The appetite for improving Denver schools is a great sight to behold, and voters invested wisely yesterday by approving a $25 million plan that reforms the way teachers are evaluated and paid. Voter endorsement will make Denver Public Schools a national test bed for school reform.
ProComp, Issue 3A on the ballot, shakes up DPS even as the district’s test scores lag and the achievement gap between ethnic minorities and whites widens. ProComp will reward excellence through better pay for highly rated teachers, and it is smartly designed to draw some of the best and brightest teachers to the city’s most challenging schools. The program’s success will be tracked by educators across the U.S. who are finally realizing that seniority is not the best system for teacher compensation.
City students will be the ultimate beneficiary because of ProComp’s emphasis on classroom goals.
ProComp, short for Professional Compensation System for Teachers, is a major cog in the series of reforms being readied under Superintendent Michael Bennet. Bennet wants DPS to become the nation’s premiere urban school district and needs more top-flight teachers to accomplish that goal. Knowing that the community is willing to invest in the schools through higher taxes should make it easier to recruit and retain talented teachers.
Denver voters made two other smart tax decisions yesterday. A higher sales levy on hotels will promote Denver as a destination for tourists and conventions. Voters also lifted the city’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights revenue caps for the next 10 years.
Initiative 100, which purports to legalize possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people over 21, also passed. But as long as federal and state laws make pot illegal, its passage does nothing more than send a message to government leaders.
ProComp, meanwhile, lifts the caps that cause teachers to max out their salaries, and it allows young go-getters to earn more money without having to wait decades. It also rewards teachers for continually demonstrating their skills and knowledge.
ProComp isn’t a magic bullet for Denver schools, but it should help the new administration and school board focus their effort to enhance student achievement. School reforms often fade to disappointment, but this effort was hatched by a coalition of teachers, administrators and union leaders, giving it a chance well worth our confidence.
