The Single Salary Schedule and Other Issues of Teacher Pay

Abstract

The importance of teacher quality for determining student outcomes is now well established. At the same time, the translation of what is known about teacher quality into effective policy is far from being institutionalized. The simplest summary of research into teacher quality is that some teachers are dramatically more effective than others but that common measures of quality are largely uncorrelated with true quality. Thus, for example, we continue to face problems of insufficient numbers of high-quality teachers, or shortages of math and science teachers, and of “out of field” teachers. Many argue that we should tightened up on entry requirements along with increasing overall pay, but these policies are unlikely to deal with the current problems. Instead, we are likely to be much better off by loosening up entry requirements, by paying more attention to retention decisions, and by rewarding the people we want—those who are effective and who meet current areas of need.

Notes

¹For calculations of the benefits of improved student achievement, see Hanushek (2005).

²As discussed next, however, the first year or two of experience does seem to have important impacts on student achievement; see, for example, Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb & Wyckaff (2006); Hanushek, Kain, O'Brien, & Rivkin (2005); Kane, Rockoff, & Staiger (2006); Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain (2005); and Rockoff (2004).

³A variety of studies have pursued this general approach over the past 3 decades; see Armor et al. (1976); Boyd et al. (2005); Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff (2006); Hanushek (1971, 1992); Hanushek et al. (2005); Kane et al. (2006); Murnane (1975); Murnane & Phillips (1981b); Rivkin et al. (2005); Rockoff (2004).

⁴These estimates consider value-added models with family and parental models. The sample includes only low-income minority students, whose average achievement in primary school is below the national average. The comparisons given compare teachers at the 5th percentile with those at the 95th percentile.

⁵For a clear discussion of the overall issues, see Ballou and Podgursky (1997). Some of the evidence on certification is actually quite controversial. Elements of the debate and controversy over the effectiveness of teacher credentialing can be traced through Abell Foundation (2001); Darling-Hammond, Berry, and Thoreson (2001); Goldhaber and Brewer (2000, 2001); National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (1996); and Walsh (2002).

⁶For a more detailed discussion of the various positions plus the relevant bibliography, see Hanushek and Rivkin (2004). See also Gordon, Kane, and Staiger (2006).

⁷See Ingersoll (2003).

⁸National data on teacher mobility can be found in Luekens, Lyter, Fox, and Chandler (2004).

⁹For a discussion of the pattern of the Black–White achievement gap, see Neal (2006).

¹⁰See Hanushek, Kain, and Rivkin (2004a, 2004b) and Lankford, Loeb, and Wyckoff (2002).

¹¹Two early investigations of experience effects and their interpretation are Murnane and Phillips (1981a) and Murnane and Phillips (1981b). More recent analyses that find any experience effects concentrated in the early years include Boyd et al. (2005); Hanushek et al. (2005); Kane et al. (2006); Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain (2005); and Rockoff (2004).

¹²See the analysis in Florida Department of Education (2006).

¹³The standard reference on merit pay is Cohen and Murnane (1986). The range of available evidence on teacher merit pay can be seen in Ballou and Podgursky (1993, 1997), Brickley and Zimmerman (2001), Cohen and Murnane (1985, 1986), Cohn (1996), and Karnes and Black (1986).

¹⁴For details of the Florida plan, see Hanushek (2006).

¹⁵See Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, and Wyckoff (2005) and Hanushek and Rivkin (2004).

¹⁶See Hanushek et al. (2005).