Staff reports
Birch Grove Community School of Tofte is among 450+ Minnesota schools statewide that have applied for federal stimulus funding designated for education.
Three hundred school districts, 116 charter schools and 28 union locals in Minnesota have signed on to “Race to the Top.” Birch Grove is the only school in Cook County to get on board.
“We have a lot of faith in the Minnesota Department of Education to be one of the states to receive an award, and to allow for guidelines that will be something that our school can work with. We see this as another great opportunity – similar to Q-Comp – that we don’t want to miss out on,” say Diane Blanchette and Lisa Hoff, co-directors at Birch Grove. “And if it turns out that this program does not work for us, we can bow out at any time.”
The Minnesota Department of Education announced its application for a slice of the $4.3 billion in stimulus funding dedicated to education grants. The 1,000-page application explained how Minnesota schools would use the money, earmarking improving teaching and data collection. The guidelines allow states and districts to opt out of the program with 30 days notice.
Birch Grove Community School was the 21st charter school to enter the state’s Quality Compensation Program (Q-Comp).
Q-Comp is designed to advance the teaching profession by providing structural professional
development and evaluation, as well as an alternative pay schedule that compensates teachers based on performance. The program brings together career advancement, professional development and compensation linked to academic achievement. It includes a locally agreedupon peer evaluation process for every teacher that is based on skills, responsibilities and student academic growth.
“Q-Comp has been a positive program for our staff and school. It has allowed us to create a structure within our school that promotes professional
” development and creates schoolwide academic goals, as well as goals for our staff. Some of our goals are linked to student performance, while other goals are not. The program is flexible enough to take into consideration who we are and what we want. Thebonus is that staff can get compensated for what they would be doing anyway without this program! It is our hope that Race to the Top will work as well – or even better – than our participation in Q-Comp,” said Blanchette.
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