PITTSBURGH -- The
Pittsburgh Public Schools board will accept a $40 million grant from Microsoft founder Bill Gates' foundation to improve the way teachers are hired and evaluated.
The school board voted at a special meeting Wednesday to approve the grant, the largest ever made directly to the district. The money will be combined with funds yet to be raised from public and private sources to develop the $85 million program.
The
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding similar initiatives involving charter schools in Los Angeles and school districts in Hillsborough County, Fla., and Memphis, Tenn.
Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said the money is a morale-booster for city schools and will be used to concentrate on effective teachers and give the district resources to hire those teachers.
"If teachers can show they're highly effective in moving student achievement, they will be eligible for what we call 'career ladder opportunities.' Those are opportunities to work in high-impact positions and receive extra compensation for that work," Roosevelt said.
WTAE Channel 4's Jon Greiner reported that this new program may mean the end of the tenure program, as it's currently known.
Teachers in Pennsylvania receive tenure after three years -- but in Pittsburgh, tenure would be harder to earn.
"We should be sure that the teachers that we're giving tenure to treat it as a milestone and that they have proven the ability to move student achievement," Roosevelt said.
As a specific example of what the school district wants to do, Roosevelt said it would put its best teachers in the biggest trouble spots for achievement -- ninth and 10th grades -- to help decrease the dropout rate, teach standards of college readiness and teach the ability to do independent work to get ready for college.
The program also would concentrate on improving discipline by showing teachers how to manage classrooms effectively.
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