Denver voters approve tax hike for teacher pay

The Professional Compensation System for Teachers (ProComp) links teacher salaries to test scores, as well as other measures.

The ballot measure overwhelmingly passed with about 58 percent of the vote. To pay for the higher teacher salaries, property taxes will rise about $2 a month per $100,000 of a home’s value.

The new pay system “gives teachers an opportunity to realize some economic benefits for doing a great job, for increasing their professionalism, and for taking on difficult tasks,” says Denver school board President Les Woodward.

While teacher unions have opposed merit pay plans in other places, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association endorses ProComp and was involved in developing it.

Brad Jupp, an administrator with the Denver school district who had been a teacher and union leader until recently and helped develop ProComp, says the new system is significant for two reasons: “Teacher pay is based on teachers’ individual results with the students in their own classrooms, and, instead of a single salary schedule, teacher pay is based on teachers’ accomplishments as individuals in the course of their careers.”

The Denver school district has spent the past six years planning and pilot-testing ProComp.

Teachers in the ProComp system will receive pay raises for improving student achievement, for working in “hard-to-serve” schools (schools with large percentages of lower-income students or special education students and schools in high-crime areas, for example), “hard-to-staff positions” (such as middle school math and special education teachers and speech pathologists), and for increasing their knowledge and skills by earning “professional development units.”

The student growth component includes a 1 percent bonus for teachers who reach instructional objectives set by the teacher and principal, a salary increase for teachers whose students “significantly exceed the expected range of improvement,” and a 2 percent bonus for teaching in a “distinguished school based on multiple measures of school quality.”

Salary incentives are also included for satisfactory professional evaluations.

The starting salary for new Denver teachers is $33,301 a year and the current average annual salary is $45,585. The top salary under the current system — available to teachers with a master’s degree and 13 years of experience — is $54,185. Under ProComp, teachers who meet certain criteria can earn as much as $90,000 a year.

Every teacher in ProComp will be allotted a one-time sum of $1,000 to offset tuition costs.

Teachers hired after Dec. 31, 2005, will automatically be enrolled in ProComp. Current teachers can choose to keep their current compensation system, but there is a seven-year phase-in period.

Woodward expects the current teaching staff to “proceed cautiously.” Some employees at certain salary levels “would be better off under the existing compensation system.”