News Release
Jan. 25, 2005
Community Forum On Friday, Jan. 28 Discusses Market Incentives To Retain Teachers In Denver
The DPS-DCTA Teacher Compensation Community Forum on Friday will hear a mid-year update on the Professional Compensation System for Teachers - ProComp - and a presentation on market incentives designed to attract and retain teachers of demonstrated accomplishment to hard-to-staff assignments and hard-to-serve schools. The community forum is from 7:45 to 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 28 at the Career Education Center Middle College of Denver (2650 Eliot St.) in the Eliot Street Café.
ProComp promotes improved student achievement by rewarding teachers with bonuses and salary increases for improved student performance and by encouraging talented teachers to work in schools and assignments with the greatest needs. ProComp also will help attract and retain top quality teachers by allowing teachers to have more direct control of their career with options that reward them for increased knowledge and skills and by offering salary incentives for satisfactory professional evaluations.
The Jan. 28 community forum, which is open to the public, will describe the criteria under consideration for selecting the schools and assignments that will qualify for the market incentive bonuses of $989 per year per teacher or specialist filling the assignment or working at the designated schools. ProComp is scheduled to be implemented in 2006-07 following testing and refinement of all new elements and passage of an anticipated November 2005 mill levy increase by Denver voters.
The community forum is a bi-monthly meeting of community members interested in public schools and educational excellence in Denver. Its original purpose was to engage leaders from all sectors of Denver - including the business and nonprofit communities, elected officials and representatives of organized labor - in a dialogue about the issues surrounding an earlier Pay for Performance Pilot. Following the end of the pilot, the community forum has continued to play an important role as a citizen sounding board as the Joint Task Force on Teacher Compensation developed the new ProComp plan.
Launched in August 2001, the forum's leadership has been anchored by members of the Denver Rotary Club, the League of Women Voters and other education and community leaders. A steering committee has planned the programs and has sought to represent the larger group of interested community members who would like to become more knowledgeable about the pilot and the teacher compensation plan.
The community forum is designed to be a sounding board for the community, rather than an advocacy group. Attendees have included local- and state-elected officials; business and religious leaders; representatives of organized labor and statewide education groups; and leadership within DPS and DCTA.
For more information, please contact the DPS Communications Office, 720-423-3414.