The Online Reflector

TAP:  The System for Teacher and Student Advancement, a program monitored by the University of Indianapolis Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning, expanded from 44 to 46 schools for the 2012-13 academic year.

TAP is a program started by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching.  According to its website, www.tapsystem.org, TAP is a comprehensive school reform that restructures and revitalizes the teaching profession.

Its purpose is to provide teachers opportunities for career advancement and professional development, an evaluation system and performance-based compensation.

According to David Dresslar, executive director of CELL, TAP came to UIndy two years ago, and after a year of planning, was implemented in Indiana schools for the 2011-12 academic year.

“The state received a grant from the federal government, actually from the U.S. Department of Education, and the grant is in a program called the Teacher Incentive Fund,” Dresslar said. “So in that grant application, which was approved, CELL was named as administering the TAP program.”

Dresslar said that the TIF grant was used to fund the TAP program in the 44 schools that started the program last year. The two schools added this year are funding the TAP program through outside resources.

According to Dresslar, CELL has multiple  responsibilities for the program.

“We coordinate the training and coach TAP in these 46 schools,” Dresslar said. “They have access to web portal, to data management, those kinds of things. So we give them all that training, and then we provide coaching to make sure that this training is being used to implement an effective TAP system.”

Indiana TAP Director Jennifer Oliver said that a team is in place to ensure TAP is being implemented properly.

“There are five regional coordinators that work on the ground in the 46 schools every day, and they serve as coaches in this work. They support the implementation of the professional development. They support the implementation of the teacher evaluation process and also help connect the school-based top leaders to the national resources and national model,” Oliver said. “Essentially myself and the five regional coordinators ensure that the schools in Indiana are implementing the model with fidelity.”

As Indiana’s TAP director, Oliver has many responsibilities in overseeing the coordinators and the whole project.

“I work closely with the TIF grant coordinator to ensure that the monies are being used in the right direction… I work closely with the national organization, NIET, and the national TAP team to ensure that all of the pieces of the model are in place. I also set up several professional development opportunities for the schools and their leaders to attend. So it’s varied,” Oliver said. “We do several trainings each year that I coordinate. I also play a large role in calculating one of the TAP performance-based bonuses.”

According to Oliver, TAP has been demonstrating success in its early stages.

“We’re just in year two, so we’re still in the infancy of the work. But after one year, overall the TAP elementary and middle schools were showing positive results in that they outperformed demographically comparable non-TAP schools,” she said. “So when looking at an elementary school that had TAP versus one similar in nature that didn’t have TAP, the TAP schools were showing higher levels of achievement.”