What is Q-Comp? By KATIE KOLT HALL, Staff Writer

Quality Compensation for Teachers, or Q-Comp, is up for renewal this year. At the May Falls School Board meeting, a split vote resulted with the program being tabled until the June meeting as board members looked for union feedback and information on the program. A decision on continuing the program must be made by the board in June.

At the May meeting, Superintendent Jeff Peura provided board members graphs of Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment test scores during the Q-Comp program period.

However, union leaders John Sandberg and Kevin Grover told The Journal recently that these scores are only one component of the program.

Q-Comp was started in the district during the 2006-2007 school year. The program pays teachers an additional stipend of $3,000 on top of their contract pay if they meet all five benchmarks determined by the program. Thirty-five percent of Q-Comp funding comes from a local levy, and 65 percent comes from the state. If Q-Comp were discontinued, Grover noted, the money would not be available to the district at all.

“I think the program has overall improved the quality of education over the last five years,” Sandberg said.

“I think it would be a loss to the district if they don’t go ahead,” Grover agreed.

The criteria for each teacher are: develop and implement two professional growth plan “projects” each year; attend weekly learning team meetings; participate in peer and administration observations; perform self assessments; and collectively meet school-wide student academic achievement goals.

Student testing

One of the ways the district measures progress and sets goals is through students’ standardized testing results. And while this is an important part of the Q-Comp picture, this is only one of five criteria that are part of the program, the two teachers say.

Grover and Sandberg said for the last four years the district has relied on data from the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress tests. The NWEA test is given multiple times each year. The MCA test is given annually to students in particular grades, and therefore is less effective in measuring growth over the course of a year, they say. For example, Grover noted, an eighth grader won’t test again in MCA math until their junior year.

“NWEA allows us to track and see if a kid is making the progress, several times per year, in the right direction,” Grover said. He said the MCA test is “a snapshot as an eighth grader and then we hope they make it as an eleventh grader.”

Sandberg said that as an instructor, this test is particularly useful in the classroom because results are returned a few weeks after the test is given. Teachers can then refine their lesson plans and return to material that caused problems for students, he said. Results show which questions were missed so that specific material can be highlighted and reinforced.

For these reasons, the district has chosen to use NWEA MAP tests when creating its student academic achievement goal. After the first round of NWEA testing in the fall, the district sets goals for each student’s target score to be earned on the spring test. The district’s student academic achievement goal this year was for 71.28 percent of students in grades 3-10 to meet or exceed their target growth on the math NWEA MAP assessment.

Similar goals have been set each of the five school years. The district has alternated between focusing on reading and math depending on which subject has challenged a majority of students. These goals have been attained each year, Sandberg said.

Of the $3,000 teachers receive for successful participation in the program, $600 is dependent on meeting the schoolwide goal. The other $2,400 is an all-or-nothing proposition for meeting the other four components.

“Before Q-Comp, we never had a district goal in anything,” Sandberg said. “We never had a mission statement. Now each year we have to pick something these kids are low on these tests.”

The students’ scores may be over or under the state averages, but the goals are set to show a majority of students have made progress throughout the year.

“We learned they’re weak here, they’re weak here,” Sandberg said. “We try different things to see what we can add to help the kids.”

The results from these tests over the past five years have given teachers additional information about their classes and have allowed them to teach more individually to students and groups in a class rather than assuming “an eighth grader is an eighth grader,” Grover said.

The tough part, they say, is that students do not learn or test in a bubble — each student is different and varying factors play into how they perform on a test. Even having only half the students taught by Q-Comp teachers wouldn’t show if the program is ultimately responsible for benefits or losses in test scores, they say.

One of the ways in which cross-disciplinary interaction has become necessary is in meeting the testing goals. Sandberg said he incorporated math lessons into his history classes in order to help meet the NEWA test goal. For example, they did math in calculating election results and learning about the electoral college. Students in Sandberg’s class are now responsible for calculating their own percentage grade on tests given the number of questions they answered correctly. When reading skills were the focus, Grover said he worked in his math class to increase reading comprehension on the technical subject.

Professional growth plans

Students would most directly see the results of some of the teachers professional growth plan “projects.” Teachers have to determine two new things each year they would like to “enhance what they do in the classrooms,” Grover said.

Some professional growth plans have included learning a new technology, like interactive white boards or publishing a Web page. Others have included a new unit in their subject or began a group project.

One example from this year of a group project that linked multiple classrooms and the community was the outdoor education day held for the first time May 17. Seventh and tenth grade students participated in some of the eight outdoor activities, directed by eight Falls teachers, planned throughout the community that day.

Sandberg said one of his projects was to tabulate the results from each test he administered and later request student feedback on why they felt they answered a particular question right or wrong. This helped him change lesson plans to cover topics of particular challenge the next year.

The teachers note that because the projects were a required part of Q-Comp, teachers may not have done many of the items without it being a program requirement.

Sandberg said all of the teachers have improved in their job as a result of the professional growth plan projects.

“I don’t care if you’re the best teacher. You could win the teacher of the year award,” Sandberg said. “And these professional developments make you do something you wouldn’t normally do. ... It pushes you to do more than you would normally do without it.”

Grover said that although teachers before Q-Comp would set goals and try new things, this documented process ensures that goals are met on a timely basis and what is attempted is accomplished.

Teacher collaboration

Under Q-Comp, teachers are required to have two peers come and observe their class and they are also required to sit-in on two teachers’ classes. There is also one administrative observation per year. This is separate from the three-times-annually administrative review process for probationary teachers before tenure is granted.

Teachers are asked to discuss with their peers what they found worked well in the classroom and what areas could be improved upon. Topics for review are selecting instructional goals, managing the classroom, communication, discussion/questioning techniques, engaging students, providing feedback to students and reflecting on teaching. Teachers meet with their peers and administrator before and after the session to discuss the process.

“It forces us to collaborate for the first time,” Sandberg said. “I’ve been here 15 years, the last five with Q-Comp. The 10 years before that, not very many times did I sit down with another teacher and talk about tests, talk about how I’m doing, come and observe me, give me help and suggestions — what am I good at and what I need help on. It never happened before.

“In the last five years, there has been tons of collaboration time,” he stressed.

Without Q-Comp, veteran teachers would not regularly receive observation and review after their initial three-year period.

“Even the best teacher in the world, there’s always things they can improve on,” Grover said. “And you get an outside view.”

Sandberg said the scariest piece of the Q-Comp program for teachers when they first applied for the program was the assessment aspect. It has since proven to be one of the most beneficial, he said.

Teachers are also required to complete four self-assessments per year. This also provides fodder for discussions with other teachers, Sandberg said, as they realize they face many of the same challenges.

Successful participants in the Falls Q-Comp program also must attend at least 27 of 32 weekly learning team meetings throughout the school year. These meetings of six to eight teachers last about one hour and provide teachers time to discuss specific aspects of the Q-Comp program and discuss ways in which they can improve as instructors.

Career ladder positions

Another aspect of the program is career ladder positions. These positions, including a teacher mentor program, are dependent on continued Q-Comp funding. These additional positions beyond their teaching contracts require additional duties but come with additional pay.

Six quality oversight committee members receive an additional $1,500. They attend group meetings and resolve Q-Comp issues, approve and review criteria and evaluation forms, coordinate professional development plans and consider data to determine site goals among other tasks.

About a dozen learning team leaders, those who run the weekly small-group meetings, receive an additional $1,500 per year. They set meeting agendas, meet with other learning team leaders and report on the progress of the team.

Professional development team members, of which there are six, work closely with each teacher’s professional development growth plans and develop requirements for meeting school goals. For this, they each receive $1,500.

Mentors receive a $1,500 stipend as well for participating in the program. The number of mentors depends on the number of first-year teachers in the district. A veteran teacher who has completed mentor training is paired with each freshman teacher for a school year and is required to meet regularly with them to discuss challenges and answer any questions the new teacher may have.