand how important the grant will be to implementing the TAP model.

"We expect ongoing applied professional development time during the school day, and it takes funds to hire the additional staff and make adjustments to create the time and release the teachers," Stark said.

Each TAP school has a leadership team composed of the principal, master teachers and mentor teachers. As seasoned, accomplished educators, the master and mentor teachers make a commitment to help improve the levels of teaching in their schools, and they are rewarded for their increased responsibilities. Although the additional salaries vary from school to school, master teachers typically receive an additional $9,000 to $10,000 a year, and mentor teachers gain $4,000 to $5,000 a year.

"This grant is testimony to the role that TAP has in systemic reform connected to the No Child Left Behind Act," Stark said. "The commitment at the federal level to improving education is impressive. Each year the Office of Innovation has a budget to assist innovative programs, and the $1.8 million awarded TAP was approximately 15% of the budget for this year."

The grant is from the Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Education, which is charged with supporting "nationally significant programs and projects to improve the quality of education, and to help all students meet challenging standards."