The Salary Gap

Here’s a spin-off from the post I did yesterday looking at teacher and administrator salary averages over the last 35 years here in Washington State.

We’ve heard a lot in the past few years about how CEO salaries are outpacing those of the workers by an ungodly percentage; this article gives a good overview. I was curious to see if that applied on our level, too.

Here are the average salaries for central office administrators, principals, and teachers from 1973-1974 and the current school year:

	1973-1974	2007-2008
Central Office	$19,540	$101,475
Principals	$17,368	$92,103
Teachers	$11,295	$49,903

This table shows the teacher salary as a percentage of the central office and principal salaries for the two years above (teacher salary/other salary):

	Central Office	Principals
73-74	57.8%	65.03%
07-08	49.18%	54.18%

So what does it mean?

In 1973, the average teacher made about 58% of the salary of the average superintendent. This year, the average teacher makes less than half of the average supe.

In 1973 the average teacher made 65% of the average principal. Now it’s 54%.

You could argue, then, that teacher salaries have not kept pace with administrative salaries. You could argue further that, given how the state funds administration, that this means that local money is being poured into administrator salaries at an increasingly aggressive pace.

The argument that I’d get from WASA and AWSP is that we need to attract quality people to the principalship and beyond by offering a quality salary. I won’t disagree with the point, but if you’re an administrator it’s also not a very good argument to make because it’s so damnably easy to turn on its head: don’t we also need to attract good people into the classroom by offering them a competitive salary as well?

I don’t know if these numbers matter, or if I’m reading them correctly. I think there’s something there, but I’m not sure what.

Any thoughts?

the rise of alternative schools

South Sound High, one of the newer alternative schools in Thurston County, is finally hitting a growth curve.

Last year at this time, 133 students attended the alternative high school, which helps students from other district high schools catch up with their high school credits. This year, there are about 182 students and a waiting list of about 40 more.

This year’s change ends a trend of declining enrollment at the alternative school.

“We told the other schools we can’t take any more, but nearly every day, I’ve gotten calls, and (principal David Warning) has gotten calls,” academic adviser Marlys Martin said. She said that students come to the school to catch up on their high school credits. The school also has a GED program that is attractive to some students.

“The need has always been there,” Warning said. “I think the need is growing, whether it’s because of classes that students need to take because of new state requirements or it’s students who are recognizing that ‘I’m behind on credits.'"

Behind "state requirements" lurks the WASL and the graduation project--mostly the WASL, since some schools have lagged in their remediation planning, and since it's encouraging some students to seek a GED instead of a diploma.

Beyond this isolated example, I see only growth in the future of alternative, online, vo-tech and community college programs. It's not ironic: the Frenchification of public education's main-line experience is going to push more and more students to the options.