Better Pay, Better Teachers

The finding by a Columbia Business School Assistant Professor that the city over the past several years has built an increasingly experienced cadre of Teachers is welcome but not that surprising.

Professor Jonah Rockoff pinpoints the primary reason the Department of Education is doing a better job of retaining Teachers as the significant increase in Teacher salaries. The Bloomberg administration, with some help from the state in funding a particularly generous 2002 wage package, has boosted Teacher salaries by more than 40 percent over the past seven years, bringing starting pay above $45,000 and top salary just above $100,000. More recently, deals were reached to give Teachers $3,000 bonuses for working in struggling schools, and to allow them to retire with full half-pay pensions after 25 years on the job if they are at least 55.

All these changes are inducements that make it more desirable for city Teachers to settle in the system, rather than moving on to suburban jobs at the first opportunity for what previously was significantly better pay and in some cases remain easier working conditions. Professor Rockoff noted that this has eliminated the need for DOE to hire Teachers without state certification, who earlier this decade made up about 17 percent of the instructional corps. By attracting a higher caliber of people, they also serve to improve the atmosphere in the school system: better Teachers are going to produce a better learning environment for students.

He cited research that showed that the greatest degree of improvement among Teachers comes during their first eight years on the job. The good news for DOE is that those who were attracted to the city schools by the improved pay scale have not yet reached that point in their tenure, and so they should continue to make strides for themselves and their students, which will hopefully be maintained as they gain seniority.

Mr. Rockoff also cited one change that the UFT agreed to despite resistance from some within the union: the end of the seniority transfer system under which veteran Teachers looking to change schools were accorded priority over younger instructors regardless of their quality. This, too, he said, by placing the transfer system closer to the realm of merit hiring, had a positive impact on education and the workforce as a whole.

The primary lesson, though, is a basic one: you get what you pay for.