Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Nebraska does not encourage local districts to provide compensation for related prior subject-area work experience. However, the state does not seem to have regulatory language blocking such strategies.
Encourage local districts to compensate new teachers with relevant prior work experience.
While still leaving districts with the flexibility to determine their own pay scales, Nebraska should encourage districts to incorporate mechanisms such as starting these teachers at a higher salary than other new teachers. Such policies would be attractive to career changers with related work experience, such as in the STEM subjects.
Nebraska questioned why the state does not partially meet this goal since the state does not have regulatory language that blocks this practice.
While it is important that the state does not have regulatory language blocking districts from compensating for prior work experience, NCTQ believes that this is an area where states need to be more proactive in encouraging this practice.