The Equitable Distribution of Teachers Across Schools

1. The Equitable Distribution of Teachers Across Schools In Betheny Gross Betheny@u.washington.edu Marguerite Roza MargRoza@u.washington.edu University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education

2. 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

3. 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”

4. But…wealthier schools clearly have higher salaried teachers Teacher Average Salaries

5. But…wealthier schools clearly have higher salaried teachers Teacher Average Salaries

6. Budgets Don’t Reflect True Costs Real teacher salaries don’t show up in schools’ budgets. If they did, they’d show a discrepancy of $300,000 in spending.

7. In each district, the high poverty and the low performing schools had lower average salaries Seattle Cincinnati

8. And again… And again… Baltimore County Baltimore

9. 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.”

10. Staff surveys report lower satisfaction with staff collegiality in schools with lower salaries.

11. But…salaries disparities are a symptom of more serious inequities

12. But…salaries disparities are a symptom of more serious inequities

13. But…salaries disparities are a symptom of more serious inequities

14. 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.”

15. But…Wealthier schools have many more applicants per opening Number of applicants for a recent position in a sample of elementary schools from an urban district

16. 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.”

18. 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.”

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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.