Hillsborough County Public Schools Business
Action Item

DATE: Tuesday, September 21, 2010
TO: School Board Members
FROM: MaryEllen Elia, Superintendent

SUBJECT / RECOMMENDATIONS

Approve Contract with the Hillsborough Education Foundation to Provide Support for the Collection of Parent Consent Forms for the Measures of Effective Teaching Research Project (Information and Technology Division)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project is a national research project which has been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Independent researchers, in partnership with school districts, principals, teachers, and unions, will work over the next two years to collect six types of data, which samples the real work of real teachers in real classrooms. The data will be collected from english/language arts, mathematics and science classrooms in grades four through nine. The data will be used to develop fair and reliable measures of effective teaching, which together will serve as an accurate indicator of a teacher’s impact on student achievement.

Our district has been selected, along with five other school districts in the nation, to participate in the MET project. Due to eligibility requirements for Year 2, we are estimating that 84 Hillsborough County elementary, middle and high schools will continue to participate. Within the eligible schools, we are estimating that 556 consenting teachers will participate in Year 2 and over 12,000 students will be included in the research project. Parent consent is required for each student to participate.

Due to the parent consent requirement, the Hillsborough Education Foundation (HEF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, is being retained as the consultant to provide the support needed for the collection of the 12,000 parent consent forms. HEF will provide incentives to each elementary, middle and high school student who returns a completed consent form to his/her teacher.

ANNUAL DISTRICT GOAL(S) AND CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(S)

* Increase promotion rates at all grade levels and the percentage of high school graduates

FINANCIAL IMPACT (Budgeted: Yes)

The amount of $122,400 is budgeted in the MET Project for the consultant fee and support for consent collection.

EVALUATION

SUBMITTED BY: Faychone Durant, Administrator on Special Assignment, MET Research Project

David J. Steele, Ph.D.
Chief Information and Technology Officer and Project Director for Empowering Effective Teachers
(813) 272-4600
Gretchen Saunders
Chief Business Officer
(813) 272-4270
A 5.04
Hillsborough County Public Schools (Florida) * Mtg.#20100921_426 * Section A Item# 5.04