Tucson Values Teachers

Programs: Tucson values teachers (tvt) leads the region in respecting, rewarding and investing in teachers as a means of attracting and retaining the very best teacher workforce for southern arizona. Tvt's long-term goals and objectives are to create and ensure a stronger teacher workforce, which will result in better outcomes for students to assure they graduate career or college-ready. Our strategies to reach these goals include raising awareness about the central role teachers play in student achievement and the necessity of increased economic support for all teachers and public respect for the role teachers play in the region's economic and civic future. Tvt's organizational impact: we estimate that there are between 11,000 and 12,000 teachers in southern arizona. The tucson values teachers database has over 10,500 teachers that have voluntarily opted in to our database. Tucson values teachers mission is to serve all teachers in southern arizona, including district, private and charter school teachers, from grades pre-k through 20. We realize that the quality of the teacher in front of the classroom is the most important factor in the success of any student. We use a simple equation to estimate the number of students/children that our teacher impact every school year, and the number of students impacted is approximately 262,500 across southern arizona. Tvt signature programs - tvt has seven signature programs that work to respect, reward, and invest in teachers by providing teachers with direct support in such areas as fully supplied classrooms, professional development, and community support. 2014 overview of tvt signature programs:teacher appreciation week -- one of tucson values teachers' signature programs has been our teacher day at ua program. In 2014, tvt and our community and program partners decided to change the structure of this program to better suit the needs of teachers. Teacher day at ua evolved into teacher appreciation week, a week-long schedule of free professional development offerings, free classroom resources provided by many colleges and programs at the university of arizona, and special mini-events and discounts offered by tvt and our community business partners. Professional development offered for teachers was rich and diverse, with workshops scheduled throughout the week, rather than just one day. These trainings and workshops were provided in collaboration with partners that include: office of pima county school superintendent, arizona state museum, raytheon and math moves you, leadlocal, startup tucson, ua college of education, ua center for recruitment and retention of math teachers, ua science, arizona public media and more. Tucson supplies teachers - in june, 2014, tvt launched our 6th annual supply drive, tucson supplies teachers, the largest community-wide supply drive in our region. This program continues to be very successful again this year with $172,561 in classroom supplies collected and distributed 13 school districts. In addition, 25 charter schools were served, as well as the diocese of tucson (serving 6,500 children at area parochial schools), and the arizona school for deaf and blind (asdb). The success of this annual event is due to the strength of our community partnerships. Our partners this year include walgreens, kvoa news 4 tucson's kristi's kids, pima federal credit union, community finance corporation, tucson association of realtors, cox communications, raytheon, wendy's, peter piper pizza, and mcdonald's, and other local businesses who collected supplies at their place of business. Together with our partners, we have delivered $663,000 worth of classrooms supplies since the inception of this program. Vote for education (in partnership with expect more arizona) -- tucson values teachers (tvt) partnered with expect more arizona (ema) to pilot a vote 4 education program in collaboration with the tucson unified school district. With important elections that impact education taking place in november 2014, we set out to dispel the myth that teachers don't vote. Our goals were three-pronged; to register teachers to vote, to get registered teachers to take a pledge to vote, and to turn them out at the polls. Tucson values teachers raised an additional $27,500 to support this pilot program. Funds raised were used to contract with s. I. M. G. , inc. Political consultants, purchase a voter file that would allow us to track voter turnout, and to support the grassroots outreach efforts needed to galvanize teachers. Staff and volunteers to both tvt and ema visited dozens of tusd schools, made presentations, provided voter guides and other educational information, and collected pledges to vote from teachers. We worked with teacher leaders and principals to create support structures at each school campus. We promoted our efforts through earned media, social media, district communications, and tvt newsletters and eblasts. A direct mail campaign was developed for participating teachers. Overall, the pilot was very successful, and the myth was dispelled. Not only do teachers vote, but they vote at a higher percentage than most voters in pima county, arizona. As follow-up to the election, we also surveyed teachers to gather information on the vote 4 education campaign and conducted focus groups to fine-tune our messaging for years to come. Raytheon spirit of education award -- in december 2014, we presented the 4th annual raytheon spirit of education award to tucson electric power (tep). Co-hosted by raytheon and the university of arizona, this program is a major fundraising event for tucson values teachers and successfully raised over $24,000 to support tvt programs for teachers. In addition to honoring tep, tucson values teachers honored our teacher excellence award winners from the past year as well as inviting over 30 additional teachers to attend as our special guests. Teacher discount card program -- tvt currently partners with over 80 local businesses who offer exclusive deals on goods and services in support of teachers. The database of teachers that engage with tvt through the teacher discount card have allowed us to engage on a regular basis with teachers across southern arizona. At the same time, it offers local businesses the opportunity to show gratitude and support for teachers in our community through their discount offers. Ceo/superintendents summit -- in march 2014, tucson values teachers (tvt) and the southern arizona leadership council convened a working group session that included top business leaders and eight area superintendents who have joined forces to forge solutions to the teacher workforce challenges facing the region. This ceo/superintendents' summit working group meeting was convened in response to the 2013 teacher workforce survey, commissioned by tvt, which found significant dissatisfaction in the teacher workforce. Among the findings of the 1,644 respondents: 27% are not likely to be teaching in southern arizona in five years; 81% are somewhat or not at all likely to recommend the profession to others; and just over 30% report being satisfied with their work. At the summit working group meeting, attendees split into five groups and developed priority actions aimed at attracting and retaining teachers. Among the recommendations:1. Form a teacher focus group to determine what programs would be most effective to attract and retain teachers and then to develop a planning committee to "foster specific partnerships to provide direct value to teachers;2. Build community awareness about inadequate teacher compensation and support;3. Develop coordinated plan to secure passage of a social impact bond that would help fund teacher retention efforts;4. Build a strong teacher voting block;5. Build more internal regional capacity for creating a stronger teacher workforce, with a special emphasis on invest, which is being created at the university of arizona college of education. All recommendations were analyzed with a goal of creating a collaborative action plan. Overall, participants were highly engaged and optimistic about the potential that exists for the region to take on the teacher workforce issue. Teacher excellence awards - presented monthly throughout 2014 in partnership with officemax/officedepot, kvoa news 4 tucson and kristi's kids, the teacher excellence award is presented to outstanding teachers who have been nominated by school leadership, colleagues, parents and students. The awards are presented to district, private, and charter school teachers throughout southern arizona and shine a spotlight on the extraordinary level of teaching that is happening in classrooms.

besides the revenue reported in this document, tucson values teachers has raised several hundred thousand dollars which flows directly to projects it supports, most notably the university of arizona college of education to support more than 50 teachers who participate in the multi-year teachers in industry program. In 2014, freeport-mcmoran provided $260,000 in support of the teachers in industry program. In addition, tvt has orchestrated the business partnerships that match industry with teachers and provide paid summer internships to 37 teachers in the amount of $269,152 in 2014. Because our model has been to arrange direct funding it is less obvious that tvt fundraises to support and manages a budget of nearly $900,000 per year and spends only about 5 percent of its money on administration and no program staff. Key in kind donations include over $48,000 from salc and around $36,000 from havas pr (design, production, marketing support).