Commerce City – Dozens of teachers – not to mention lunch ladies, secretaries and bus drivers – got a little extra cash Monday, a reward for improving student achievement.
Adams County School District 14 Superintendent John Lange, backed up by a man dressed like George Washington and a music teacher playing flourishes on his trumpet, handed out checks of up to $2,000 to teachers, administrators and staff members at four schools that raised their Colorado Student Assessment Program scores this past year.
For the past five years, Adams 14, which encompasses most of the older and typically poorer areas of Commerce City, has used such performance pay to motivate and applaud everyone who has an impact on student achievement.
It is one of the few districts in the nation to embrace such a method.
Voters this fall will consider a Denver Public Schools plan to use a $25 million mill levy to fund a performance-pay program for teachers.
“This is really a tribute to the entire school system and to the hard work that everybody from the support side and the teaching side bring to things,” Lange said. “We could not do this alone.”
Adams 14 at one time had some of the lowest test scores in the state. Every year since it started using performance pay, Lange said, the district’s test scores have gone up, little by little.
This past year, Alsup Elementary School saw the biggest increase in scores, nearly 13.5 percent. The other schools seeing large increases were Monaco Elementary, Rose Hill Elementary and Kearney Middle School, where Monday’s presentation was held.
In all, the district will hand out checks to 321 employees this year, totaling more than $332,000.
Kearney communications teacher David Clark said he would use his check to fix up his 1988 Honda Accord, hoping that by driving it to work he could save gas money over the Chevrolet Suburban he drives now.
“Whether there was performance pay or not, teachers always worked hard,” he said. “But I think it’s a nice acknowledgment at the end of success.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
