Prioritizing Talent: Project L.I.F.T.’s Effort to Recruit and Retain Effective Leaders and Teachers in Nine Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Workforce Development and Management

Abstract

Involving 9 Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in the West Charlotte Corridor, Project L.I.F.T. (Leadership and Investment for Transformation) is a $55 million public-private partnership designed as a 5-year school turnaround initiative. To increase student achievement, intervention components are organized around 4 key focus areas, talent, time, technology, and parent/community support, and implemented by a wide range of partner and community-based organizations. In this paper, the external evaluator of the initiative presents data from the 2012-13 school year that examines efforts to retain and recruit effective leaders and teachers in the Project L.I.F.T. Zone. The researchers analyze talent strategies, including teacher displacement, recruitment and selection, differentiated compensation, and professional development. They report on findings from the first year of this ambitious initiative.

Authors

• Michael Norton, Research for Action

• Susan M. Poglinco

• Kelly Dever, Research for Action

• Kimberly Edmunds, Research for Action