COMMUNITY TRAINING AND ASSISTANCE CENTER
30 Winter Street, Boston, MA 02108 · (617) 423-1444 · ctac@ctacusa.com
FOR RELEASE January 7, 2004
Contact: Bill Slotnik, 617-423-1444
Or Peggy Gonder, 303-321-3465
Pay for Performance Pilot shows ‘Promising Results’
DENVER, January 7, 2004 - Student achievement gains in the Denver Public Schools-Denver Classroom Teachers Association Pay for Performance Pilot were strongly linked to teachers who wrote the highest quality objectives, according to a four- year study released today by the Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) of Boston.
The study also indicated that the Pay for Performance Pilot has served as a catalyst that enabled Denver to become “focused on student achievement in a more coordinated and consolidated way. Many changes have been systemic… stimulating other parts of the school system to improve the quality of support and service. The result is a catalyst for change that benefits all students and teachers,” the study concluded.
One reason for the pilot’s impact, the study noted, has been the “sustained leadership” of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and the Denver Board of Education, which joined to create the pilot and “stayed the course” as the district experienced several changes at the top.
The CTAC study, titled Catalyst for Change, summarizes its findings in four major areas: (1) The relationship of teacher objectives, as measured by substance and quality, to student achievement; (2) The impact of the pilot on student achievement based on two independent assessments; (3) The effects of a range of student, teacher, and school factors on the results of the pilot, and (4) The broader institutional factors that have affected implementation.
In the area of objectives, the study found that teachers who set the highest quality objectives on a four-point rubric achieved higher test scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) and the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) than students of teachers who scored lower on the rubric. This result was found at all three levels – elementary, middle and high school – in the 16 pilot schools.
“The pilot has demonstrated that the focus on student achievement and a teacher’s contribution to such achievement can be a major trigger for change – if the initiative also addresses the district factors that shape the schools,” the study said. “The findings show promising results in many of the areas studied. However, the pilot’s implementation also revealed areas of practice and policy that will need to be strengthened further in order to continue improving student achievement as key elements are taken to scale in the district."
William Slotnik, executive director of CTAC, noted, “Schools are complex environments in which many factors affect student achievement, including changes in instructional programs, changing demographics of students attending a school and teacher turnover. Individual teachers have great impact on student learning, and the study validates that higher mean student achievement is associated with individual teachers who set high quality instructional objectives.”
The report recommended tightening the link between school improvement plans, classroom objective-setting and district standards and goals to improve achievement in all schools. Among the challenges facing the district are strengthening the alignment between curriculum, assessment, student data and human resources in order to take the reforms developed in the pilot district-wide.
Another area for improvement cited by the report was the need to use multiple assessments as a fairer and more accurate way to measure student growth. CTAC recommended that the district develop a way to link several assessments together to identify student progress in a more meaningful way.
The Pay for Performance Pilot began in 1999 after the school district and teacher’s association reached impasse over a proposal to link teacher compensation to student achievement. As a compromise, Denver Public Schools and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association agreed to a pilot of 16 schools to test whether student academic growth could be fairly used to determine teacher compensation decisions.
As the pilot reached its midpoint in 2001, the two parties created a Joint Task Force on Teacher Compensation that has drafted a comprehensive new compensation plan that would include student growth and objective-setting among three other components. This was based, in part, on the 2001 CTAC midpoint report on the pilot. Teachers and the school board will vote on the proposed compensation plan by March 19, 2004.
CTAC characterized the collaboration between the district and the teachers’ association as “substantive and effective” and recommended that the collaboration on behalf of student achievement be broadened and “extended to other parts of district educational operations, regardless of the outcome of the Association and Board votes on a new compensation plan.”
One significant outcome of the pilot is that it “enabled issues that have adversely affected district progress to be put on center stage,” the study noted. “Operating in a climate protected by external supporters and internal reformers, the pilot provided a vehicle for problems to be discussed, analyzed and acted upon. These actions have helped the district to develop an increased capacity to make mid-course corrections.” The external supporters included seven foundations that made significant contributions to the pilot, including the Rose Community Foundation, The Broad Foundation, The Daniels Fund, The Sturm Family Foundation, Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation, The Denver Foundation, Donnell-Kay Foundation, and The Piton Foundation.
###