Unified Teacher Salary Schedule

Across the country states and school districts currently use a Unified Teacher Salary Schedule, or "grid", to determine a teacher's pay. The factors that determine salary increases are years of service and advanced degrees.

PROS:
- Teachers are guaranteed a certain salary.
- Teachers are encouraged to pursue advanced degrees.
- Teacher raises at the bottom of the "grid" usually lead to increases across the board.
- Teachers are rewarded for the amount of time they serve in the system.
- Makes budget projections easier on school boards and administrators.

CONS:
- Hard-working young teachers are more likely to pursue career opportunities that compensate their talent and extra effort.
- Attempts to entice more qualified new teachers (especially in math and science) become too costly as all salaries in the grid must then increase.
- Strips the system of accountability as all teachers are compensated the same regardless of effort or outcomes.
- Pays teachers the same no matter the difficulty of their subject matter.
- Creates a mentality that denegrates the educator profession by not treating teachers like other academic professionals.

The argument for the unified salary schedule is simple, its proponents believe that because time served and advanced degrees are the only thing that educators can control, then it should be the sole basis for their compensation. They claim it is unfair to base a teacher's salary on other variables that they believe hinder student performance and are out of the control of the teacher, like the socioeconomic background of their students. Opponents of this method of compensation take a broader view of what is within the control of educators.
Opponents believe that educators across the country have proven that increased effort and skill on the part of the teacher can be quantified. No matter the socioeconmoic background of the student, quality teaching will lead to increased student performance and they believe that educators should be compensated based, in part, on this measure. They believe that a unified salary structure hurts the education system by offering incentives to teachers that use their flex time working on advanced degrees (especially degrees that are not in the field of education) instead of focusing on current student achievement. They believe it also deters young and talented individuals from pursuing a career in education (especially in math and science) because they can advance much more quickly in other sectors where their creativity and talent will be compensated accordingly, no matter the amount of time they have been with their organization. Some also argue that it creates the perception that teachers are like assembly line workers, all of equal value and easily replaced. They believe that this pay structure, instead of being compensated like doctors, engineers or other academic professionals, has damaged the status of professional educators.



Further Reading:
http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1144&context=gse_pubs
http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results/14817/How_Teachers_Are_Paid_The_Salary_Grid.html
http://www.psrf.org/gur/gur20.3wenders.jsp

News from around the country:
In Washington D.C. removing the salary grid led to a 21% raise in teacher salaries and the opportunity to earn more.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/06/council_approves_teachers_cont.html?hpid=newswell