ProComp, Professional Compensation System

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 10, 2004

Bargaining teams for Denver Public Schools and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) announced today a tentative agreement on a groundbreaking new contract that proposes a major reform of how teacher pay is structured. The DPS Board of Education is scheduled to ratify the contract language Thursday, Feb. 19. Members of the DCTA will vote on the proposal in March.

The proposed contract is the result of years of collaboration on research and development between the district and the DCTA. The specific teacher compensation plan in the tentative agreement was developed by a task force of 12 teachers, administrators and citizens commissioned jointly by DPS and the DCTA. The plan also has a new name: the Professional Compensation System for Teachers (ProComp).

If approved by the DPS Board and DCTA membership, funding the ProComp would require $25 million in additional revenues that would need to be approved by Denver voters. A November 2005 vote is being eyed as a likely timeframe to ask for community support.

Under the terms of the proposed contract, teachers would be offered an opportunity to significantly increase their career earnings in ways that advance the district’s instructional goals. Teachers would be rewarded for improving student achievement, receiving successful professional evaluations, working in the most academically needy schools and improving their skills and knowledge.

Current teachers would be able to choose whether to join the new system or remain in the existing salary system during a seven-year Opt-In window. New teachers hired by the district after January 2006 would enter the new system.

The plan features four distinctly different features from the current salary system:

1. Teachers who meet and exceed rigorous expectations in a fair system will have uncapped annual and career earnings.

2. The district will pay annual salary increases for student growth and bonuses to teachers in schools judged distinguished based on academic gains.

3.  Teachers will receive salary increases for demonstrated acquisition of additional knowledge and skills related to student growth and their instructional discipline.

4. The district will offer incentives for teachers of demonstrated accomplishment who choose to work in schools with the greatest academic needs. Similar bonuses will be offered to teachers and specialists who fill positions where there is a shortage of qualified applicants.

Board president Les Woodward applauded the agreement. "This compensation system is the product of five years of partnership with DCTA on ways to improve Denver Public Schools," he said. "This system is good for the district and students in that it  carefully and fairly links compensation with the district’s goals of high expectations and increasing student achievement."

Added DCTA President Becky Wissink, "We encourage teachers to vote for this system, because we believe it will be good for both teachers and students. ProComp gives teachers the opportunity to increase their earnings by rewarding them for their professional accomplishments. It is good for the students of Denver because it will attract and retain the most effective teachers to schools where needs are greatest."

The system was developed using an economic model that projects costs 50 years into the future, to ensure that the system is affordable and sustainable.

A transition committee of teachers and administrators will oversee details of implementation. Both DPS and DCTA are committed to phasing in elements of the new system on a timetable that ensures the district can support them.

The work of the teacher compensation task force was guided by insights and data gathered through the four-year DPS-DCTA Pay for Performance Pilot. A recently-completed study found that teachers who wrote the highest-quality instructional objectives had students who demonstrated significant increases in academic achievement. Under one key element of the ProComp proposal, teachers could receive salary increases for student achievement gains by meeting instructional objectives.

Lessons from the pilot also led the task force to create a balanced compensation system that includes additional means for teachers to earn salary increases.

Under the current system, teachers are paid annual increases each year through the first 13 years of service. They receive no increase in their 14th year, but longevity raises are given in the 15th year and every five years thereafter. The district also compensates teachers for completing 30 hours of graduate credit or advanced degrees, as well as hourly compensation for DPS professional development. Additional pay can be earned for taking on assignments such as coaching.

More information about the ProComp recommendation can be found at www.denverteachercompensation.org.