Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
In Delaware, local districts are encouraged to compensate
some teachers for related prior subject-area experience. The state only awards
credit for subject-related professional experience to teachers of trade and
industry. This type of experience is on a year-for-year basis.
Expand
policy to encourage local districts to compensate all new teachers with
relevant prior work experience.
Delaware should not limit this policy to teachers of trade
and industry. Such compensation would be attractive to career changers in other
fields, such as in the STEM subjects.
Delaware recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
Districts should be
allowed to pay new teachers with relevant work experience more than other new
teachers.
State and district salary structures frequently fail to
recognize that new teacher hires are not necessarily new to the workforce. Some
new teachers bring with them deep work experience that is directly related to
the subject matter they will teach. For example, the hiring of a new high
school chemistry teacher with 20 years' experience as a chemical engineer would
most certainly be a great boon to any district. Yet most salary structures
would place this individual at the same point on the pay schedule as a new
teacher straight out of college. Compensating these teachers commensurate with
their experience is an important retention (as well as recruitment) strategy,
particularly when other, nonteaching opportunities in these fields are likely
to be more financially lucrative.
Specifics of teacher pay should
largely be left to local decision making. However, states should use policy
mechanisms to inform districts that it is not only permissible but also
necessary to compensate new teachers with related prior work experience
appropriately.
Compensation for Prior Work Experience: Supporting Research
Of
particular concern for the teaching profession are the quality and number of
teachers available in math, science and special education and of those serving
high-poverty students. See the following:
D. Hare, J. Nathan, J. Darland, and S. Laine., 2000. "Teacher Shortages in the Midwest: Current Trends and Future Issues," North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, Oak Brooke, IL; P. Harrington, "Attracting New Teachers Requires Changing Old Rules," The College Board Review, Number 192, January-February 2001, pp. 6-11; P.
Shields, D. Humphrey, M. Wechsler, L. Riehl, J. Tiffany-Morales, K. Woodworth, V. Young, and T. Price, "The Status of the Teaching Profession 2001," Santa Cruz, CA: The
Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning.
Much
of the blame for the difficulty in hiring people with technical expertise falls
on the single salary schedule that rewards only experience and degree level.
See D. Goldhaber and Albert Yung-Hsu Liu, "Teacher Salary Structure and
the Decision to Teach in Public Schools: An Analysis of Recent College
Graduates," Center on Reinventing Public Education, 2005.
People
with technical skills are in high demand in the non-teacher labor market. See
C. Stasz and D. Brewer, "Academic Skills at Work: Two Perspectives," Rand Corporation, 1999, RP-805, 115 p. See also B. Weisbrod and
P. Karpoff, "Monetary Returns to College Education, Student Ability and College Quality," Review of Economics and Statistics, Volume 50, No. 4, November 1968, pp. 491-97.
It
has also been shown that teachers who teach technical subject matters have
higher rates of attrition. See M. Podgursky, R. Monroe, and D. Watson, "The Academic Quality of Public School Teachers: An Analysis of Entry and Exit Behavior," Economics
of Education Review, Volume 23, No. 5, October 2004, pp. 507-518.
In
addition, research has shown that math and science teachers—both men and
women—with high ACT scores are the first to leave the teaching profession. See
S. Kirby, S. Naftel, and M. Berends, "Staffing At-Risk School Districts in Texas: Problems and Prospects," Rand, 1999, MR-1083-EDU, 106 p.
See
also R. Henke and L. Zahn, "Attrition of New Teachers Among Recent College Graduates: Comparing Occupational Stability Among 1992-93 Graduates Who Taught and Those Who Worked in Other Occupations," Postsecondary Education Descriptive Analysis
Reports, U.S. Department of Education, March 2001, NCES-2001-189.