Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Colorado does not encourage local districts to provide compensation for related prior subject-area work experience. However, the state does not seem to have regulatory language blocking such strategies.
Encourage local districts to compensate new teachers with relevant prior work experience.
While still leaving districts with the flexibility to determine their own pay scales, Colorado should encourage districts to incorporate mechanisms such as starting these teachers at a higher salary than other new teachers. Such policies would be attractive to career changers with related work experience, such as in the STEM subjects.
Colorado noted that under the state constitution, it is a local-control state, and therefore such decisions are up to the individual school districts.
NCTQ appreciates the constraints set upon the state by its constitution; however, Colorado is encouraged to examine ways within its constitutional regulations that it can support compensation for related prior subject-area work experience.