Performance-based pay (PBP) programs for teachers have been??growing, especially since the advent of the federal Teacher Incentive Fund program a couple years ago. ProComp out of Denver is probably the best known PBP and rather unique since it's being funded by a $25-million mill levy approved by taxpayers. Like many of these plans, ProComp is extremely complicated, which is part of the reason that management and union reached an impasse in contract negotiations over how to change and improve it for the next iteration.
ProComp is a voluntary program--indeed, this was one of the major reasons it was passed--and less than half of Denver teachers have now joined the plan. That??means roughly??$87 million in ProComp dollars will be left over at the end of the 2008-09 school year. Not surprising,??DPS says it could find a place for those extra greenbacks, perhaps by directing it??to younger teachers leaving the system at high rates. But Henry Roman, involved in the program from the get-go, says not so fast:??"At this stage, I feel more information is needed before people make final recommendations." Indeed.??Before that money is redirected anywhere,??stakeholders need to stop and ask themselves why so few teachers have signed on to the program.
Having evaluated one of these programs myself, it's often teacher misunderstanding??that's a primary roadblock to progress. And from what I know, ProComp is as complicated as they come. And it does not, as some have proposed, reconstruct a teacher's base salary from scratch. Instead, teachers layer??the base with??various cash amounts through fulfillment of or service in a variety of capacities. The laundry list of eligible cash categories covers both traditional ways of building earnings (e.g, masters degree) and more forward-thinking methods (e.g., student achievement,??teaching in hard to staff schools). Many of these "layers," though, become part of a teacher's salary year in and year out--a factor which some say is currently being overlooked with all of this talk of milk-and-honey ProComp surplus.
Teachers??either consider??the program??too risky to get involved??or they simply don't trust it. But really, how??risky is a laundry list of salary add-ons? And why, after so much time, energy, and positive P.R. on this effort (up until now), do teachers still look at it with a suspicious eye? This well-publicized??impasse doesn't help.??Let's hope this initiative doesn't get totally derailed. The Denver voters were sold a program that awarded teachers for raising student achievement, improving teaching skills, ??and taking on more difficult assignments. That's how the money should be spent. If we can't get more teachers to volunteer for it, so be it. Go back to the drawing board or let the money sit. But don't creatively redirect it so it no longer aligns with its original purpose.
As an aside, I'm wondering??if volunteering is really the way to go with these PBP programs. We have another one starting up right here in our own backyard. It's also voluntary, though on a much smaller scale (just 12 schools).??With??up to a $10,000 dollar bonus, might teachers suspicions disappear?
