Rocky Mountain Prep Logo
Enroll
Enroll
Enroll

BETTER PAY, MORE AGENCY: WHY I DECIDED TO KEEP TEACHING AT RMP

October 10, 2022
By admin
Teacher teaching at the classroom.

Mari Peterson, a fifth-grade math teacher at Rocky Mountain Prep Creekside, has been teaching for 10 years — eight of them at RMP. But before that, she never intended to become a teacher.

Her interest in education began in college, where she participated in a student group, Students for Education Reform, that discussed equitable education as a form of social justice. This led her to join Teach For America and teach middle school in Mississippi for two years.

After moving to Denver, Mari had left the teaching profession, but she realized she missed it. That was when Rocky Mountain Prep appeared in her life. She became a founding teacher of RMP Creekside’s fourth grade, and she loved how her team approached teaching math: not just showing solutions that work, but explaining why they work.

As the school grew, she moved into fifth-grade math, and it has been her passion ever since. For four consecutive years, RMP Creekside students overall achieved the highest math scores on CMAS of any DPS school with a majority of students eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch. Mari’s students in particular scored in the top 25% of their grades at all DPS schools.

But after several years, Mari was weighing the possibility of leaving teaching for good.

“Teaching is a very hard profession,” Mari said. “Living in an expensive city and trying to create a work-life balance is really challenging as a teacher. It’s difficult to further your career.”

Last year, she started applying for positions in nursing, where she would have a higher salary and more control over her schedule. But in the spring of 2022, Mari was selected for RMP’s first cohort of PEAK Teachers.

PEAK Teachers — RMP’s top-performing teachers in both student achievement data and observations — make between $80,000 and $110,000 per year. They also receive a professional development budget to use for coaching, training, and leading their fellow staff members.

“The PEAK Teacher program helped me see that I could make an actual living as a teacher,” she said. “A lot of the time, what drives teachers out is the pay, and if you want to move up in roles and in pay, you have to go into administration. But this program recognizes that there are a lot of teachers who would rather stay in the classroom.”

In 2022, all four Rocky Mountain Prep schools were rated green on Colorado’s Preliminary School Performance Framework (SPF) for the first time in the network’s history. Additionally, 58.3% of fifth-graders at RMP Creekside — Mari’s students — who took CMAS scored proficient or above proficient in math.

So what changed? For Mari, it was getting her students to care about and own their learning. “We were transparent with our kids about their growth, and they were excited when they found out that they could use that feedback to improve,” she said.

With a focus on PEAK values, strong family relationships, and supporting the whole child, Mari said the RMP community is unlike anything else.

“When you set high expectations, hire great teachers, and hold your kids to working hard and being kind, you see the results,” she said. “It really proves what is possible for all kids, and that there are ways to improve our schools.”

MORE RMP NEWS

November 11, 2019

We stand with Dreamers

STRIVE Prep stands with the more than 700,000 DACA recipients, some of whom are our very own students, alumni, teachers and staff, as the Supreme Court hears arguments on the […]

Read More

Young black girl using a laptop

July 20, 2020

Update For Start of School Year

Read More

September 24, 2019

Financial Aid support for alumni

Read More

February 08, 2023

NOTICE OF STRIVE PREP BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING

Read More

bookphone-handsetmap-markercalendar-fullchevron-downarrow-rightcross-circletext-align-right