Mar 05 2008
Teacher Compensation And Proficiency
After noting that the spending variables do not correlate with math proficiency rates, I thought I’d look specifically at instruction compensation (teacher salaries/benefits), and see if there was a correlation between any of them and the state reading and math scores, again for grade 11.
Now, before you get your panties in a wad, I think good teachers should be paid well. Absolutely. I’m. Just. Analyzing. The. Data.
I used three instructional compensation variables: Compensation Summary - Total Salaries And Wages ($ Per Student), Total Compensation - Instruction (% of Total Compensation), and Salaries by Function - Instruction ($ Per Student), I ran Pearson correlations between those four instructional compensation variables and the two proficiency variables, State Test Read Grade 11 Total Proficiency (%) and State Test Math Grade 11 Total Proficiency (%). The results are, to say the least, interesting.
| Compensation Summary - Total Salaries And Wages ($ Per Student) | Total Compensation - Instruction (% of Total Compensation) | Salaries by Function - Instruction ($ Per Student) | |
| State Test Read Grade 11 Total Proficiency (%) | 0.063942 | 0.012068 | 0.060162 |
| State Test Math Grade 11 Total Proficiency (%) | 0.15752 | -0.05211 | 0.139754 |
I expected to see a higher correlation between proficiency and teacher compensation, but the strongest correlation is 0.15752, barely statistically significant. As I said above, I’m all for paying good teachers well, but the logical problem with the "If you pay us more, we’ll teach better" argument is that those who aren’t teaching well regardless of how well they’re paid aren’t likely to suddenly become better teachers if you give them a raise. It has to do with whether the job is about them or the students, you see.
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