Raising teacher pay remains a hot-ticket item—and for good reason. Many communities are still facing teacher shortages, and even after some recent pay increases, teachers continue to earn less than other professionals with a four-year college degree.
But even in the best of times, across-the-board pay raises are expensive and aren’t connected to educators’ actual impact on students. And declining enrollment and the loss of federal stimulus funds have made it difficult for district leaders to be effective stewards of community resources.
Fortunately, more than half of teacher contracts in 145 of the largest districts are due for collective bargaining in the next 12 months. Even in contentious bargaining environments, district leaders, union leaders, and rank-and-file educators could pursue contract changes that would make a big difference in addressing teacher retention and ensuring that students have effective, experienced teachers at every level:
First, increase teacher compensation but do it strategically:
- Incentivize less-experienced teachers to stick around. Early-career teachers are more likely to leave their jobs than their more experienced peers, and they often cite low pay as a reason for leaving. A strategic salary schedule would include larger increases for teachers in years three through seven, offset by smaller steps for mid- to late-career teachers. Over time, this would shift more district funds toward retaining the teachers at the highest risk of leaving—just when they’ve finally climbed the novice-teacher learning curve.
- Create or expand high-paying teacher-leader roles. Students need access to educators with the deepest expertise and a track record of success. Strategies like North Carolina’s Advanced Teaching Roles—in which the most effective teachers support the work and development of teams of their fellow educators—create career paths that pay significantly more, with leadership roles that include a mix of coaching, team leadership, and instruction. This lets experienced teachers positively impact more students without leaving the classroom.
- Pay teachers more for taking on high-need roles. Teacher shortages are most acute in high-need schools and in special education, bilingual education, and high school math and science. Leaders can pay for effective teachers to pursue credentials in these areas and provide higher salaries for hard-to-staff roles. (The Dallas school district does this for bilingual teachers, and Alabama incentivizes math and science teachers in underserved rural areas). Reduce or eliminate “lane pay” that retroactively compensates teachers for having advanced degrees, which don’t correlate with student learning. The savings could pay for these role-based incentives.
A second set of options addresses the root cause of shortages: For too many current and potential future teachers, the profession just isn’t attractive or sustainable. By updating sometimes rigid contract language, districts and teachers’ unions can work together to make teaching roles more flexible and collaborative, which we know supports improved instruction and boosts student outcomes.
Allow teachers to play more flexible roles. Contracts generally mandate full-time roles that fit into a standard school day. This “all or nothing” approach force-fits educators into rigid, static, and isolating roles that don’t align with the realities of the workplace of today—or the future.
Differentiated roles can help educators share the work of planning, teaching, and assessing student performance. For example, “shelter-and-develop” options for new teachers reduce the workload for novice educators while ensuring they get the additional early-career coaching they need from highly effective veterans.
Contracts can also allow for remote, temporary, and part-time roles that keep talented teachers in schools, leverage individual educators’ subject-matter expertise, and provide cost-effective ways to offer an engaging array of courses to students.
Open the door for more flexible schedules that incorporate time for planning, reflection, and refueling. Many contracts still dictate how teacher time should be used on a minute-by-minute basis each day, often in the context of rigid 45- to 50-minute periods. While intended to protect educators, this approach does not always respect teachers as professionals and reinforces the cycle of grueling days that leads to teacher burnout.
A more flexible approach would enable educator teams to reorganize learning time based on students’ day-to-day needs, better leverage technology in instruction, and allow for more time for planning and review of student work, laying the groundwork for educators to provide the differentiated supports students need.
Protect the teachers you need most. “Last in, first out” layoff policies favor years of experience over all other priorities and ignore the fact that some teachers are simply harder to replace.
In some districts, these policies can also undo efforts to diversify the workforce: If a district made efforts to hire a lot of new teachers of color, they could end up the first to be laid off. Contracts should ensure that consistently excellent educators, especially in the hardest-to-staff roles, are not on the firing line when budget reductions necessitate layoffs.
These are only some of the options available. It’s time to think beyond blanket salary increases as district leaders, labor leaders, and educators work toward the most important shared goal: ensuring all students have the opportunity to succeed.
