Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has a new teacher quality adviser ... and he’s got a foot in both the merit pay and union camps.

Brad Jupp is formerly a senior policy adviser to Denver-schools-superintendent-turned-U.S.-Senator Michael Bennet. In that role, he worked on school and district performance improvement and accountability, teacher effectiveness, and school choice, among other issues.

But, before that, Jupp was a teacher and a union activist with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association for 19 years. He helped develop the Professional Compensation System for Teachers (ProComp), Denver’s signature alternative pay program.

At the department, Jupp will work on teacher quality issues in the economic stimulus program and in the No Child Left Behind Act.

“He will be the voice of the Department to teachers across the country, gathering input from teachers on ED policy,” said John McGrath, a spokesman for the Department in an email. “Brad will also help the Department advance its goal of supporting teachers and promoting teachers as professionals.”

Reading between the lines, I’m guessing he might dispatched to replicate what he did in Denver, namely getting the unions on board for a pay-for-performance plan. But that might be a lot trickier inside the Beltway than in the Mile High City.