The Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), the Milken Family Foundation?s ambitious and we think ingenious program to restructure the teaching career, is moving into Minnesota, increasing the program's presence to nine states. This week the state announced that three Minneapolis schools and the entire rural Waseca district will pilot TAP, with Waseca becoming the second district in the country to be an all-TAP district. Voted into adoption by at least 70% of the teachers at each participating school, the program may have an even easier sell with last year's federal grant of $8 million to TAP.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is a vocal supporter of redesigning teacher pay and hopes this will be the start of a larger scale transformation of Minnesota?s system. In his own words, ?If the net result of this is a clamoring for more performance-based pay, that would be great.?