TAP System

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 8 claims (5 for, 1 mixed, 2 against) · 3 studies (3 causal), q2–q3 · 0 of 3 report an effect size · 8 claims rest on one study

Description

A whole-school teacher evaluation, compensation, career-ladder, mentoring, and professional-development programme developed and operated by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching.

Components

• Teacher Advancement Program (TAP): a whole-school teacher evaluation, compensation, and professional development model: The Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) is described as "a whole-school approach to evaluating and compensating teachers and providing professional development opportunities". Its stated aims are twofold: "to both improve teaching and help schools attract and retain good teachers". The program operates at the whole-school level rather than targeting individual teachers in isolation. (Steven Glazerman et al. (2007))
• Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) whole-school intervention: TAP is a whole-school intervention that aims to improve schools by raising teacher quality. It provides teachers with "opportunities for professional growth, promotion to school leadership roles without leaving the classroom, structured feedback, and performance-based compensation." Chicago Public Schools began implementing TAP in 2007, and this report evaluates its first-year impacts in the district's K-8 schools. (Steven Glazerman et al. (2009))
• Teacher Advancement Program (TAP): performance pay, professional development, and advancement opportunities tied to student achievement growth: The Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) is a school-level teacher incentive model implemented in Chicago Public Schools as a Teacher Incentive Fund grantee. As the report describes it, "The TAP model offers teachers performance pay, professional development, and advancement opportunities based in part on their students' achievement growth." The program bundles financial incentives with career-advancement structures and embedded professional development, and its incentive component is tied to measured student achievement growth rather than to status measures alone. (Steven Glazerman (2010))
• TAP's four-component whole-school design combining growth, leadership, feedback, and performance pay: TAP bundles four school-wide components: professional growth opportunities, promotion to school leadership roles without leaving the classroom, structured feedback, and performance-based compensation. The report describes it as "a whole-school intervention that aims to improve schools by raising teacher quality," evaluating whether these combined changes affect teachers and students. (Steven Glazerman et al. (2009))
• TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement: TAP is a whole-school reform model Ascension Parish implemented in two sanctioned high-poverty schools. “The TAP system focuses on four interrelated elements to improve teachers’ instruction”: ongoing applied professional learning, instructionally focused accountability, multiple career paths, and performance-based compensation. Evaluations inform professional development, advancement, and pay, and educators participate in regular collaboration and self-reflection within the school day. (Sarah Almy et al. (2012))

Claims

• Chicago TAP increased the amount of mentoring, promotion opportunities, and compensation in participating schools relative to non-TAP schools [+M]
• Educators were largely receptive to evaluation and compensation strategies, with 65 to 84 percent satisfied with feedback and pay-for-performance improving some job satisfaction [+W]
• Chicago TAP did not fully implement its performance-based pay or value-added components as intended [~M]
• Chicago TAP did not raise student math or reading scores overall during the four-year rollout in Chicago Public Schools [-M]
• Teachers in TAP schools reported significantly more mentoring and support than peers in similar non-TAP schools [+M]
• TAP produced no measurable impacts on student test scores through March of the start-up year [-M]
• TAP teachers were five percentage points more likely to return to their schools than non-TAP teachers [+M]
• Teachers in Chicago TAP schools at the start of the program were about 20 percent more likely than teachers in comparison schools to remain in the same school three years later [+M]

Related Products and Programmes

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Key Sources

• Steven Glazerman, Allison McKie, Nancy Carey, Dominic Harris. (2007). Evaluation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in the Chicago Public Schools: Study Design Report. Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/evaluation-of-the-teacher-advancement-program-tap-in-the-chicago-public-schools-study-design-report
• Steven Glazerman, Allison McKie, Nancy Carey. (2009). An Evaluation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in Chicago: Year One Impact Report. Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/an-evaluation-of-the-teacher-advancement-program-tap-in-chicago-year-one-impact-report
• Steven Glazerman, Allison Seifullah. (2010). An Evaluation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in Chicago: Year Two Impact Report. Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/an-evaluation-of-the-teacher-advancement-program-tap-in-chicago-year-two-impact-report

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	product
id	tap-system
title	TAP System
description	A whole-school teacher evaluation, compensation, career-ladder, mentoring, and professional-development programme developed and operated by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching.
status	review
moved_from	design/tap-four-component-school-design, element/tap-teacher-advancement-program-whole-school-model, element/tap-whole-school-teacher-intervention, element/teacher-advancement-program-tap-chicago
product_kind	programme
generated	by process:sweep-kinds on 2026-10-10
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	3 — steven-glazerman-2007, steven-glazerman-2009, steven-glazerman-2010

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