The Equitable Distribution of Teachers Across Schools

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The Equitable Distribution of Teachers
Across Schools
In

• Betheny Gross
• Betheny_at_u.washington.edu
• Marguerite Roza
• MargRoza_at_u.washington.edu
• University of Washingtons Center on Reinventing
  Public Education

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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

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Response 1 Theres no problem here

• Were lucky that we dont 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

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Butwealthier schools clearly have higher
salaried teachers
Teacher Average Salaries
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Butwealthier schools clearly have higher
salaried teachers
Teacher Average Salaries
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Budgets Dont Reflect True Costs
Real teacher salaries dont show up in schools
budgets. If they did, theyd show a discrepancy
of 300,000 in spending.
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In each district, the high poverty and the low
performing schools had lower average salaries
Seattle
Cincinnati
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And again
And again
Baltimore County
Baltimore
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Response 2 Salary doesnt matter anyway

• The inequities created by salary differences
  dont amount to anything realHigher salaried
  teachers dont mean better teachers.

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

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Butsalaries disparities are a symptom of more
serious inequities
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Butsalaries disparities are a symptom of more
serious inequities
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Butsalaries disparities are a symptom of more
serious inequities
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Response 3 Its the schools responsibility to
pick the best teachers

• Our districts policies allow each school to
  hire the best applicant available. With salary
  neutral policies, we can make the best match
  between teacher and school.

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ButWealthier schools have many more applicants
per opening
Number of applicants for a recent position in a
sample of elementary schools from an urban
district
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• 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.

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• Response 5 Alrightso what do we do?
• Yes, were concerned about inequities in teacher
  quality, but what can be done? We have very
  limited funds to address this problem.
• Wed love to do something, but cant with our
  labor contract.

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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

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What is the right level to address the problem?

• State-wide policy may not work since inequities
  in large part occur within districts
• Butfixing the problem in one district wont be
  enough when there are multiple districts within
  one labor market

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Whats 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

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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.