Iowa City, three other area districts chosen for teacher leadership program

Four Corridor school districts will begin receiving state money for teacher leadership programs over the next two years, the Iowa Department of Education announced Friday.

The program, which allows teachers to learn from the practices of top colleagues, is a central component of the state's education reform package passed in 2013.

The Iowa City Community School District, Clear Creek-Amana Community School District and Solon Community School District have been awarded grants for the 2015-16 school year, the state said. The Marion Independent School District was chosen to start the program in 2016-17.

The program will cost the state about $50 million this school year and about $150 million annually by the 2016-17 school year, according to a state news release.

In Iowa City, the district's grant will fund 375 positions, superintendent Stephen Murley said. Most of them will not take away from teachers' time in the classroom, he said, but a few will give teachers full-time release from teaching, and a few others will provide part-time release.

The grant will fund 47 building-level teacher coaches, 70 district-level positions - including 22 curriculum coordinators - and 258 building-level leadership positions, Murley said. The grant will also cover the costs of substitute teachers to fill in for teachers who are observing their peers, he said.

'Teaching can be a really isolating profession, and they need the opportunities to both work professionally with their peers,” Murley said.

Teachers will have to reapply for the positions every year and will be evaluated by their peers, Murley added. He said the district posted a job opening for one of the leadership positions earlier this month in hopes of getting the grant.

Clear Creek-Amana superintendent Tim Kuehl said that district's grant will fund six full-time instructional coaches and stipends for up to 41 leaders of 'professional learning communities,” another professional development effort that allows teachers to learn from each other.

Clear Creek-Amana teachers who have been in the district for a year and have at least three years' experience overall can apply for the instructional coach positions, Kuehl said. If selected, they will have to reapply every year and have the option of returning to teaching. Teachers who serve as professional learning community leaders will still teach full-time, Kuehl said.

'(The grant) will give us some additional resources to focus on coaching for teachers and making sure we're very well equipped to meet the needs of students in the classroom,” Kuehl said.

Of the 170 districts that applied, 125 were chosen for grants, with 74 picked for 2015-16 and 51 for 2016-17. The Cedar Rapids Community School District and the Linn-Mar Community School District are among 39 districts in the state's initial round of grants, which started this year.

Cedar Rapids educators have said the program has been effective thus far.

'It was apparent that we had pockets of leadership (before starting the program),” deputy superintendent Mary Ellen Maske said at a Dec. 12 'State of the District” event. 'We were able to create a systematic approach for leadership.”

The Cedar Rapids district has employed a similar program to begin to turn around some of its elementary schools, using funds that are part of sanctions in the federal No Child Left Behind law.

In their applications for the program, districts must show a minimum teacher salary of $33,500, as well as efforts to mentor new teachers and a rigorous selection process for leadership roles. They also are required to set goals for what they hope to accomplish with the grant.

Department of Education director Brad Buck called Iowa's teacher leadership program 'the most comprehensive in the nation.”

'Students face higher expectations today, and we must support the complex work of teaching in order to improve the instruction students receive,” Buck said in prepared remarks. 'The more I visit schools that are implementing teacher leadership plans, the more convinced I am that this system will improve learning and achievement for all students.”

The grants will begin July 1, Murley said, and applications were due by the end of October.