Examining Sensationalized Teacher Pay

Most free newspapers in Washington, D.C. are full of drab political fare, but the sensationalist cover of last Monday's Examiner caught the attention of Ed Money Watch.

Featuring the image of a golden apple being handed from one person to another, the cover has an all-caps headline that reads: "LOCAL TEACHERS ARE CASHING IN." We were intrigued by the article's content. A scandal involving misappropriated funds? An overly large salary increase won by the teachers unions?

Not even close. It turns out the article, "Cashing in on the Classroom," is about the fewer than 300 teachers in local counties who have earned above $100,000 this year. Such figures are sure to fuel arguments made by conservative publications that teachers aren't underpaid, but in fact earn more than many other skilled professions.

But how are these high-paid teachers raking in such large salaries? As the article notes, "No one on most local salary schedules can make $100,000 without extended schedules." Instead, teachers take on substantial additional responsibilities, such as leading extra classes, mentoring, or administrative tasks. For example, the Examiner highlights the case of Susan Socha, a teacher with 40 years of experience who made over $100,000 this year. How did Socha do it? In addition to her general duties, she "teaches algebra online, leads continuing education classes for teachers and runs an online summer school math program."

Socha's story appears to be consistent with those of other high-earning teachers -- they all took on substantial additional work, for which they were compensated. It's no different than if they had taken on second positions as lab technicians, waiters, or other jobs -- a trend that appears to be growing nationally.

While the number of teachers in the area making substantial salaries may be increasing - something the Examiner asserts but doesn't substantiate -- percentage-wise, it's still a very small group. Just 1.26 percent of Montgomery County's 11,486 teachers cross the $100,000 mark, compared with no more than 1.18 percent of Prince George's County's 8,395 teachers. A small group of individuals with decades of experience making large salaries would be expected in any comparable profession, so why should the case of a few teachers be front page news?

If anything, the story here should be that high-performing teachers don't have more opportunities to earn large salaries without taking on substantial additional responsbilities. Enhancing the rewards for high-performing teachers is the idea behind plans such as Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's Career Ladder Initiative and the Denver public school system's ProComp, a performance pay initiative that provides bonsues for effective teachers who also engage in certain professional development activities. But even under ProComp's salary calculator, a teacher with a doctorate and more than a decade of experience working in a high-need subject in a high-need school won't cross the $100,000 mark until the 2014-2015 school year.

Effective teachers do much more than put in 40 hours a week over the course of nine months. It's time to find ways to properly reward that hard work, rather than running sensationalized headlines decrying the few who receive the compensation they deserve.