Explaining A $50 Million Jacksonville Effort To Recruit And Retain Top Teachers

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Teach for America teachers Samantha Sanacore, Eric Sweeney and Denali Lander.

Jacksonville-area businesses and nonprofits are trying to raise $50 million to help recruit and retain top teachers for three dozen of the district’s most challenged schools.

The effort, known as Quality Education for All, is intended to help improve schools that have been the center of education-related lawsuits for decades.

The money will pay bonuses to teachers who choose to work in the three-dozen schools, with additional bonuses if teachers improve student performance. The money will also be used to hire Teach For America trained teachers, create a teacher residency program, develop a new district data system for teachers and administrators and more.

With spoke with WJCT education reporter Rhema Thompson, who did a series of stories about the initiative.