Teacher pay: Less-experienced instructors given great expectations

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By Sheena Dooley | Wednesday, August 29, 2007 3:01 PM CDT | () comments

Rock Island High School math teacher Michelle Lillis has 20 years of experience and a master’s degree. (Kevin E. Schmidt/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

For math teacher Michelle Lillis, the best part of her job is breaking through to a student who is struggling. The worst is when she loses one.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “You are putting your heart and soul into helping kids do better.”

The stakes are high for ensuring that her students succeed as the state ratchets up its expectations of schools. Although every subject matters, states hold schools accountable for how their students fare on math, English and science tests. If enough students miss achievement targets, the school is labeled as failing and faces possible state-imposed sanctions.

To meet state expectations, local school district leaders said they need the best educators teaching those subjects. Although districts devote a majority of the total money spent on teacher salaries to staffing English, math, science and elementary positions, those teachers don’t hold the most experience or education, according to an analysis by the Quad-City Times. They also earn less, on average, than other subjects.

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Conduct your own research by using our Quad-City Teacher Pay Comparison database.

Instead, educators in areas such as business, music, physical education and family and consumer science outranked them, the study showed.

The analysis examined the salaries, years of experience and level of education of full-time teachers in Davenport, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley, North Scott, Rock Island-Milan and Moline-Coal Valley by subject during the 2006-07 school year. The wages did not include money for benefits or extra duties, such as coaching or extended contract days.

Among the study’s findings:

-- In the Iowa Quad-Cities, educators in every subject area have more teaching experience than their Illinois counterparts. However, more teachers in Illinois have master’s degrees. In most subject areas, Illinois had 20 percent more teachers in the classroom with graduate degrees than Iowa.

-- Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline and Rock Island devoted more resources to paying music and art teachers — when the two areas of study are combined — than they did for either math or science teachers. However, math still outdistanced either music or art individually in total teacher pay in each district. The Times' analysis grouped art and music together because those are the elective courses that districts devote the most resources to, while math and science are required courses.

-- Math teachers in area Illinois districts earn $52,666 on average, which is almost $6,500 less than the average salary for family and consumer science teachers.

-- In area Iowa districts, English teachers, whose average salary is among the lowest, make almost $2,600 less on average than music teachers, who have the highest average salary.

Area school district leaders say it’s hard to hire the best English, math, science and elementary teachers. They are tied to a contract, which is approved by the school board and teachers’ union, that compensates teachers for their years of experience and degree level. It doesn’t matter what they teach and whether they are effective in the classroom. With no such leverage, it is hard for schools to compete with private businesses that can offer better pay for employees, especially math and science teachers, officials said.

“There is a lot of competition for those folks,” said Marty Lucas, Bettendorf superintendent. “For public schools, it is more difficult to compete because we are tied to a salary schedule. When we are being held accountable for those areas, it would be nice to have flexibility to hire teachers.”

Contracts dictate pay

School districts don’t pay teachers based on how well they do their job or the subject they teach. When a district hires teachers, their track record with students isn’t a factor when deciding starting salary. Instead, as part of a negotiated contract, salary and pay raises hinge on the college credits they earn and the experience they gain.

“The research sums it up,” said Joel Moeller, assistant superintendent for administration and human resources in Moline. “It doesn’t matter if you have a master’s or doctorate. It doesn’t matter how much experience you have. That doesn’t guarantee you are going to perform in the classroom.”

Tom Carroll, president of the National Commission on Teaching America’s Future, a nonprofit education research group based in Washington, D.C., said experience and degree play only a small role in a teacher’s ability to make students learn.

Teachers fresh out of college become more effective the more time they spend on the job, but that growth levels off after about six years. And a master’s degree makes a difference in the classroom only if the teacher earned it in the subject area they teach, Carroll said.

In most Quad-City districts, a majority of teachers who hold a master’s degree completed graduate programs not related to their subject areas, administrators said. Instead, they opt for a general master’s degree in education.

According to officials, Rock Island and Bettendorf were the only districts to have more teachers with advanced degrees in the areas they teach.

Carroll said more than anything, a good teacher understands the subject area they are teaching and how children learn. They also know how to assess what students learn and can integrate technology into the classroom, he said.

“There is an expression in education that says children don’t care what the teacher knows until they know that the teacher cares about them,” he said. “What makes a good teacher is a teacher who really knows her students well and knows how to take what she knows and turn it into an engaging learning experience for her students.”

Teacher shortages

Although school districts must sign off on their contract with teachers, local administrators said the way they have agreed to pay teachers hurts them when they fill positions.

In recent years, fewer college graduates have entered the profession at a time when more teachers are nearing retirement. That and competition from private businesses that can pay better have created teacher shortages in math and science, district leaders said.

Businesses offer college graduates with degrees in the two subject areas higher salaries and more room to increase their pay the longer they stay in their jobs. That’s something districts can’t compete with, officials said.

“A good math or science teacher with that sort of training can go to a chemical company or the like and make significantly more money,” said Julio Almanza, Davenport superintendent.

Take David Dude for example.

The Davenport man decided in college to become a teacher. After he graduated, he bounced between school districts in Iowa City, Clinton and Bettendorf, before landing at Central High School. He spent six years there, teaching math.

As an educator, he averaged nine-hour days and took work home with him on a regular basis. He also became the chair of the school’s math department.

“When you are a teacher, your life is run by the bell,” he said.

Last spring, Dude left teaching for a job at Iowa Testing Programs at the University of Iowa that paid him about $20,000 more a year for creating online applications. It also provided him with a flexible schedule and the opportunity to earn his doctorate, he said.

Some district leaders said if they had more flexibility in deciding how to pay teachers, they could compete with businesses and land better teachers that would stay in the district longer. Others, however, said they need the resources to raise salaries for all educators to start addressing the problem.

“Certainly, I would like to think with flexibility in certain situations that we would be better off,” said Tim Dose, North Scott superintendent. “But if we were financed at a level where we could provide appropriate wages for all of our teaching positions, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com.

ABOUT THE REPORTER

Sheena Dooley, 27, has been the education reporter for the Quad-City Times for the past year and a half. Previously, she worked at the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota and the News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth and has covered education issues for the past five years.

In February, she attended an Education Research and Statistics Boot Camp at Harvard University, where a mentor, professors and journalists helped her refine the ideas that led to this series.

ABOUT THE ANALYSIS

The Quad-City Times used teacher salary information from the 2006-07 school year for full-time teachers from six area school districts to compare each district’s investment in various subject areas. Those districts include Davenport, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley, North Scott, Rock Island-Milan and Moline-Coal Valley.

United Township and East Moline districts were not included because their figures were not comparable. The six districts involved in the study educate children in kindergarten through 12th grade. United Township and East Moline, however, serve students in grades 9-12 and kindergarten through eighth grade, respectively.

Brad Thiessen, an assistant professor and the chair of the mathematics department at St. Ambrose University, aided in the analysis.

In its study, the Times used Iowa teachers’ base salaries and the additional money they received from Teacher Compensation and Phase II funds. Both funds were established by lawmakers to raise teacher wages in the state. Teachers do not have to take on additional responsibilities to receive the money, which serves as an automatic pay bump for all teachers. For Illinois teachers, only the base salary was used.

The money school districts spent on benefits, such as health insurance and retirement plans, was not included in the analysis for any of the districts.

Teachers were grouped in subject areas based on how states classify their positions. For example, language arts or reading teachers in Illinois fell under the classification of English instructors. Physics, chemistry and biology teachers were labeled as science teachers.

MORE IN THE SERIES

Disparities in Q-C teacher pay: There's a great divide

Benefits by school district

Disparities in teacher pay: Lower income equals higher risk

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES

VIDEO: Among other findings, an analysis of teacher pay by the Q-C Times shows a disparity in compensation between Illinois and Iowa.

DATABASE: Conduct your own research with our database of teacher pay, broken down by subject, degree, experience or school district.

INTERACTIVE: Compare teacher pay to poverty ratios at Davenport and Rock Island schools.