At the end of the 2001-2002 school year, the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Pay for Performance Pilot is preparing for a final year of operation that will focus on bringing together several initiatives designed to improve student achievement and develop a new teacher salary system.

The Denver Board of Education and members of the Denver Classroom Teachers' Association (DCTA) will vote in early 2004 on a new salary system that will base educator pay, in part, on academic achievement.

A Joint Salary Task Force involving representatives of DCTA and DPS is expected to make recommendations about the structure of that new salary system in 2003.

Brad Jupp, leader of the pilot's Design Team, said, "When we started in 1999, we knew that our work had the potential to act as a catalyst for a key reform in the district. We can say that, with new leadership and focus within both DPS and DCTA, the pilot is beginning to bring about the changes we expected to see. We still are the only large urban school district in the United States to be linking individual teacher compensation, in part, on the academic achievement of the students they teach."

In a report to the Board of Education, scheduled during the 5 p.m. Regular Meeting on Thursday June 6, the Design Team will outline an ambitious agenda for the pilot's final year (2002-2003).

The pilot will integrate seven major initiatives, outlined by Superintendent Jerry Wartgow, as critical to district success.

These initiatives include:

• A new agreement with the Denver Classroom Teachers' Association that was developed through a collaborative, interest-based bargaining process.
  
• A push to improve the district's student assessment capabilities so they are more closely aligned with classroom practice and the CSAP.
  
• Improving and expanding teachers' objective setting process.
  
• Using OASIS to provide teachers and principals with better access to student achievement data.
  
• Developing a set of school performance indicators that links teacher objectives to school improvement planning.
  
• Increasing communications to all teachers and principals about the pilot and subsequent recommendations for a revised salary system.

Jupp also identified several successes achieved during the pilot's third year.

The pilot is operating with a full complement of schools at all levels, including 12 elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. These schools involve nearly 9,600 students and 633 teachers who set 1,266 objectives, of which 986 have been met. Another 134 objectives were not met, and 146 are pending.

Although DPS budgets $1.5 million a year to fund teacher bonuses, other operations of the pilot are funded largely through grants from the Rose Community Foundation, the Denver Foundation, the Daniels Fund, the Broad Foundation, the Donnell-Kay Foundation, the Sturm Family Foundation, and the Piton Foundation. These grants cover costs of the Design Team, training, communications, and the involvement of the Community Training and Assistance Center, which is providing important third-party assessment of the pilot.