College of Education and Health Professions Announces Partnership With Teacher Advancement Program

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Through a new partnership with the Milken Family Foundations’ Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), the University of Arkansas’s College of Education and Health Professions will be involved with a national education reform model designed to retain and motivate teachers. Gary Stark, executive director of Arkansas TAP, will make the UA campus his headquarters while he assists the 14 TAP schools in the state.

"The college is pleased to have this opportunity to work with TAP," said Reed Greenwood, dean of the college. "It is an innovative program, and the Milken Family Foundation is a leader in educational reform nationally."

The TAP model applies business principles to education and offers teachers the opportunity to progress in their profession without being forced to leave the classroom. Schools that adopt the TAP model feature collaborative working relationships among teachers and opportunities for increased responsibilities and pay.

"Effective teachers are key to a high quality education," Greenwood said, "and improvement of K-12 education is at the heart of economic development in Arkansas."

Greenwood, who served on the state’s Blue Ribbon Commission on education, noted that the commission’s report recommended some type of variation in teacher pay, such as career ladders with pay differentials. The TAP model is based on this approach and has potential for improving K-12 education, he said.

"The college is addressing the education improvement question on many fronts, and we welcome the chance to work closely with the TAP model," Greenwood said. "Our faculty are eager to examine, innovate and promote models that work in the schools."

TAP director Stark is enthusiastic about the partnership with the university.

"Besides the chance to work with experienced researchers, I think that TAP will benefit from the college’s capacity to provide the technical assistance needed to handle data and statistics," Stark said. "I expect to work closely with the college’s faculty and staff."

Stark also will work with the Arkansas Leadership Academy, a statewide partnership of education, government, and business and industry, coordinated by the College of Education and Health Professions. He is a UA graduate student, pursuing his doctorate in educational leadership, and his dissertation will involve a study of teacher attitudes and opinions of performance-based pay and accountability.

TAP was introduced by Lowell Milken of the Milken Family Foundation in 1999 as a way to retain excellent teachers in the schools by making teaching a highly rewarding career choice. Today, 14 Arkansas schools have joined the program from Lincoln, Little Rock, Nettleton, Rogers and Van Buren school districts. According to the Milken Family Foundation, a study of their initial demonstration schools in Arizona showed significant achievement gains in the first two years of implementation.