The Principles of ProComp

The administration is focused on how much ProComp costs. DCTA is interested in sustaining the effort to change the culture – helping the ProComp reforms to thrive, including goal setting, lifelong learning, and collaboration with teachers and administrators.

Let's examine the principles behind ProComp as it was sold to Denver teachers and the public.

• Schools should set goals for achievement and measure progress against those goals.
  • In ProComp that process is rewarded.
  • In "NoComp", it only matters for the first 13 years of one's career.
• Teachers should be engaged in lifelong learning.
  • In ProComp, teachers are rewarded for finishing Professional Development Units (PDUs) and are eligible throughout their careers.
  • In "NoComp", teachers should be engaged in lifelong learning only for the first 13 years.
• The district should reward people for making the choice to serve in challenging schools, and the district should be able to provide incentives to certified teachers in shortage areas.
  • DPS and DCTA agree that the amounts now provided are too low to accomplish their purposes. ProComp would continue these activities.
  • In "NoComp", the district office set the limits on who is eligible and when.
  • Just for fun, the administration wants to have a "pet teacher" project, so that every principal would have the ability to name one special teacher, the "master teacher" for a year.

The administration has not changed its position on any of these elements and refuses to discuss or agree to any of DCTA's professional concerns, including use of time, paperwork requirements, and Peer Assistance and Review (see box).

Going over the same ground until one side wears down is not negotiating. We continue to be willing to discuss a compromise in market incentives, but not in our principles.