The Indianapolis Public School Board unanimously approved a new three-year strategic plan and two-year teachers' contract with the teachers union on August 27, ending years of stagnation and uncertainty surrounding teacher pay.
Superintendent Dr. Lewis Ferebee deserves a hearty congratulations for his hard work over the past two years to set the stage for this moment in Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) and for finding $12 million to invest in changes to the teachers’ contract.
Education Resource Strategies first worked with IPS in the summer of 2014 to support their one-year contract negotiation with the teachers’ union. The two-pronged focus of our commitment was to bring the contract into compliance with Indiana Public Law 90 and poise IPS for more transformational changes to teacher compensation in 2015. As we now see, bigger changes were indeed on the way.
The purpose of teacher compensation reform is to improve the ability of districts to attract, retain, and leverage a high-performing teaching force that aligns with its student-performance objectives and overall priorities. We believe IPS’ 2015-17 contract aims to do just that, and we were honored to be a part of this work with IPS again this summer.
Importantly, IPS’ new teacher contract aligns with best practices we’ve seen in districts implementing compensation redesign initiatives across the country. For example, the contract sets up IPS to:
We’re excited at how far IPS has come in such a short amount of time and look forward to cheering them on as they continue on their path of transformation.
See additional articles covering this achievement by Chalkbeat and Education Week.
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