What Does It Mean to ‘Overspend’ on Teacher Salaries?

A series of Tweets by Abt’s Cara Jackson led to a series of blogs for Education Week. Cara was responding to questions about the concept of communities “overspending” on teachers’ salaries, and her thoughts on the correlation between salary and outcomes gained a lot of attention. In her blogs, Cara explained that higher salaries can attract more qualified and experienced teachers--and lead to longevity in the field--and that teachers with higher salaries and more experience are related to student successes. In her second blog, Cara took a deeper dive into that correlation. As Cara writes, “[I]f we truly care about providing high-quality educational opportunities for all students, we should consider the role that salaries play in attracting and retaining effective educators.”

Part I

Part II