The Douglas County School District has been recognized
nationally and internationally for its performance pay program.
Recently, the district added a new element to its program: an
outstanding teacher segment, which allows teachers to link their
performance with student achievement.
Denver Public Schools introduced the concept of linking teacher
performance with student achievement last fall when it adopted a
performance-pay program.
Although Douglas County did now want to alter its plan
significantly, the district did want to include this element, said
Ellen Bartlett, assistant superintendent for human resources.
By testing students at the beginning and end of each school year,
teachers can show the district their outstanding qualities through
student progress and growth.
“This is a focus on student growth in the classroom,” said Rob
Weil, president of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers.
“The whole idea is not to have a bunch of random things going on
that teachers do to hopefully improve student performance, but to
align what we as teachers do with the district’s strategic goals.
The idea is to make sure our [teachers] compensation system
furthers the district’s goals.”
The county’s performance pay program was the first in Colorado and
one of the first in the nation. It was developed by the district in
1993-94 to replace the standard compensation method for teachers in
the district.
The plan was implemented during the 1994-95 school year.
“The No. 1 reason for pursuing a new compensation system is to
improve performance,” says a report by the Douglas County School
District. “This plan has come about as an effort to reward
outstanding individual and group performance as it relates to
measurable goals.”
The idea came about, in part, as a result of public pressure
regarding how tax dollars were being spent on teachers’ salaries,
Bartlett said.
“In any school district, a lot of the general fund money goes to
pay employee salaries,” she said. “What we heard the community
saying to us is that they didn’t have confidence in the way we were
spending money on employee salaries and benefits because it was not
linked in any way to employee performance.”
Douglas County listened to the community and its teachers, who also
wanted a way to reward those who excel at their jobs, and came up
with a comprehensive system that “aligns teacher appraisal and
compensation with the school district’s strategic goals,” Bartlett
said.
The performance-pay plan is different from the old system, the
school district says, in the following ways:
q It includes an evaluation that provides a link between
performance and pay.
q Teachers with unsatisfactory performances might not receive
additional annual raises beyond educational credits.
q Proficient teachers will receive annual pay upgrades.
q Teachers deemed outstanding will receive additional compensation
above proficient performers.
q Additional money will be paid for certain skills acquired and
applied in the classroom.
q Incentives for enhanced group performances will be paid to school
teams that meet specific criteria.
One reason for the program’s success is that teachers were part of
the process from the beginning, Bartlett said.
School district officials knew that for the plan to be a hit,
teachers had to buy into the idea, and the best way to accomplish
this was to include them in the development process and make sure
their input was valued.
“The idea is to allow our teachers to figure out how they fit in,
no matter what their assignment is, whether they are a high school
P.E. teacher or a special ed teacher working K through three,” Weil
said. “They have a place where they can fit in the system.”
For the most part, teachers in the district like the performance
pay plan, and one reason is because it’s voluntary, Weil said.
About 85 percent of Douglas County teachers participate in the plan
in some way, Weil said, but this plan has succeeded where others
have failed because it’s not forced on the district’s
employees.
Each employee can decide how he or she fits into the program and
how he or she can help the district reach its ultimate goal of
higher student achievement.
Judy Westerberg, a Douglas County High School math teacher who has
been in the district for six years, said she loves the performance
pay system.
“I think the plan is great,” she said. “I think it gives teachers
an opportunity and an incentive to try something new or innovative,
reinforcing some kind of learning or something a little bit extra
in their classrooms or the school. Also, with the outstanding
teacher performance part, the outcome of that is to be able to take
a look at yourself and see what you’ve done and what the kids have
been able to do.”
Jody Lawson, Bear Canyon Elementary’s building resource teacher,
also said the program allows teachers to reflect on their
performance in a positive way.
“When I did the portfolio, I really learned a lot about myself as a
teacher,” she said. “I really had to turn inward and figure out why
I am doing this. In the end, I think I developed more as a
teacher.”