IT Infrastructure & Management

Online Teacher-Contract Database Launched

By Vaishali Honawar — January 05, 2007 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A new Web site gives users instant access to teacher-contract data in the nation’s 50 largest school districts, but teachers’ unions are warning against taking some of the information at face value.

The database does not offer any information that is not on the public record. But it brings together in a single, searchable site collective bargaining agreements, school board policies, laws pertaining to teachers, and teacher handbooks for the 50 districts.

Learn more about NCTQ‘s online research portal, Teacher Roles, Rules, and Rights.

“Much of this information is not readily available right now,” said Kate Walsh, the president of the National Council for Teacher Quality, the Washington-based advocacy group that created the database. Even those who work closely on education issues, she said, often know very little about collective bargaining agreements and their contents.

Ms. Walsh said that, besides policymakers, she hopes parents and journalists will use the database to inform themselves. She said her organization hopes to add 50 more districts within a year.

Along with viewing copies of teacher contracts, visitors to the Web site can search for specific data such as salaries, tenure, and leave, and they can compare information across districts.

For instance, it takes just a few keystrokes to find out that a teacher in California’s Fresno school district gets an average of 60 minutes to prepare for class each day, while a teacher in the state’s San Diego schools gets an average of just nine minutes. Another quick search reveals that California’s Long Beach district, which enrolls 92,000 students, pays the highest starting salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree—$47,653—while a teacher starting out in the New York City district, which has 1.1 million students, makes $44,849.

Information on class sizes, grievance procedures, transfers, and benefits will be added in the coming months.

Only Part of the Picture

The database, which was launched Jan. 4, has raised some worries among the national teachers’ unions. Officials contend that some of the data are not as simple to interpret as the Web site makes it appear.

“One concern we have is that as people look at the contracts, they should not draw conclusions without enough information,” said Bill Raabe, the director of collective bargaining and member advocacy for the National Education Association.

At Your Fingertips

A database unveiled last week culls information from teacher contracts in the nation’s 50 largest school districts. Users can sort through it to find out about salaries, leave, professional development, and a host of other provisions. Among the tidbits:

Highest starting salaries for teachers with a master’s degree:

    New York City: $50,353
    Long Beach, Calif.: $47,656
    Fulton County, Ga.: $47,400
    Prince George’s County,Md: $47,279
    Montgomery County, Md.: $46,463

Off-classroom duties for teachers:

    Fresno, Calif: Bus arrival and departure
    Broward County, Fla.: Recess
    Detroit: Off-campus events
    Milwaukee: Study hall, hall monitoring
    Anne Arundel County, Md.: Supervising student arrival, departure

Sick leave for teachers:

    Hawaii (statewide district): 18 days
    Jordan, Utah: 10-15 days
    Dekalb County, Ga.: 12.5 days
    Mesa, Ariz.: 11 days
    Dallas: 5 days

SOURCE: National Council for Teacher Quality

For instance, he said, a database search might reveal that not all districts have policies on class sizes in their teacher contracts. But not all state bargaining laws include class size as an issue for labor negotiations, and the district could have its own policy on class size, or there could be a state law dealing with the issue, he said.

“Having information in one place is great, but as people look at the database they have to understand that it is part of the whole picture,” Mr. Raabe said.

Ms. Walsh said that while she understands the concerns, it is also important for people to find information on teacher contracts more easily than they have been able to until now. Although unions maintain their own searchable databases of such contracts, they are not open to the public.

“Our mission is not to bash teacher unions. … There is no agenda other than this is important to know,” said Ms. Walsh, who has often differed with the unions on such issues as teacher certification.

Ms. Walsh said what surprised her as her organization worked on the database was how little influence collective bargaining agreements have on some aspects of education such as the length of the school day.

It took the teacher-quality council’s staff nearly a year to collect the data for the 50 school districts and organize it—something even Mr. Raabe acknowledges is a “huge project.”

Obstacles in Vetting

Checking the information for accuracy presented its own problems. While some unions and districts agreed to vet the information, others simply refused to respond to the NCTQ’s request, Ms. Walsh said.

In fact, only seven union locals—those in Brevard County in Florida, Granite and Jordan Counties in Utah, Guilford County in North Carolina, Houston, New York City, and Philadelphia—agreed to verify the information. Eleven districts failed to respond.

Some locals said they would have been happy to cooperate, but the requests were either not received or had fallen through the cracks.

A spokeswoman for the Detroit Federation of Teachers, for instance, said her union did not receive any of the requests from Ms. Walsh’s office, which sent out at least two, one in September and another in November.

“This is a matter of public record, and we have nothing to hide. We give that information to the public all the time,” said DFT spokeswoman Michelle Price.

If there are any errors on the Web site, Ms. Walsh said, districts and unions can fill out a feedback form on the site and request a correction.

The group will also regularly update the site with new agreements and archive old ones.

Observers lauded the Web site as “truly innovative,” and hoped to see more in coming months.

“I’d like to see, moving forward, queries that allow users to find out which unions bargain on issues directly related to curriculum and instruction,” said Russlynn Ali, the executive director of Education Trust-West, the Oakland, Calif., branch of the group that promotes rigorous academic standards, especially for disadvantaged students.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the January 10, 2007 edition of Education Week as Online Teacher-Contract Database Launched

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Recruitment & Retention Webinar
Substitute Teacher Staffing Simplified: 5 Strategies for Success
Struggling to find quality substitute teachers? Join our webinar to learn key strategies to keep your classrooms covered and students learning.
Content provided by Kelly Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI in Education: Empowering Educators to Tap into the Promise and Steer Clear of Peril
Explore the transformative potential of AI in education and learn how to harness its power to improve student outcomes.
Content provided by Panorama Education
English Learners Webinar Family and Community Engagement: Best Practices for English Learners
Strengthening the bond between schools and families is key to the success of English learners. Learn how to enhance family engagement and support student achievement.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

IT Infrastructure & Management Cybersecurity Demands Are Growing. Funding Isn't Keeping Pace
State education leaders worry funding for cybersecurity isn’t enough to cope with the worsening problem of attacks on schools.
2 min read
Dollar Sign Made of Circuit Board on Motherboard and CPU.
iStock/Getty
IT Infrastructure & Management Sizing Up the Risks of Schools' Reliance on the 'Internet of Things'
Technology is now critical to both the learning and business operations of schools.
1 min read
Vector image of an open laptop with octopus tentacles reaching out of the monitor around a triangle icon with an exclamation point in the middle of it.
DigitalVision Vectors
IT Infrastructure & Management How Schools Can Survive a Global Tech Meltdown
The CrowdStrike incident this summer is a cautionary tale for schools.
8 min read
Image of students taking a test.
smolaw11/iStock/Getty
IT Infrastructure & Management What Districts Can Do With All Those Old Chromebooks
The Chromebooks and tablets districts bought en masse early in the pandemic are approaching the end of their useful lives.
3 min read
Art and technology teacher Jenny O'Sullivan, right, shows students a video they made, April 15, 2024, at A.D. Henderson School in Boca Raton, Fla. While many teachers nationally complain their districts dictate textbooks and course work, the South Florida school's administrators allow their staff high levels of classroom creativity...and it works.
Art and technology teacher Jenny O'Sullivan, right, shows students a video they made on April 15, 2024, at A.D. Henderson School in Boca Raton, Fla. After districts equipped every student with a device early in the pandemic, they now face the challenge of recycling or disposing of the technology responsibly.
Wilfredo Lee/AP