Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 82, No. 4
Abstract
The Single Salary Schedule and Other Issues of Teacher Pay
Eric A. Hanushek
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
The importance of teacher quality for determining student outcomes is now well established. At the same time, the translation of what is known about teacher quality into effective policy is far from being institutionalized. The simplest summary of research into teacher quality is that some teachers are dramatically more effective than others but that common measures of quality are largely uncorrelated with true quality. Thus, for example, we continue to face problems of insufficient numbers of high-quality teachers, or shortages of math and science teachers, and of "out of field" teachers. Many argue that we should tightened up on entry requirements along with increasing overall pay, but these policies are unlikely to deal with the current problems. Instead, we are likely to be much better off by loosening up entry requirements, by paying more attention to retention decisions, and by rewarding the people we want--those who are effective and who meet current areas of need.
About The Author
Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He is also chairman of the Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences and is a member of the Governor's Advisory Committee on Education Excellence in California and the Governor's Commission for a College Ready Texas. He is an expert on educational policy, specializing in the economics and finance of schools. His ongoing research spans a number of the most important areas of education policy including the impacts of high stakes accountability and of class size reduction and the importance of teacher quality.
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