Foundations Announce $2.12 Million in Grants for ProComp
Three foundations have granted the Denver Public Schools a total of $2.12 million to support the development of ProComp, a new teacher-compensation system approved in early 2004 by both the Denver Board of Education and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper joined DPS Superintendent Dr. Jerry Wartgow and Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Becky Wissink in announcing the grants on February 8 at the Polaris Program at Ebert Elementary School near downtown Denver.
Rose Community Foundation is making a grant of $1 million, The Broad Foundation of Los Angeles is granting $620,000, and the Daniels Fund is granting $500,000. All three grants will support a highly detailed work program now underway to overhaul policies and procedures to track the job choices, professional evaluations and professional development of for 4,500 teachers. In addition, the school district is creating assessments for student achievement in many academic subjects not examined by the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP).
"This reform in how we pay teachers is a massive undertaking involving many people working together to invent a completely new way to compensate teachers," said Superintendent Wartgow. "We are grateful to these foundations for helping to underwrite the substantial costs of doing this right, and far beyond what the district could afford to do on its own."
"Under the current system, the formula for paying teachers is fairly straightforward," said Wissink. "Under ProComp, every teacher is treated as an individual, and there are many factors to be considered. The work being done now is to make sure ProComp works fairly for every teacher."
"We are very fortunate in Denver to have leaders in our school district and leaders among the teachers who are willing to work together through some very tough discussions and emerge with reforms that are in the best interests of our community’s kids," said Mayor Hickenlooper. "This unique partnership has been successful, in part, due to the support of these foundations that are stepping forward again to make this ambitious school-reform package work for everyone involved. These reforms will strengthen Denver’s position as a city that draws people to live here –not just for our climate and recreation, but also for the educational opportunities we offer our children."
Rose Community Foundation’s $1 million grant will be used to fund costs associated with making the transition from the current system to the ProComp system. "Given the recent news regarding low graduation rates for high-school students, it is critically important that we have a compensation system that rewards quality teaching at all levels, and provides competitive salaries and incentives for educators to teach in high-poverty schools." Previously Rose Community Foundation has granted nearly $2.5 million over several years to support the Pay for Performance Pilot project and evaluative research that helped shape the ProComp system.
The Broad Foundation’s $620,000 grant will also help fund the transition. "This is a groundbreaking effort between the district and the union that is being closely watched across the country," said Eli Broad, founder of The Broad Foundation. "We believe this innovative program will foster teacher quality and excellence and will therefore improve student achievement." The Broad Foundation previously awarded a $1.2 million grant to fund the research and development phase of ProComp.
The $500,000 grant from the Daniels Fund supports rewarding teachers based on their students’ academic achievement. The grant supports the creation of the ProComp Assessment Profile, which will incorporate 16 content-specific assessments to measure appropriate expectations for academic growth as the basis for rewarding high-performing teachers. "The student academic assessments are a fundamental component in accurately measuring student learning results," said Hank Brown, president and CEO of Daniels Fund. "A key element in the assessment is that short and long-term evaluation will be conducted by an external third-party evaluator." The Daniels Fund made an earlier grant of $500,000 to support the pilot project and related research.
Since 1999, the Denver Foundation, the Donnell-Kay Foundation, the Phillips Family Foundation and the Piton Foundation have also made grants to support research and development leading to the new ProComp system. Altogether, approximately $6.5 million in philanthropic dollars have been granted to the Denver Public Schools to support research, technical assistance, technological innovations, and communications related to ProComp.
About ProComp
ProComp is a groundbreaking compensation system that links teacher pay to the Denver Public Schools’ instructional mission. Designed in a partnership between the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Denver Public Schools, ProComp has received national attention because it rewards teachers for their professional accomplishments while linking pay to student achievement.
ProComp promotes improved student achievement by:
rewarding teachers with bonuses and salary increases for improved student performance, and
encouraging talented teachers to work in schools and assignments with the greatest needs.
ProComp helps attract and retain top quality teachers by:
allowing teachers to have more direct control over their career with options that reward them for increased knowledge and skills, and
offering salary incentives for satisfactory professional evaluations.
For more information on ProComp: www.denverprocomp.org .