About
The Partnership for Innovation in Compensation for Charter Schools (PICCS) is a comprehensive program designed to recruit, retain, develop and reward top quality teachers and school leaders at charter schools. Led by the Center for Educational Innovation - Public Education Association (CEI-PEA), PICCS is funded through a five-year federal grant from the Teacher Incentive Fund program, which supports development of performance-based compensation systems to drive increases in student performance. Ten New York City public charter schools form the partnership.
At the heart of the PICCS project is the “PICCS School Improvement Engine,” which is a comprehensive approach to increasing student and school performance that connects teaching and learning in practical and substantive ways:
- Performance Based Incentives (PBIs) – Schools establish PBI plans for all teachers. These PBI plans set specific student achievement targets tied to the teacher incentive.
- Embedded Professional Development – PICCS helps teachers meet their achievement goals by building their capacity in the areas of differentiated instruction, curriculum development, customized assessments, teacher observations, and data-driven decision-making.
- Peer Review & Critical Friends Groups – Teachers peer-produce best practices and model learning experiences through Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) and a two-level Peer Review process.
- Robust Data System – The PICCS data system gives teachers near “real time” data that they need to help improve curriculum and instruction. The system also provides tools to help teachers understand and interpret the data as well as implement the curricular and instructional modifications.
Learn more about the PICCS School Improvement Engine.
