Pay-for-Performance Teacher Compensation: An Inside View of Denver's ProComp Plan

Denver’s groundbreaking campaign to introduce performance-based pay for teachers captured national and international attention and has paved the way for similar efforts elsewhere. In this book, Phil Gonring, Paul Teske, and Brad Jupp—among the key players in this successful come-from-behind campaign—offer the inside story of the ProComp initiative. They describe how entrepreneurial behavior within the teachers union and support from outside philanthropic groups propelled the plan from a cutting-edge concept into concrete policy.

Based on unprecedented labor-management collaboration, the newly implemented ProComp compensation plan is the most advanced in the country. Each teacher’s pay is based on several factors: evaluated performance, professional development efforts, and willingness to work with at-risk populations, as well as student achievement. Denver’s ProComp plan has raised the debate over teacher compensation to a new level.

Phil Gonring is a senior program officer at Rose Community Foundation. He was integrally involved in ProComp’s development and continues to lead the philanthropic community’s efforts to implement the ProComp plan. Paul Teske is a professor of public affairs and director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. Brad Jupp is a senior academic policy advisor to the superintendent of the Denver Public Schools. Jupp served six years as a union representative and teacher leader in the effort to create ProComp.