The GoodLife Agency, the grant Lead Agency, and three (3) Local Education Agencies in Metro Detroit: Eagles Nest Academy, George Washington Carver Academy, and River Rouge School District are the recipients of a three (3) year, $7.5 million grant from U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher and School Leader (TSL) program.
The LEAs have received the CARES funding (one-time money) to support school operating budgets without solid plans for how to sustain these initiatives post-pandemic for our high-need schools. Our LEAP project will provide a well-developed and tested model to attract or retain staff with targeted professional development, and ESL, special education, social work, and trauma support to address trauma arising from the pandemic.
Our LEAP project will improve existing components of the Human Capital Management System (HCMS) in our three participating LEAs in Michigan that will transform the human capital management system processes and functions to retain and promote school leaders and to recruit and retain highly-effective teachers.
Areas of Focus
Human Capital Management System
We will implement a Performance-Based Compensation System (PBCS) in our three participating LEAs in Michigan Implement for teachers and principals that includes job performance and job accomplishments as a significant factor in determining compensation and additional compensation.
Performance-Based Compensation System
Additionally, we will establish a formalized Leadership Development Pipeline for individuals wanting to become leadership mentors, instructional coaches, assistant principals, and principals to ensure that our participating districts and their campuses have highly trained individuals to promote and retain for leadership positions after they complete our training program. Our project will reimburse up to $10,000 for targeted professional development, tuition, and books.
Leadership Development Pipeline
Our “Grow Your Own” Teacher Certification Program for paraprofessionals, including all school staff, who want to become teachers. The program will be structured to target individuals with at least one (1) year of college first and then move to those with no years of college and will reimburse cost up to $25,000 for targeted professional development, tuition, and books.
Grow Your Own
We have designed training resources for all educators that provide research-based instructional strategies that make learning accessible for ESL/SPED students. The annual training summer training program will provide continuing education units (CEUs) and includes quarterly booster training for skill refinement.
English as Second Language (ESL) and Special Education Supports
All participating LEAs will align their district-adopted teacher and school leader evaluation tools so they can improve their evaluation systems by ensuring the following supports are adopted: (1) Self-Evaluation, (2) Multiple Observations, (3) Multiple Evaluations, (4) Pre/Post Conferences, (5) External Professional Development, (5) Inter-Rater Reliability Certification.
Evaluation Supports
