Rewarding Excellence in Instruction and Leadership

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

Rewarding Excellence in Instruction and Leadership (REIL) is a transformational performance-based management program led by Maricopa County’s ESA (MCESA) in collaboration with five Maricopa County school districts, in an effort to strengthen the educator workforce resulting in improved student academic progress for 27,145 students, attending thirty-three schools in high-need districts. MCESA, through the REIL program, has created a systemic performance-based management system (PBMS) that transforms how effective teachers and leaders in high-need schools are currently recruited, retained, supported, and compensated. REIL program goals include: (1) ensure students graduate college-and-career ready by increasing student achievement; (2) enhance careers by implementing a fiscally sustainable PBCS; and (3) develop talent in teaching and leading through a sustainable, comprehensive program of performance-based evaluation and support. REIL’s vision is focused on transforming education through its’ ground-breaking Alliance between MCESA and Alliance Members, including the Governor’s Office, the Arizona Department of Education, business leaders, and teacher and leader professional organizations. Focused on student success, this Alliance is serving to create the tipping point that leads to quality implementation of a comprehensive PBMS and aligned policies that will identify variations in teacher and principal performance and reward such variations accordingly. By rewarding excellence, as well as addressing ineffective teaching and leading, REIL has begun to institutionalize the conditions that ensure students graduate college-and-career ready, which will be critical as Arizona strives to shift to a knowledge-based economy. Outcomes realized include increased student academic progress; development and implementation of cross-district observation tools; a student growth model; and a data management system. In addition, REIL has served as a model for better intergovernmental cooperation, and has improved constituent services by ensuring the county’s school districts have what they need to ensure an effective educator workforce, while also ensuring they meet and exceed newly adopted state standards.