Approve the Payment to the University of South Florida (USF) for Year Three Services Associated with Their Partnership in Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) Federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) Grant, PR/Award #S374A070100-09 (Student Services and Federal Programs Division)

The United States Department of Education (USDOE) awarded $15,402,538 to HCPS to implement the TIF grant (Project Performance Optimized With Effective Rewards – POWER), which provides differentiated compensation for teachers and administrators at high poverty schools, in alignment with the state and district’s Merit Award Program (MAP). The awarded amount for year three of the five year project is $3,657,044. Faculty and staff from USF College of Education’s Anchin Center, through the Tampa Bay Educational Partnership, a formal partnership with the University, are providing expert leadership training to assist school administrators in developing the specialized skills necessary to become effective leaders at high needs, high poverty schools. Dr. Brian Mann of the Anchin Center will serve as the project’s external evaluator. A description of the leadership training and evaluation plan is found in “Attachment A - Scope of Work,” of the attached sub-agreement. Year three of the five year project began July 1, 2009, and ends June 30, 2010.

Funding for this project, in the amount of $169,242, is provided by the USDOE, PR/Award # S374A070100-09. HCPS is the grant’s fiscal agent and project funds reside with the district.

Under the terms of the grant, an external evaluator from USF, contracted by HCPS, through this sub-agreement, will evaluate the project, providing Annual Reports to HCPS and the USDOE. Copies of the Annual Reports and the final evaluation report will be provided to the district's Office of Assessment and Accountability. The year two Annual Report has been submitted to the USDOE and will be amended in October to include incentive payout data for year two of the project.