Where the (teaching) money is

A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality examines salaries of teachers in 113 districts employing 20 percent of the nation's public school teachers, finding that teachers' lifetime earnings vary greatly from district to district, due largely to the time it takes to climb the salary ladder. It takes an average of 24 years for teachers to reach a common salary of $75,000, but in some districts, like Boston, it takes only seven, while in other districts, like Wichita, it takes 30. The disparities remain even after adjusting for cost of living. Teachers in Albuquerque work over 30 years to reach the same adjusted salary that teachers in Shelby County in Tennessee make in 10 years. The report ranks districts by available lifetime earnings adjusted by cost of living, and accommodates performance-pay districts by three rankings based on likely lifetime earnings of a teacher with average, above-average, and exemplary ratings. The top districts are Pittsburgh and the District of Columbia for highly effective teachers, and Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta; and Shelby County, Tennessee for all teachers. Districts with the lowest adjusted earnings all have uncommonly high costs of living, depressing what initially appear to be relatively generous salaries: Newark, Hawaii, San Francisco, and Orleans and Jefferson parishes in Louisiana. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

Published by LEAP

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.