Afton Partners

When school-level expenditure data are made public beginning with the 2018–19 school year, many in the system will be caught off guard. District and school leaders are largely unprepared to engage on the issues that the new data will raise: equity, spending trade-offs, and the link between money and school outcomes. This Q&A with Dr. Marguerite Roza shines a light on the pressing need to better support district and school leaders in their work on the spending side of the equation.

With an average sticker price of $65,000 per resident teacher, the residency model is an impractical solution to the many challenges of the labor market. Clearly, residency programs can help some districts avoid staffing shortfalls, but there are problems with casting them as the best opportunity districts have to shape and redirect the talent pipeline. A more readily available, scalable, and affordable option is already available: fixing the pipeline of prospective teachers who enter through student teaching. Ultimately, a strong student teaching program can accomplish many of the same outcomes as a high-quality residency program — but on a much larger scale. Traditional teacher preparation programs graduate more than 150,000 teachers per year, while residencies produce a tiny fraction of this number.

A new poll shows that most Americans say public-school teachers are underpaid. 73 percent said they would support public-school teachers in their community if they went on strike for higher pay. Support was even higher among parents of public-school students who would be most affected, at 78 percent. The survey also found two-thirds of people say teacher salaries are too low. That general impression was affirmed when people were asked about $39,000 as a starting salary — the national average; 65 percent said that was too low. Conversely, just 6 percent of all adults said teacher salaries are too high.

While faring better than their peers in high-poverty schools, students of color and low-income students in wealthier schools still lag behind their higher-income and white classmates. This is largely due to unequal access to educational, personal and sociopolitical resources outside of school, according to an extensive report by Public Impact, commissioned by the Oak Foundation. The authors recommend that leaders of low-poverty schools do more to provide “outstanding learning for all, secure and healthy learners, and a culture of equity within low- and moderate-poverty schools.” The report examined approaches with evidence of boosting outcomes for disadvantaged students without reducing the availability of advanced instruction.

District 27J, one of the state’s larger districts, has dropped Mondays from the school week and switched to a four-day schedule as of Tuesday, the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year. Superintendent Chris Fiedler said that the district will save on transportation costs, teaching salaries and districtwide utilities.  “We anticipate about $1 million in savings,” Fiedler said.  Fiedler estimates that running fewer school buses alone will save the district about $700,000. The district plans to offer child care on Mondays for $30 per child per day. Students will attend regular classes Tuesday through Friday and class time will be extended by 40 minutes per day. Our friends at CRPE have researched and shared their thoughts on this topic in their June report, “What Do We Actually Know about the Four-Day School Week?”