Teachers As Owners at Amazon.com

This book is partly a start-up guide and partly an introduction to the broad implications for public education and the teaching profession. Discussions cover key ingredients for success, potential clients, comparison of legal structures for doing business, options for private retirement plans, outline for a business plan, and more.

Directory of TPPs and the schools they serve

Peruse this section of our site and call on the leaders of EdVisions Cooperative, Milwaukee teacher cooperatives, and Aveson Educational Cooperative. They will likely invite you for a visit, share ideas about where to seek start-up funding, and point you to attorneys and consultants who can help you think about the creation of your own TPP (they have taken the time to educate these folks about the idea, which could save you time and money). They will tell you about their own models, from which you can borrow what would work well for you. Perhaps most importantly, they will tell you about their culture and how they create it—in their TPP and in the schools they serve. Let what you learn be a springboard for creating your own model of TPP.

2006 national TPP inventory

When you start to consider the details about how your practice will operate the inventory can be very helpful for brainstorming. A perusal of the inventory can help you answer questions such as: How do existing TPPs involve parents? How do existing TPPs admit people to practice? How do existing TPPs structure performance review? How do they handle payroll? You’ll find that each TPP has its own way of doing things. Your TPP might borrow from these or do something entirely new. You will also find information about people who are planning to start-up TPPs—perhaps in your area. There is no need to do all the background research yourselves. Start and build from here.

Start-up links

This small collection of links may get your wheels turning, but is in no way exhaustive. In fact, teacher professional partnerships can be many types of organization (not just cooperatives) and can serve any kind of school (not just chartered schools). Since most existing TPPs serve chartered schools and are organized as worker cooperatives, Education|Evolving is aware of resources that have been valuable to these groups. We provide these resources knowing that some TPPs will be LLCs or partnerships (a form of business, like a cooperative or LLC). We also know that some will serve whole district schools, magnet schools, home schools, and others. And some will serve departments of schools. Please don’t let these links restrict your imagination and planning.

As you form your TPP and make decisions about how to organize, it is in your best interest to find state and local contacts who will be familiar with business law as well as education policy and politics in your area. Some of these links will help you locate state and local folks, but again you will benefit from doing your own networking to find just the right match for you. Teachers in professional partnerships report that you might not find the right contacts on your first try. You’ll need to work to find people who will understand the concept and philosophically support you. If you come across an organization or resource that should be linked here, or if you are seeking ideas about how to locate appropriate contacts, please contact us.