Important News! Just out of Denver...(I definately think this is going to impact us and is worth a class discussion. Read it and tell me what you think.)
Denver Voters Approve New Teacher Pay System
By Jon Sarche, AP Writer (see: link for complete article)
(AP) DENVER Denver became the largest school district in the country to switch to paying teachers based on their students' achievement as voter approved an annual $25 million tax increase to link teacher salaries to test scores and other measurements.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, 61,724 voters, or 58 percent, voted for the Professional Compensation system measure, while 42 percent, or 44,006, voted against it.
Current teachers can choose whether to participate beginning next week; new teachers automatically will be placed in the ProComp system. The raises will be funded with a tax increase under which each household will pay about $24 per year per $100,000 of the home's value.
Opponents argued the system would result in inequities because it would allow subjective decisions by administrators to justify giving -- or not giving -- a raise, while supporters said it was necessary to help the district attract good teachers and recognize their work.
"My hope is that we're going to be able to entice teachers with not just better salary, but better total compensation packages," said Brad Jupp, a former teacher who helped design the system and who now serves as senior policy adviser to Superintendent Michael Bennet. "My hope is we're going to be able to say not only will you earn more at the beginning of your career, but you will continue to be able to earn more through your whole career based on what you accomplish."
Kim Ursetta, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, said the system has been tested as a pilot program in several schools for six years, and she believes the kinks have been worked out.
"Now is when the hard work begins, making sure it is implemented fairly and equitably," she said.
Education experts have said the vote was being closely watched around the nation. Unions have balked at pay-for-performance plans elsewhere, but the Professional Compensation system proposal was drawn up by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and district administrators. The groups also worked together on a four-year pilot program to work out some of the kinks for staff and the district's 4,000 teachers.
Retired state government worker Darrell Gorre, 53, said he voted for the proposal in large part because of the city's relatively high cost of living.
"We're paying someone to teach our kids a low salary and they have to live someplace that's expensive," he said. "That's no way to try to keep teachers."
Under ProComp, teachers would earn a base salary of $33,301, with raises based on advances in four categories: knowledge and skills, a professional evaluation, market incentives and student growth.
Teachers could earn almost $3,000 more per year after getting a graduate degree or national license, or $1,000 more annually for working in hard-to-serve schools, where poverty is often higher and test scores often lower, or hard-to-fill positions such as math and science.
Eventually, teachers in the ProComp system could make about $33,000 more annually at the end of their careers than teachers in the current system, organizers say.
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