Without question, a major selling point in the pending agreement between Denver Public Schools and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association is its duration. By coming to terms on a three-year contract - the first time in nearly two decades that the district and the union could seal a pact lasting more than one year - both sides could avoid the tiresome and counterproductive annual ritual pitting management against union leaders. In these acrimonious battles, the children and their parents usually lost.

That said, a three-year agreement that was either fiscally irresponsible or failed to tie more teacher compensation to student growth would have been no bargain at all.

Given the current economic climate, the deal is very generous indeed. The average teacher in the ProComp performance-pay system can expect a 15 percent raise. And yet the more we learn about the substance of the agreement, the more we believe it satisfies several important educational goals.

First, it dramatically increases the incentives available under ProComp. Several key bonuses for early and mid-career teachers will more than double, from $1,000 to $2,345 a year each. These incentives reward teachers who choose difficult-to- teach subjects, work in hard-to-staff schools and whose students improve in the classroom.

In that regard, a new incentive will be available to teachers in the schools ranking in the top 50 percent in growth of student achievement.

These changes will ensure that, compared with the existing agreement, much more money provided by the ProComp mill-levy will wind up with top-performing teachers and not sit in the bank.

ProComp will work a lot more like the program that was initially endorsed by DPS and the union and sold to voters.

Next, it would allow the district to redirect salaries and incentives to early and mid-career teachers, who have often chosen suburban school districts over Denver. Average starting salaries would rise from $37,000 to $42,000. ProComp incentives can quickly boost those amounts, letting teachers who take on tough challenges and succeed be rewarded for their efforts.

So yes, the pact offers generous raises for all teachers - 3 percent for the just-started school year, and at least 0.25 percent above the local Consumer Price Index for the final two years.

Meanwhile, beginning with the second year of the agreement, so-called base-building elements - the dollars that remain part of a teacher's permanent salary - would be capped after the 13th year of employment. Teachers who work longer would continue to get cost-of-living increases. And of course veteran teachers will earn full benefits from the pension system, which puts most private sector retirement plans to shame.

Union members and the school board must still ratify the pact by Sept. 9, though the latter is a near certainty.

We hope the rank-and-file will embrace this deal, too, and have been encouraged that more than 200 teachers, union and non-union, recently launched a Web site (denverteachersforchange.org) urging the union to settle with the district and abandon the bellicose rhetoric it had employed in recent months.

Once the agreement takes effect, teachers and administrators will have three years to focus on the kids, rather than next year's contract talks. Students should clearly benefit as a result.