Schools for Tomorrow Blog

Saturday’s Rocky has an interesting perspective on the latest ProComp negotiations:  how they affect Denver’s place on the national education scene.  Originally viewed as a point of pride for Denver’s education community, ProComp is now being swept under the PR rug, according to the Rocky:

Denver’s pick as host of the Democratic National Convention was seen by city education leaders as a chance to show off an urban school district in the midst of groundbreaking reform.

Now it may bring more embarrassment than acclaim.

The unique collaboration between Denver Public Schools and its teachers union that produced the nation’s first wide-scale pay-for-performance plan is in tatters as the two sides squabble over how to spend the $25 million approved by voters to make the plan work.

ProComp, officially the Professional Compensation Plan for teachers, has been hailed from New York to Beijing for thoughtfully leading the nation’s foray into merit pay for teachers.

And why, need we remind ourselves, is ProComp now an “embarrassment”?  What has mired this innovative program in so much controversy?  Well, much like the “controversy” over teaching evolution in schools, this one has primarily been fabricated by ill-informed opponents, most significantly the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.  They’re the folks who, absurdly, opposed Michael Benet’s plan to boost pay for teachers in the early years of their careers and to pay teachers more for working in high-poverty schools and for teaching hard- to-fill subjects, such as math and special education.

Denver’s education community is losing its space on the national stage because of such missteps.  For example, Barack Obama is no longer mentioning ProComp in his stump speeches, according to the Rocky article.

Perhaps the DCTA will turn its attention back to supporting teachers and kids, rather than generating “controversy” where none need exist.  Then Denver can find its way back to the national map, where it belongs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 10:47 am and is filed under Teacher unions, Teacher pay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.