Does the Denver Professional Compensation System (ProComp) Help Retain the Best Teachers and Improve Student Achievement? Outcome Trends Across 14 Years

• In Event: Education Finance, Pay, and Productivity

Abstract

This paper examines trends in student achievement and teacher outcomes (recruitment, within-district transfers, departures from the district) during the era of the U.S.’s longest running teacher pay-for-performance (PFP) system, Denver ProComp. We use quasi-experimental methods, such as interrupted time series with non-equivalent comparison groups (ITSNECG) and teacher fixed effects, to estimate causal impacts of the policy on these outcomes. Teacher PFP systems are becoming increasingly prevalent in public schools throughout the US. The Denver ProComp system is one of the longest-running PFP systems in the United States, and we now have data on student- and teacher- outcomes for 4 years prior to the onset of ProComp, as well as up to 9 years following its initiation in 2005-06.

Authors

• Allison C. Atteberry, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Derek C. Briggs, University of Colorado, Boulder

• Sarah Elizabeth LaCour, University of Colorado - Boulder