A Preliminary Report on the Effects of the TAP Program on the Attraction and Retention of Fully Credentialed Teachers in API 1-5 Schools. Planning, Assessment, and Research Division Publication

California created the Teaching as a Priority (TAP) Program to increase the proportion of fully certified teachers in low performing schools. TAP funding to attract and retain fully certified teachers in these schools was to be disbursed through the schools at the individual level (e.g., signing bonuses) and school level (e.g., funds for additional literacy/math coach services). This study examined the familiarity of teachers currently employed in the low performing schools with TAP incentives, also asking them to rank the effects that TAP incentives would have on their continuing to teach at their current schools. Similar questions were presented to teachers who had moved from lower to higher performing schools and teachers who had resigned from low performing school. A sample of principals also completed interviews on their experiences implementing TAP. Teachers in the low performing schools had little familiarity with the TAP incentives, and they did not rank the impact of TAP incentives on their likelihood to remain at the low performing schools very highly. These results may have been due, at least in part, to the delayed implementation of the TAP program, which was also reflected in principal interviews. Appended are: (1) Current Teachers at API 1-5 Schools--Demographic Variables by Group (Population and Respondents); (2) Teachers Who Transferred from API 1-5 Schools to API 6-10 Schools--Demographic Variables by Group (Non-Participants and Respondents); (3) Teachers Who Resigned from API 1-5 Schools--Demographic Variables by Group (Non-Participants and Respondents); (4) Principal Interviews--Demographic Variables by Group (Non-Participants and Respondents); and (5) Nonparametric Tests of Significance among Groups. (Contains 70 tables and 9 figures.) (SM)