The most well-known component of QComp, enacted by the Legislature in 2005, is peformance pay for teachers. In addition to performance pay, school districts that implement QComp need to have career advancement options for teachers, job-embedded professional learning, and teacher evaluation. School districts who participate receive funding that includes a combination of state aid and a board-approved local levy. At this time Spring Lake Park has made a purposeful decision not to be involved in QComp.

 

Over the past few years, it has been our belief that rather than having an external program such as QComp define our professional learning and teacher evaluation practices, we needed to build the capacity and commitment to the type of professional practice we now have in place.

 

While QComp would bring additional revenue to our school district, it is a program that is not part of our basic per-pupil funding and could be eliminated by the Legislature at any time.

 

In addition, a portion of the resources received would come as the result of a local levy. We did not want to implement practices that were only in place because of an external program and the resources it brings. Rather, we wanted to focus on building a systemic plan that will be sustained even if the external program and resources go away through legislative action. Until we were ready to use these QComp funds productively as part of our core program, with effective professional practices and commitment to these practices in place, we did not want to implement QComp.

 

For the past five years, Spring Lake Park Schools has been focused on improving student learning through high quality professional learning practices. During this time we have established instructional coaches who work with teachers on a regular basis to improve their professional practice. Teachers have the opportunity to walk through and observe one another teach. We have implemented collaborative teams in schools that meet on a weekly basis --if not more often -- to study student learning needs, plan instruction, respond to student learning, and engage in study groups or other professional learning activities. Professional learning is at the center of all staff meetings in each of our schools, as well as those days that teachers work when students are not in school. Having these elements in place now exceeds the expectations of QComp.

 

Finally, now that we have these practices in place, and QComp would bring additional resources to build on our success and expand professional learning to improve student learning, this is something we will study as a possibility.