Denver Teachers Approve Pay-for-Performance Plan

By Bess Keller

Denver teachers have voted to embrace a new pay plan that would stop rewarding them for years on the job and start recognizing specific skills and achievements in the classroom.

Approval from the teachers' union puts the closely watched plan into the hands of Denver voters, who will be asked in 2005 for a property-tax increase to pay for the $25 million annual cost.

Members of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association supported the proposal, written as part of the teachers' contract, by a decisive 59 percent to 41 percent. About 2,700 of the union's 3,200 members cast ballots. The 70,000-student district...