Compensation for Prior Work Experience:
Tennessee
Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Analysis of Tennessee's policies
Tennessee does not encourage local districts to provide
compensation for related prior subject-area work experience. In fact, the state
explicitly delineates the kinds of experiences recognized for salary purposes;
subject-area work is not on the list.
Recommendations for Tennessee
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, Tennessee should expand its policy and
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.
State response to our analysis
Tennessee recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that it also requires districts to develop and implement differentiated pay plans. While the policy has been in place since 2007, the revised differentiated pay plan policy prevents districts from basing across-the-board pay increases solely on years of experience or advanced degrees. Districts must differentiate teacher compensation based on at least one additional criterion. Differentiated pay criteria can include any of the following: additional roles or responsibilities, hard-to-staff schools or subject areas and performance based on State Board-approved teacher evaluation criteria.
Tennessee also noted that districts began implementing differentiating pay under these revised guidelines in the 2014-2015 school year and are updating plans for the 2015-2016 school year. This increased flexibility will allow districts to develop plans to accommodate specific needs, which may be addressed with subject-area work experience, such as math and science content expertise. Currently, more than 40 percent of districts identified hard-to-staff positions as one of the differentiated pay plan elements in 2014-2015.
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Tennessee
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Pensions
Research rationale
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.