[Music]
how do we pay our teachers more that is
a question that keeps principals
district leaders superintendents and
policy makers up at night as a high
school math teacher I loved teaching I
love my kids I love my families I love
the content I loved it all in my
classroom my kids were breaking down
barriers
I saw the student who had previously
failed his last math class achieved one
of the highest scores on our state exam
I saw the student who said to me that he
wasn’t the college type can mean his
college acceptance letter in my
classroom my kids were defying
stereotypes they were doing what society
said it was too late for them to do in
my classroom I was changing the world
I believe that teaching is one of the
most patriotic acts in this country
but as a teacher I did not feel
patriotic I felt broke I felt very broke
I was struggling on a salary of $33,000
but I knew that this was my life’s work
and purpose I knew that I wanted to
reach even more kids and I knew that I
wanted to create a different reality for
our teachers so I became a principal how
do we pay our teachers more well to
answer that question it requires us to
think about school a little different
and that’s tough because school is one
of the few experiences good or bad that
we all share and for most of us that’s a
teacher in the front of a classroom with
a group of students for most of us I’m
sure that vision probably doesn’t
include one of my favorite people
Beyonce
but she is exactly who I think about
when I think about school differently
take a moment and think about all the
different venues where beyonce has
performed the Super Bowl Madison Square
Garden the Grammys the BT Awards some of
the largest venues in the US and in the
world so how does she get access to them
well let’s look at her data she has
released six solo albums each one of
them went straight to number one
therefore there is a hundred percent
probability if Beyonce drops an album
tomorrow it will be number one and an
entertainers job is to make people feel
and Beyonce certainly excels at that
when I listen to her music
I feel confident and empowered and my
identity as a black woman so with such a
clear impact we want her to reach as
many people as possible and not just
through recordings but live great data
leads to access to a larger venue which
leads to an even greater impact so how
does apply to paying our teachers more
well there are Beyonce educators in
every single school building dropping
number-one albums year after year in the
form of mine blowing results with their
kids so with great data they should
receive access to a larger venue which
would lead to an even greater impact but
this is not the case in education
because for a teacher there is really
only one venue a classroom it is also
incredibly difficult to find a Beyonce
as
cater to place in every single classroom
in a building and this is something that
all schools struggle with however this
challenge is multiplied and low-income
communities at Ranson IB middle school
where I am the proud principal sixty
five sixty five percent of our scholars
come to us below grade level so we do
not have time to wait on a Beyonce
educator to magically materialize in
every single classroom so rather than
asking the question how can we place a
Beyonce educator in every single
classroom we flip the question how can
we rethink our venues and place every
child in front of a Beyonce educator
while paying that educator more here’s
how we did it
meet Bobby miles mr. miles was actually
a pre-med major at winston-salem State
University and his dreams to be a
pediatrician were completely derailed
after a summer medical internship which
he hated
so a mentor suggested to him that given
his love for kids he considered teaching
and it was something that he thought
about before but shied away from after
filling the profession wasn’t respected
but he took the risk and ten years ago
he joined the Branson Ivy family as a
sixth grade science teacher and pretty
soon he made his mark he had some of the
highest science data in the district he
was also a district Teacher of the Year
finalist so he may not look like Beyonce
but he is definitely a Beyonce educator
but at the time mr. miles was only
reaching a hundred and twenty students
which was just ten percent of our school
population so he was working really hard
and getting great results but his venue
was holding him back
today mr. miles reaches 937 scholars
which is a hundred percent of our school
population now how we did it is not
rocket science we just simply rethought
our venues five years ago we partnered
with an organization called a public
impact and through that partnership we
created what’s called an opportunity
culture an opportunity culture expands
the reach of effective educators to
reach more students while paying that
educator more so there’s many ways to do
this but the way that we chose is to
have excellent educators leading teacher
teams so there was a new position that
we created called a multi classroom
leader or we like to call it an MCL mr.
miles was one of our first MC ELLs
and in this role he spent his time in
primarily three ways the first is that
he created all the lesson plans for the
entire science department
so at Ranson IB we have five science
teachers and every single day each one
of those teachers is delivering a lesson
created by mr. miles so even though he
cannot physically be in five places at
once
his instruction is there the second way
that he spends his time is that he
serves as the instructional coach for
those five science teachers so every
single week he visits their classroom
and he has a locked in feedback time to
celebrate what’s going really well and
identify one bite-sized action step for
the next week and lastly but most
importantly mr. miles still gets to be a
teacher the last thing that we want to
do is provide only one opportunity for
our teachers to excel in the profession
and having them leave the classroom so
every single week Mr mouse sits down
with his teachers and they analyze data
to determine what students need a little
bit more help and he creates a lesson
plan tailored to those to their needs
and he delivers that lesson plan himself
in a small group setting mr. miles
just like Beyonce creates really strong
connections with kids black males make
up less than 2% of the teaching
profession however a trance and ib1
and three of our students is a black boy
so not only have we expanded mr. mouths
instructional impact but we’ve expanded
the opportunity for our black boys to
see themselves in their teacher
so we’ve created an opportunity for
culture of culture for our teachers but
we’ve also created an opportunity
culture for our kids every single child
comes to us at a different starting
point and a unique way in which they
learn and it is our responsibility as
educators to meet them where they are
and to create a personalized learning
experience for every single child so
there was a second position that we
created through opportunity culture
called a blended learning teacher meet
Molly Whalen miss Whalen was actually an
experienced math teacher and she had
left the classroom to explore her
interests in graduate school to become a
social worker and while there she deeply
missed the classroom so she moved back
to Charlotte and joined the Ranson Ivy
family as a 7th grade math teacher and
after just one year it was so clear that
miss Whalen was a Beyonce educator
students at all levels in her classroom
made high growth meaning that they
achieved more than a year’s worth of
growth and less than a year’s time so we
approached her about taking on this new
position of becoming a blended learning
teacher or for the sake of an acronym we
call it a BLT
and in the role of being a BLT she would
take what she knew about great
instruction and combine that with the
use of technology to create a
personalized learning experience for her
students so in her classroom she would
have two groups of students one group
who would need just a little bit more
help would be with her face-to-face
engaged in instruction the second group
of students would be online engaged in a
lesson that she created
halfway through the lesson they would
switch the students previously with her
were now online practicing what they
just learned and the students previously
online are now with her enriching that
content
she was so phenomenal in this position
that we could not stop there today miss
Whalen is an MCL just like mr. miles
leading a teaching team of three eighth
grade math teachers she is now reaching
323 students with which is a third of
our building and she is assisting in
supporting those teachers and
implementing the same blended learning
model that she had in her classroom so
we’ve created this opportunity culture
for our teachers then we’ve created this
opportunity culture for our kids but how
does this actually pay our teachers more
well I received my budget prior to the
beginning of every school year and
through flexibility that I have I can
create positions and through this
flexibility I can trade and create our
opportunity culture positions adding at
least $16,000 on to their teacher base
salary and this is something that I’m
doing within my existing budget so this
does not cost me more does not cost the
district more and the great thing about
this is is that it doesn’t go away in
comparison to some grant supplement
programs so this is truly sustainable it
won’t go away in a year even
five years and what’s been the impact of
opportunity culture in our building
well our staff they’re happier there’s
been some conversation around whether
it’s not tip it’s fair to pay some
teachers more than others but our
teachers truly value the support of
their mcl no longer our teachers staying
up late at night trying to figure out
what they’re teaching the next day they
have the support of their mcl and we are
making teaching more sustainable through
improving work/life balance secondly our
teachers are getting better faster they
are receiving feedback every single week
from a Beyonce educator and when our
teachers get better our kids get better
and lastly but most importantly our kids
are learning
we have been ranked number two in the
district for our growth and language
arts and number three in the district
for our growth in science opportunity
culture is making a difference I said
before that I believe that teaching is
one of the most patriotic acts in this
country every single day parents send
their greatest gift to a teacher the
fate of this country rests on the
shoulders of our teachers the leaders of
tomorrow are sitting in classrooms today
with our teachers if we do not change
the way that we pay our teachers because
their pay does not reflect this impact
more teachers will continue to leave the
profession because they are tired of
working two or three jobs just to
provide for their family or even worse
those who have the
potential to be great teachers just like
mr. miles and miss Whelan won’t even
consider their profession at all
opportunity culture it makes a
difference and we took the risk five
years ago a trance and I be to say yes
to public impact and being one of the
first district schools in the nation to
change the way we pay our teachers so
we’re serving not just as the case study
of how to make this happen but we’re
proving that it’s possible
every student everywhere every day
deserves access to a great teacher and a
trance an IB that is not a slogan it is
a reality thank you
[Applause]
how do we pay our teachers more that is
a question that keeps principals
district leaders superintendents and
policy makers up at night as a high
school math teacher I loved teaching I
love my kids I love my families I love
the content I loved it all in my
classroom my kids were breaking down
barriers
I saw the student who had previously
failed his last math class achieved one
of the highest scores on our state exam
I saw the student who said to me that he
wasn’t the college type can mean his
college acceptance letter in my
classroom my kids were defying
stereotypes they were doing what society
said it was too late for them to do in
my classroom I was changing the world
I believe that teaching is one of the
most patriotic acts in this country
but as a teacher I did not feel
patriotic I felt broke I felt very broke
I was struggling on a salary of $33,000
but I knew that this was my life’s work
and purpose I knew that I wanted to
reach even more kids and I knew that I
wanted to create a different reality for
our teachers so I became a principal how
do we pay our teachers more well to
answer that question it requires us to
think about school a little different
and that’s tough because school is one
of the few experiences good or bad that
we all share and for most of us that’s a
teacher in the front of a classroom with
a group of students for most of us I’m
sure that vision probably doesn’t
include one of my favorite people
Beyonce
but she is exactly who I think about
when I think about school differently
take a moment and think about all the
different venues where beyonce has
performed the Super Bowl Madison Square
Garden the Grammys the BT Awards some of
the largest venues in the US and in the
world so how does she get access to them
well let’s look at her data she has
released six solo albums each one of
them went straight to number one
therefore there is a hundred percent
probability if Beyonce drops an album
tomorrow it will be number one and an
entertainers job is to make people feel
and Beyonce certainly excels at that
when I listen to her music
I feel confident and empowered and my
identity as a black woman so with such a
clear impact we want her to reach as
many people as possible and not just
through recordings but live great data
leads to access to a larger venue which
leads to an even greater impact so how
does apply to paying our teachers more
well there are Beyonce educators in
every single school building dropping
number-one albums year after year in the
form of mine blowing results with their
kids so with great data they should
receive access to a larger venue which
would lead to an even greater impact but
this is not the case in education
because for a teacher there is really
only one venue a classroom it is also
incredibly difficult to find a Beyonce
as
cater to place in every single classroom
in a building and this is something that
all schools struggle with however this
challenge is multiplied and low-income
communities at Ranson IB middle school
where I am the proud principal sixty
five sixty five percent of our scholars
come to us below grade level so we do
not have time to wait on a Beyonce
educator to magically materialize in
every single classroom so rather than
asking the question how can we place a
Beyonce educator in every single
classroom we flip the question how can
we rethink our venues and place every
child in front of a Beyonce educator
while paying that educator more here’s
how we did it
meet Bobby miles mr. miles was actually
a pre-med major at winston-salem State
University and his dreams to be a
pediatrician were completely derailed
after a summer medical internship which
he hated
so a mentor suggested to him that given
his love for kids he considered teaching
and it was something that he thought
about before but shied away from after
filling the profession wasn’t respected
but he took the risk and ten years ago
he joined the Branson Ivy family as a
sixth grade science teacher and pretty
soon he made his mark he had some of the
highest science data in the district he
was also a district Teacher of the Year
finalist so he may not look like Beyonce
but he is definitely a Beyonce educator
but at the time mr. miles was only
reaching a hundred and twenty students
which was just ten percent of our school
population so he was working really hard
and getting great results but his venue
was holding him back
today mr. miles reaches 937 scholars
which is a hundred percent of our school
population now how we did it is not
rocket science we just simply rethought
our venues five years ago we partnered
with an organization called a public
impact and through that partnership we
created what’s called an opportunity
culture an opportunity culture expands
the reach of effective educators to
reach more students while paying that
educator more so there’s many ways to do
this but the way that we chose is to
have excellent educators leading teacher
teams so there was a new position that
we created called a multi classroom
leader or we like to call it an MCL mr.
miles was one of our first MC ELLs
and in this role he spent his time in
primarily three ways the first is that
he created all the lesson plans for the
entire science department
so at Ranson IB we have five science
teachers and every single day each one
of those teachers is delivering a lesson
created by mr. miles so even though he
cannot physically be in five places at
once
his instruction is there the second way
that he spends his time is that he
serves as the instructional coach for
those five science teachers so every
single week he visits their classroom
and he has a locked in feedback time to
celebrate what’s going really well and
identify one bite-sized action step for
the next week and lastly but most
importantly mr. miles still gets to be a
teacher the last thing that we want to
do is provide only one opportunity for
our teachers to excel in the profession
and having them leave the classroom so
every single week Mr mouse sits down
with his teachers and they analyze data
to determine what students need a little
bit more help and he creates a lesson
plan tailored to those to their needs
and he delivers that lesson plan himself
in a small group setting mr. miles
just like Beyonce creates really strong
connections with kids black males make
up less than 2% of the teaching
profession however a trance and ib1
and three of our students is a black boy
so not only have we expanded mr. mouths
instructional impact but we’ve expanded
the opportunity for our black boys to
see themselves in their teacher
so we’ve created an opportunity for
culture of culture for our teachers but
we’ve also created an opportunity
culture for our kids every single child
comes to us at a different starting
point and a unique way in which they
learn and it is our responsibility as
educators to meet them where they are
and to create a personalized learning
experience for every single child so
there was a second position that we
created through opportunity culture
called a blended learning teacher meet
Molly Whalen miss Whalen was actually an
experienced math teacher and she had
left the classroom to explore her
interests in graduate school to become a
social worker and while there she deeply
missed the classroom so she moved back
to Charlotte and joined the Ranson Ivy
family as a 7th grade math teacher and
after just one year it was so clear that
miss Whalen was a Beyonce educator
students at all levels in her classroom
made high growth meaning that they
achieved more than a year’s worth of
growth and less than a year’s time so we
approached her about taking on this new
position of becoming a blended learning
teacher or for the sake of an acronym we
call it a BLT
and in the role of being a BLT she would
take what she knew about great
instruction and combine that with the
use of technology to create a
personalized learning experience for her
students so in her classroom she would
have two groups of students one group
who would need just a little bit more
help would be with her face-to-face
engaged in instruction the second group
of students would be online engaged in a
lesson that she created
halfway through the lesson they would
switch the students previously with her
were now online practicing what they
just learned and the students previously
online are now with her enriching that
content
she was so phenomenal in this position
that we could not stop there today miss
Whalen is an MCL just like mr. miles
leading a teaching team of three eighth
grade math teachers she is now reaching
323 students with which is a third of
our building and she is assisting in
supporting those teachers and
implementing the same blended learning
model that she had in her classroom so
we’ve created this opportunity culture
for our teachers then we’ve created this
opportunity culture for our kids but how
does this actually pay our teachers more
well I received my budget prior to the
beginning of every school year and
through flexibility that I have I can
create positions and through this
flexibility I can trade and create our
opportunity culture positions adding at
least $16,000 on to their teacher base
salary and this is something that I’m
doing within my existing budget so this
does not cost me more does not cost the
district more and the great thing about
this is is that it doesn’t go away in
comparison to some grant supplement
programs so this is truly sustainable it
won’t go away in a year even
five years and what’s been the impact of
opportunity culture in our building
well our staff they’re happier there’s
been some conversation around whether
it’s not tip it’s fair to pay some
teachers more than others but our
teachers truly value the support of
their mcl no longer our teachers staying
up late at night trying to figure out
what they’re teaching the next day they
have the support of their mcl and we are
making teaching more sustainable through
improving work/life balance secondly our
teachers are getting better faster they
are receiving feedback every single week
from a Beyonce educator and when our
teachers get better our kids get better
and lastly but most importantly our kids
are learning
we have been ranked number two in the
district for our growth and language
arts and number three in the district
for our growth in science opportunity
culture is making a difference I said
before that I believe that teaching is
one of the most patriotic acts in this
country every single day parents send
their greatest gift to a teacher the
fate of this country rests on the
shoulders of our teachers the leaders of
tomorrow are sitting in classrooms today
with our teachers if we do not change
the way that we pay our teachers because
their pay does not reflect this impact
more teachers will continue to leave the
profession because they are tired of
working two or three jobs just to
provide for their family or even worse
those who have the
potential to be great teachers just like
mr. miles and miss Whelan won’t even
consider their profession at all
opportunity culture it makes a
difference and we took the risk five
years ago a trance and I be to say yes
to public impact and being one of the
first district schools in the nation to
change the way we pay our teachers so
we’re serving not just as the case study
of how to make this happen but we’re
proving that it’s possible
every student everywhere every day
deserves access to a great teacher and a
trance an IB that is not a slogan it is
a reality thank you
[Applause]
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