Teacher Perceptions about Alternative Compensation: Evidence from the DPS/DCTA ProComp Project

1. Teacher Perceptions about Alternative Compensation: Evidence from the DPS/DCTA ProComp Project Brad Jupp, Teacher Coordinator, DPS/DCTA ProComp Project

2. ProComp is a Radical Departure from the Single Salary Schedule • Replaces a capped system of entitlements with an uncapped system of earned increases, including increases for measured student growth • Allows teachers to build a professional compensation package based on a wider range of choices • Requires a $25 million property tax increase to be fully funded

3. Teachers Are More Open-Minded About Changes to Their Compensation Systems than You Might Think • DCTA survey data has consistently shown that two thirds or more of our members favor market incentives for working in hard to staff assignments and hard to serve schools • DCTA survey data shows slightly more than 50% of our members believe that some portion of their pay should be based on accurately measured student growth • Research by McREL and Douglas County Schools shows that teachers like having a range of compensation options

4. The Denver Experience Exposes Some Basic Myths about Alternative Compensation • Surveys and focus groups conducted during the Pay for Performance Pilot, a precursor to ProComp, showed consistently that individual teacher incentives based on measured student results did not harm collegial relations among teachers in a school • Polling data from the ProComp ratification campaign showed that secondary teachers, especially those with more than 15 years experience were more interested in ProComp

5. Quick and Dirty Conclusions • Teachers are not collectively committed to the single salary schedule • An alternative compensation system must create real opportunities for teachers if they are to be expected to be supportive of it • They want the system to be fair, manageable, sustainable, and good for them and kids • They are right to be opposed to punitive systems or systems that conceal perverse incentives • Overcoming the worst fears of teachers and their unions is hard work, in part because their worst fears are warranted

6. Thank You DPS/DCTA ProComp Project http://DenverProComp.org 720.423.3629 brad_jupp@dpsk12.org

7. Denver Public Schools -- A Snapshot • Denver Public Schools serves over 72,489 students in 143 schools and programs. • The student population is highly diverse: • 57% are Hispanic • 18.9% are African American • 19.7% are white • 3.1% are Asian American • 1.2% are American Indian. • Sixty-three (63) percent receive free or reduced-price lunch. • There are about 4250 teachers and student service professionals

8. The ProComp “Menu” Is Composed of Ten Elements

9. ProComp Redefines a Teacher’s Career Earnings Pattern

10. ProComp Rethinks and Expands How DPS Spends Its Teacher Payroll

11. What’s Masked by this Summary? • Transition Team • a collaborative body established to govern the policy set forth in the ProComp Agreement • Transition Plan • a comprehensive project plan that integrates ProComp in the broader picture of instructional and systems reform in Denver • The extraordinary hard work needed to pull this planning process off • This is largely administrative work that we in the union dismiss as “their job.” • Documentation, training and support • The arduous task of building capacity and changing culture • The ProComp fiscal model • Political campaign