slides: The Highest Paid Teachers in Central Mass.

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Monday, December 02, 2013

Zeke Wright, GoLocalWorcester Contibutor

Teacher salaries in Worcester public schools averaged $89,065 during the 2011-12 academic year. While the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reported this high average compensation, some members of the school district claim that the state data tallies fewer teachers than actually work in Worcester schools.

“That's a data collection issue or a reporting issue,” said Brian Allen, the district's chief financial and operations officer.

The state figures are reported by individual districts and average salaries are determined by taking the salary total — $141,069,458 in 2012 in Worcester — and dividing by the number of “full-time equivalent” teaching positions in the district, which the state lists at 1,584. But Worcester employs a far greater number of teachers to educate its nearly 25,000 students.

Allen reported 2,110 teachers in the school system this week who earned $70,648 on average.

Pay dependent on community's wealth

The average teacher salary statewide in 2011-12 was $70,962.

Unsurprisingly, compensation around the state varies widely based on school communities' affluence.

A 2005 report by the Cambridge-based Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy acknowledges the effect of salary and working conditions on a school district's ability to attract and retain high-quality teachers.

“It's simple economics,” said Len Zalauskas, president of the Educational Association of Worcester. The head of the local teachers union said if schools wanted to provide a “world-class” education, then, similar to any other field, compensation has to attract top talent.

“We lose some really dynamic teachers to other places because of the pay scale,” Zalauskas said, contrasting pay in Worcester to surrounding suburban districts like Westborough, where the average is $76,637.

“Teaching is a competitive profession in many ways,” echoed Brian O'Connell, vice-chair of the Worcester school committee and a school business manager in nearby Connecticut.

While proximity to home, the surrounding community, and the opportunity to have an impact on curriculum and professional development are all considerations when deciding where to teach, “salary is clearly a significant factor,” O'Connell said.

“We're a bit handicapped in that we don't have the resources that a Weston has, a Sutton has. ... So we are really lucky that we do have the top-quality faculty that we do have in Worcester.”

“We have a good crew,” opined school committee member Dianna Biancheria.

Representing an experienced group, over half of Worcester's educators in 2011-12 had 11 or more years teaching experience according to the district's human resources department, and 99.5 percent of core academic classes were taught by highly qualified teachers.

Compared to Massachusetts' other major metropolitan areas

Massachusetts is perennially near the top of the heap in the nation when it comes to teacher pay, with only New York ranking higher on a regular basis. But for that investment, the Bay State regularly leads the rest of the nation in student achievement.

As reported by the state, the two largest school districts in Massachusetts differ widely in average pay: Boston comes in at $81,963 while Springfield averages $57,127.

As to whether there was enough incentive to attract and retain the best educators in Worcester, Zalauskas said that was hard to define, but “the (real) incentive is working with the kids.”

Above their foundation level, the minimum educational investment allowed under state law, wealthier suburban districts outside of Boston pay some of the highest salaries in the state, including Weston (an average $83,884) and Brookline ($85,867).

Spending per pupil in Worcester, the third largest district in the state, falls below the state average at $13,489 per student in 2011-12.

The Boston school system, with more than twice as many students, had a $17,283 expenditure per pupil rate.

Springfield, similarly sized with Worcester, spent an average $14,548 to educate each student, while Massachusetts as a whole averaged $13,636.

In real terms, factoring in inflation, national teachers' salaries saw a 2.8 percent decline over the past decade from 2011-12 according to the National Education Association, the nation's largest labor union.

However, Massachusetts educators saw a real salary increase of 14.1 percent over the same 10-year period, the NEA reported.

Salaries set by contract

Public school teacher pay is set by contract schedules that factor longevity of service, level of education, and additional professional training.

Pay in the 2011-12 school year in Worcester schools varied between $41,628 for a beginning teacher with a bachelor's degree and $81,373 for a teacher with a doctorate at the top salary step — in addition to stipends for longer tenure, professional development, or taking on added responsibilities.

Negotiations toward a new contract in Worcester required mediation in 2010 after disagreement over salaries and health insurance. Given school and city budgetary deficits, the negotiations “primarily concerned ... fiscal issues, not education policy,” according to a report at that time by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau.

State's high bar missed in Worcester

Student achievement in the U.S. has shown steady improvement according to long-term analysis from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. And Massachusetts once again outperformed the rest of the nation in the latest results of the National Assessment of Education Progress released earlier this month.

Achievement levels in the Worcester district vary by school but fall below the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) average as a whole. Attributable factors include a large low-income population (73 percent versus 37 percent statewide) and non-native English speakers (44 percent versus 17.3).

Local schools have shown gains, as evidenced by Union Hill Elementary School's recent movement from Level 4 status to Level 3 based on improving MCAS results.

This year, Worcester Technical High School was recognized for achievement as one of 286 National Blue Ribbon Schools. That school, along with West Tatnuck and Worcester Arts Magnet School, have been Level 1 top performers for four consecutive years.

And in the first round of newly revised teacher evaluations, 94 percent of educators in Worcester were rated proficient or exemplary in 2012-13.

“Our current teachers are effective, they are working for our kids — there's always room for improvement,” Biancheria said.

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