Mission Possible Glossary

Communications Plan - The Mission Possible Communications Plan outlines four goals of communication, the action plan designed to achieve the goals, and the evaluation plan designed to determine goal achievement.  It is available on the Mission Possible webpage on the Overview Page.

Contract - Each September, Mission Possible Incentive-Receiving Faculty members sign a contract that outlines the parameters of their incentives and obligations to Guilford County Schools.  The purpose of the contract is to promote a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each party.

Cumulative Effect - Cumulative Effect is a focus project within Mission Possible that includes all Mission Possible High School Math Teachers as well as Math Teachers from Southern and Eastern High Schools.  Funded through local, federal, and foundation dollars, the primary focus of Cumulative Effect is to develop the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of High School Math Teachers.

Data Plan - The Mission Possible Data Plan details the procedures that are in place to insure that student and teacher data used to determine Performance Incentives have integrity.  This plan can be found on the Incentives page of the Mission Possible webpage.

Incentive - Paid Faculty- Within each Mission Possible School, there are positions that qualify for incentives.  These positions include: K-5 Regular Classroom Teachers, 6-12 Math Teachers, 6-8 Language Arts and Reading Teachers, English I Teachers, Curriculum Facilitators, and Principals.
Mission Possible- Mission Possible is the name of Guilford County Schools’ faculty recruitment and retention program.  Funded through local, federal, and foundation dollars, Mission Possible is comprised of four major components: Compensation Incentives, Performance Accountability, Professional Development, and Structural Support.

Participation Year - As Mission Possible expanded to include its current 30 schools, the terminology “Phase I School,” and “Phase II School,” was eliminated to avoid confusion as teachers began moving between schools.  Instead, we now define Mission Possible Incentive-Receiving Faculty by their grant participation year.  For example, if this is your first year in a Mission Possible

Incentive - Receiving role, you would be in Participation Year 1.  You would complete the Professional Development that corresponded to Participation Year 1.  Therefore, it is possible that within a single school to have teachers that are Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, and so on as the grant progresses.

Performance Incentive - Performance incentives are bonuses paid to Mission Possible faculty who achieve student performance scores at defined levels above the district mean.  For specific details on these levels, refer to the Incentives page on the Mission Possible website.  Performance Incentives are paid as single payments no later than December 1 after a teacher’s prior year annual performance has been determined.

Recruiting/Retention Incentive - A recruitment/retention incentive is paid on a recurring annual basis in monthly increments for working in a qualifying position at a Mission Possible school.  For specific details on the levels of recruitment/retention incentives, refer to the Incentives page on the Mission Possible website.

SERVE - SERVE is the agency contracted by Guilford County Schools, using federal Teacher Incentive Fund dollars, to evaluate Mission Possible.

Value Added Data (VAD) - Value Added Data is the teacher performance measure that takes into account individual student growth to determine a teacher’s overall effect on student performance.  The teacher’s effect is compared to that of all other Guilford County Schools teachers who taught the same course in the same school year.  A resulting score will yield a “Below” mean, “No Detectable Difference (NDD)” from the mean, or “Above” mean rating for each teacher.  From these ratings, Mission Possible performance incentives are determined.