TIF WebinarSustaining Your TIF Grant

March 11, 2015

Introductions

• Presenters:– TIF Grantees:

• Carla Stevens, Houston Independent School District

• Lauren Price, Houston Independent School District

• Tammy Kruez, Region 18 Education Service Center

– Tate Gould, TIF TA Team, AnLar Incorporated

• Contributors:– Joan Pasley, Horizon Research– Julia Keleher, Keleher & Associates

2

Purpose of This Webinar

1. Consider issues related to sustaining your TIF project efforts

2. Engage a framework for sustainability that can help guide your work in this area

3. Listen to and discuss how other grantees have approached sustaining their TIF efforts

3

Sustainability in TIF

• TIF projects are complex and have various elements to consider when thinking about sustainability after TIF funding, e.g., :– The infrastructure to support quality implementation of

educator evaluation systems that include components such as: objective, evidence-based rubrics that differentiate levels of effectiveness; formal observations conducted by trained observers; student growth as a significant factor (school and/or classroom level); additional factors (e.g., PD participation, survey results, etc.)

– How to fund and maintain a PBCS

4

Sustainability in TIF (cont’d)

– How to maintain an HCMS that aligns with an LEA's vision of instructional improvement and informs human capital decisions (e.g., hiring, recruitment, dismissal, promotion, etc.)

– Data management systems to link educator and student achievement data, as well as to link evaluation data to other systems, e.g., HR/payroll systems

– Professional development systems to improve educator practice and also ensure understanding of program components

– Teacher career ladders– Ongoing program evaluation to examine impacts and

areas for improvement

5

In the ideal…

• All of these TIF endeavors become the “way you do business” and are not add-ons.

6

In reality…

• It takes resources (both financial and human) to sustain this work over time.

7

Sustainability in TIF

• Sustaining the components of your TIF project after funding is complete requires planning now (and sometimes a good bit of creativity) about:– What aspects of TIF are most important to sustain? Can

they be sustained as is or in a modified form?– How can this work be supported?– How to build staff capacity to carry-on the work (e.g.

professional learning communities)?

8

Sustainability in TIF

• Decisions about what can be sustained and in what form are context specific and depend in part on:– Priorities in your district– Capacity to sustain with quality– Resources that can be made available to support this work– And many other factors

9

Context of Grantee Panels

• Questions for each grantee– Type of district?– What is the buy-in for TIF in the district?– Brief history of TIF grants? – How have you used the various TIF grants to develop and

enhance your systems over time?

10

4 Components of Sustainability

Although many frameworks exist for sustainability, the following provides a common 4-component approach:

1. Increasing stakeholder support and communication 

2. Implementing and building capacity to ensure widespread use of quality program development

3. Developing financial support and ongoing funding for efforts

4. Understanding a return of investment

11

#1: Increasing stakeholder support and communication

• What you should consider:– Do you have and can you articulate a clear vision for the

effort in your district?– How much support do you have from the teachers? From

principals? Other important stakeholders (e.g., parents, unions)?

– Do you have a detailed plan for ongoing communication with your stakeholders?

12

#1: Increasing stakeholder support and communication

• Why is this important?– Without community buy-in, your effort is spent on

defending rather than promoting.– You will always be in “start-up” mode with your effort.

13

#2: Ensure widespread use of quality program development

• What you should consider– Documentation of processes should be occurring to help

train others (and avoid the "win the lottery" scenario).– You should collect and analyze the data so you can answer

questions about the program's implementation, use, and impact.

14

#2: Ensure widespread use of quality program development

• Why is this important?– Are you implementing WITH your community?– How much are you using data to show how practice is

changing, compared to only anecdotes?– Can you ensure there is ongoing capacity to implement

program components with quality?

15

#3: Developing financial support and ongoing funding

• What you should consider– One-time funding is…one-time funding.– How is your staff allocated for the project?– How creative have you been with sources of funding?– Do you have a match requirement?– Does support include match, cost-sharing, and in-kind

contributions?– Do you have a control system in place with adequate safe

guards for supplies and/or equipment?

16

#3: Developing financial support and ongoing funding

• Why is this important?– Funding is required for many of these efforts to be

implemented, even for a pilot.– Funding is usually correlated with support from leadership

or stakeholders.– Funding helps with communicating your effort to others.

17

#4: Understanding a return of investment

• What you should consider– Use data that have been collected to communicate with

stakeholders on progress of program implementation and how practice has changed

– Demonstrate how a program's funding has been beneficial and used 

– Identify areas where funding or resources have been extended to have more of an impact than originally planned

18

#4: Understanding a return of investment

• Why is this important?– Start-up efforts always create more work up front with the

promise that something will improve or be easier over time.– Data should support how teaching and leadership has

improved instructional practice, student achievement, and school performance.

19