Student Growth Details
Distinguished Schools
Eligible Educators: All teachers working in schools defined as distinguished based on school accreditation indicators
Decision Maker: DPS and DCTA
Year Implemented: 2005-2006
Purpose
- Recognizes and rewards teachers in schools that meet or exceed district expectations for student growth, student attendance and school satisfaction
- Encourage school improvement planning to be better aligned with district, state and federal indicators of success
- Reward collaborative behavior within schools to meet school and district goals
- Evaluate school performance in a manner that is both more useful when planning school improvement and more balanced than state or federal systems
Rationale
- Successful schools are not systematically recognized, rewarded or celebrated in DPS
- There are no direct rewards for teachers at schools that succeed, through planning and implementation, on their school improvement plans
- Neither School Accountability Reports nor Colorado's Guidelines for Adequate Yearly Progress provide an adequate picture of school performance. Neither measure takes into account student growth, academic achievement on measures other than CSAP, or performance in areas outside academic achivement in a systematic manner
Specifications
- The 2% bonus to all teachers and specialists assigened to a school will be pro-rated based on the number of days of service at the site. For example, a teacher assigned to a .5 vocal music position would receive a 1% bonus
- Teachers assigned to multiple distinguished schools will be eligible for multiple pro-rated bonuses
- Bonus is awarded regardless of where they are assigned under the following year
- Bonuses are awarded to any teacher who worked a semester plus one day in the distinguished school
District Capacity That Needs To Be Built
- DPS and DCTA need to refine school accreditation indicators in order to ensure fair and equitable recognition of distinguished schools
- DPS and DCTA need to develop a system for annually recognizing faculties at distinguished schools
- DPS and DCTA need to monitor and evaluate the system for reconginzing distinguished schools