TAP Brochure

The TAP brochure offers information about TAP's goals, elements and proven results in raising student achievement across a diverse set of urban, suburban and rural schools throughout the country. It also provides ways in which individuals, foundations and corporations can partner with TAP to help expand and sustain the system.

The Effectiveness of TAP: Research Summary 2010

by NIET
February 2010
For 10 years, TAP™: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement has pioneered a comprehensive approach to school reform focused on the quality of teaching and the advancement of effective teachers in schools. This comprehensive system of reform is impacting over 7,500 teachers and 85,000 students in schools across the country. Researchers at NIET and elsewhere have studied TAP's effectiveness at raising student achievement, improving the quality of instruction and increasing the ability of high-need schools to recruit, retain and support teachers. This document describes some of the most important results that have emerged from the research to date.

More Than Widgets: TAP: A Systemic Approach to Increased Teaching Effectiveness

by Dr. Jonathan Eckert, Ed.D.
December 2009
This paper outlines how the TAP system effectively addresses the problems that were identified in The New Teacher Project's 2009 report, The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness. More specifically, The Widget Effect made four recommendations to improve teaching effectiveness: 1) differentiate teachers based on effectiveness; 2) identify and train expert evaluators; 3) integrate evaluation with teacher support; and 4) provide options for ineffective teachers. In this paper, Eckert explains how TAP fulfills each of these recommendations in meaningful, sustainable ways.

TAP Weaves a Tapestry of Achievement
at Algiers Charter Schools

2009
Algiers Charter Schools Association Case Study (New Orleans, LA)
This case study highlights the implementation of TAP in the Algiers Charter Schools Association (ACSA), which was formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to serve a disadvantaged community in New Orleans, Louisiana. This case study explains the history of TAP and the impact it has had on improving teaching skills and student achievement in the Algiers charter schools. After one year of TAP implementation, the six schools with value-added data made at least one year of student achievement gains, and five made more than a year's growth.

Aligned by Design: How Teacher Compensation Reform Can Support and Reinforce Other Educational Reforms

by Craig Jerald for the Center for American Progress (CAP)
July 2009
Written for CAP by leading education researcher Craig Jerald, this report counteracts the failures of existing professional development and evaluation systems by citing TAP as a comprehensive system that reforms teacher compensation, along with other support structures, in an effective and sustainable way. Jerald uses TAP to illustrate the importance of building human capital at the school and district levels. The report notes that performance compensation for master and mentor teachers in TAP schools—the "less famous" aspect of this performance-pay reform—is essential to its ability to not only recognize and reward effective teaching but to also systemically generate improvements in teacher effectiveness.

Creating a Successful Performance Compensation System for Educators

by Members of the Working Group on Teacher Quality
2007
This document reflects the findings of the Working Group on Teacher Quality, whose participants share information and build consensus among organizations and experts active on the issue of performance pay and teacher compensation reform.