With great potential to move lasting reform in a positive direction, and without the danger of ARRA’s bureaucratic strings, the Gates Foundation has stepped forward with significant cash to play a transformative role in quality teaching in school districts around the nation. The Denver Post’s Jeremy Meyer today reports:

Denver Public Schools is one of 10 districts nationally competing for a share of a five-year, $500 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focused on improving teacher effectiveness.

Officials on Monday described part of Denver’s bid for the Gates grant, including plans to change how teachers are hired, evaluated, trained and retained.

But some of the changes may take waivers from state law, said Superintendent Tom Boasberg.

Now is not the time to be timid about pushing the envelope on real reform that can yield significant impacts at the classroom level. Race to the Top is not the only engine moving the train out of the station. Even some local union affiliates don’t want to be left behind.

Look at Tulsa, Oklahoma — another city in consideration for Gates money. They’re considering the same slew of reforms highlighted in the Post article, while preparing to surpass Denver in the area of performance pay.

By making the performance pay optional while retaining tenure and holding every teacher’s pay harmless, it looks like Tulsa simply is making the same tepid progress as ProComp has done. However, dig into the proposal (PDF), and you find Tulsa moving toward a more revolutionary change in teacher compensation than Denver has done.

For example? “No salary increases will be awarded for advanced degrees or additional certifications.” Additionally, more weight will be given to value-added measures of student learning at both the classroom and school level, with potential annual earning increases of $10,000 and $7,000, respectively. In addition, an enhanced evaluation system based more closely on a well-developed performance rubric will determine whether teachers can earn another additional $7,000.

Now we’re talking performance pay that by all appearances is real and intelligent. Maybe that’s why NEA president Dennis Van Roekel had to come out of his way to Tulsa (H/T Education Intelligence Agency) just to say that the NEA “will support any compensation system that a local (unit) bargains”…. What he said behind the scenes we can only imagine.

While DPS leaders continue to move forward in enhancing the development of a quality teaching workforce, they may want to glance in the rearview mirror to see what Tulsa is doing before they get passed by. Then again, they just might want to consider what one of the greatest pitchers of all time observed: “Don’t look back, they might be gaining on you.”

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