"Hard-to-Serve Schools" and Bonus Pay for Test Scores: Teacher Consciousness and Neoliberal Reforms in Denver

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: 2019 Teacher Strikes: Lessons on Worker Consciousness, Community Advocacy, and Coalition-Building

Abstract

Context and Purpose
In 2005, Denver Public Schools (DPS) adopted a market-based system of “professional compensation” (ProComp), after negotiations with union representatives from Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA). Over the years, ProComp “incentives” have varied in types and amounts of bonuses teachers could receive, for school-wide test scores, participation in professional development, and staffing for hard-to-fill positions (DPS, 2019).

But of particular interest, in regards to social and racial justice, ProComp’s incentives have included monetary bonuses for teachers in “Hard-to-Serve Schools,” meant to retain educators working in DPS schools with the highest levels of poverty. As Anyon (2014) and many others have demonstrated, (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Noguera, 2003), race and poverty have been historically situated together in urban schooling. Furthermore, retaining effective teachers in urban schools remains a pressing concern (Papay, Bacher-Hicks, Page & Marinell, 2017). A study of Denver’s ProComp system asserted some level of success with the aforementioned initiative, indicating that “the difference in the odds of departure is smaller (a 20% increase) for ProComp teachers in high-poverty schools relative to non-ProComp teachers” (Fulbeck, 2014, p. 74).

However, this success belies the reality that DPS has one of the highest “achievement gaps” between white and Latinx learners in the nation (NCES, 2017), along with higher rates of discipline incidents and out-of-school suspensions for Black and Latinx students (Anyon, et al., 2018). The complexity of this was revealed during the strike negotiations between DPS and DCTA in 2019, as bonus pay for staffing and test scores was positioned against calls to roll back the most neoliberal and market-driven aspects of the “reforms.” After explicating this context more thoroughly, this paper presentation will turn to interviews conducted with strike leaders (during the symposium), to elucidate how teacher, student, and community concerns were represented.

Theoretical Framing
The theoretical framing of this paper addresses critical consciousness in worker struggle. Au (2018) utilizes a dialectical materialist framework to explore racial and class conflicts in education, and asserts the development of a critical consciousness entails “a leap from individual consciousness to mass consciousness” (p. 126) about the struggles we engage in. Following Vygotsky’s utilization of dialectical materialism, Au’s application calls for the move from passive awareness of issues, towards the root causes of systemic and institutionalized forms of oppression as collective struggle ensues. The interviews conducted with strike leaders will forefront this, so as to assess the extent to which the issues in Denver’s teacher strike leaned towards “mass consciousness.” Of particular interest is the insurgence of a progressive wing of DCTA, the Caucus of Today’s Teachers, who advocated for a partnership with Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), for building and maintaining relationships with community organizations and advocacy groups aligned with similar concerns.

Scholarly Significance
As occurrences of teacher strikes have increased and gained national attention, it is important to document the struggles and voices of organizational and community stakeholders. This paper presentation gives context to this struggle, while providing space for participants to explicate the concerns that educational researchers must be aware of.

Author

• Pete Newlove, University of Colorado - Denver