the equitable distribution of teachers across schools betheny gross [email protected]...
TRANSCRIPT
The Equitable Distribution
of Teachers Across Schools
Betheny Gross
Marguerite Roza
University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education
In
The Distribution of Teachers
• Lowest performing schools and schools with high numbers of poor and minority students are staffed with least experienced and least credentialed teachers (NY state, NYC, NC, TX)
• NBPTS certified teachers less likely to stay in low performing schools (NC)
• Due to accounting systems based on average costs, this inequity leads to substantial financial inequity
Response #1: There’s no problem here
“We’re lucky that we don’t have that problem (of teacher inequity) in our
district… our teacher experience and talent is distributed evenly
across our schools…
We have lots of teachers who prefer teaching inner-city students”
But…wealthier schools clearly have higher salaried teachers
High Poverty Schools Low Poverty Schools
M.L. King $36,798 Bryant $41,591
Van Asselt $37,744 Wedgewood $42,563
Rainier View $38,737 Lafayett $43,596
Teacher Average Salaries
But…wealthier schools clearly have higher salaried teachers
High Poverty Schools Low Poverty Schools
M.L. King $36,798 Bryant $41,591
Van Asselt $37,744 Wedgewood $42,563
Rainier View $38,737 Lafayett $43,596
Teacher Average Salaries
Budgets Don’t Reflect True Costs
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
Per PupilSpending in
DistrictBudgets
M.L. King(HighPoverty)
Wedgewood(LowPoverty)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
Per PupilSpending in
Reality
M.L. King(HighPoverty)
Wedgewood(LowPoverty)
Real teacher salaries don’t show up in schools’ budgets. If they did, they’d show a discrepancy of $300,000 in spending.
In each district, the high poverty and the low performing schools had lower average salaries
Seattle Cincinnati
Figure 8: Seattle Average Teacher Salaries
$37,000
$38,000
$39,000
$40,000
$41,000
$42,000
High Poverty Schools Low PerformingSchools
Avera
ge T
each
er
Sala
ries
District-Wide Average Salary
Figure 7: Cincinnati Average Teacher Salaries
$48,000
$49,000
$50,000
$51,000
$52,000
$53,000
High PovertySchools
Low PerformingSchools
Avera
ge T
each
er
Sala
ries
District-Wide Average Salary
And again…
Baltimore CountyBaltimore
And again…Figure 5: Baltimore City Average Teacher
Salaries
$43,000
$44,000
$45,000
$46,000
$47,000
$48,000
High PovertySchools
Low PerformingSchools
Avera
ge T
eacher
Sala
ries
District-Wide Average Salary
Figure 6: Baltimore County Average Teacher Salaries
$46,000
$47,000
$48,000
$49,000
$50,000
$51,000
High Poverty Schools Low PerformingSchools
Avera
ge T
each
er
Sala
ries
District-Wide Average Salary
Response #2: Salary doesn’t matter anyway
“The inequities created by salary differences don’t amount to anything real…Higher salaried teachers don’t mean better teachers.”
Staff surveys report lower satisfaction with staff collegiality in schools with lower salaries.
Correlations with Teacher Retention In Washington State Elementary Schools (Plecki, et al. (2005))
% Poverty -0.10
% White 0.33
% African American -0.32
% Hispanic -0.06
% Native American 0.09
% Asian -0.29
% Bilingual -0.22
WASL Reading (State Assessment) 0.15
WASL Math (State Assessment) 0.14
Enrollment 0.16
But…salaries disparities are a symptom of more serious inequities
Correlations with Teacher Retention In Washington State Elementary Schools (Plecki, et al. (2005))
% Poverty -0.10
% White 0.33
% African American -0.32
% Hispanic -0.06
% Native American 0.09
% Asian -0.29
% Bilingual -0.22
WASL Reading (State Assessment) 0.15
WASL Math (State Assessment) 0.14
Enrollment 0.16
But…salaries disparities are a symptom of more serious inequities
Correlations with Teacher Retention In Washington State Elementary Schools (Plecki, et al. (2005))
% Poverty -0.10
% White 0.33
% African American -0.32
% Hispanic -0.06
% Native American 0.09
% Asian -0.29
% Bilingual -0.22
WASL Reading (State Assessment) 0.15
WASL Math (State Assessment) 0.14
Enrollment 0.16
But…salaries disparities are a symptom of more serious inequities
Response #3: It’s the school’s responsibility to pick the best teachers
“Our district’s policies allow each school to hire the best applicant available. With salary neutral policies, we can make the best match between teacher and school.”
But…Wealthier schools have many more applicants per opening
High Poverty Neighborhood
Low Poverty Neighborhood
School 1 3 School A 150
School 2 2 School B 80
School 3 1 School C N/A
Number of applicants for a recent position in a sample of elementary schools from an urban district
Response #4: We make up for it with categorical aid
“Schools with lower salaries get extra money for bilingual education, poverty, etc. …
These categorical funds purchase aides, lower classes, full-day kindergarten, etc. which more than off-sets the lower salaries.”
Federally targeted dollars layer on to an uneven base among schools within
District #1
$0
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
$3,500
Lowest poverty quartileschools
Second poverty quartileschools
Third poverty quartileschools
Highest poverty quartileschools
Schools arranged by their percent poverty
Do
llars
per
pu
pil
Average federal allocation for poverty (TitleI)
Average base (non-categorical allocation)
Response #5: Alright…so what do we do?
“Yes, we’re concerned about inequities in teacher quality, but what can be done? We have very limited funds to address this problem.”
“We’d love to do something, but can’t with our labor contract.”
Challenges to creating equity
• Typical accounting systems mask school-to-school disparities by counting with averages instead of actuals
• Local forces push for equal distributions of any new funds instead of equitable distributions
• No ready access to data on applicants or any of the many other aspects of the human resource process
• Labor contracts standardize salaries and facilitate teachers sorting toward advantaged schools, privileging teacher preferences over system equity
What is the right level to address the problem?
• State-wide policy may not work since inequities in large part occur within districts
• But…fixing the problem in one district won’t be enough when there are multiple districts within one labor market
What’s being done?• Improved data reporting revealing sorting patterns
and actual spending
“Layer on” / “work around” strategies• Targeted incentives to attract and retain teachers in
high needs schools • Efforts to change working conditions and provide
professional development• Put great principals in needy schools
Structural changes• Weighted Student Funding with real salaries• Changes in teacher compensation systems
To work toward more equitable distribution
Get data and acknowledge the problem.
Develop plans to experiment with new solutions to the teacher distribution problem.
Work to remove institutional barriers to equitable distribution of teacher costs (minimum state salary schedule).
If incentives are used, monitor recipients of incentives to gauge distribution among schools within districts and their impact on salary inequities.
Keep an eye on the prize: gauge progress as equity in student performance, teacher quality, or access to talent.