An Evaluation of Data from the Teacher Compensation Survey: School Year 2006-07

June, 2010

Stephen Q. CornmanFrank Johnson

Teacher Compensation Survey (TCS)Initiated in Response to: Demand for more and better data on teachers’

compensation on a comparative state-by-state basis

Demand for data on total compensation that teachers receive, including benefits

Purpose of TCS: Why collect these data?

Teachers are one of the most important components of education—and certainly the most expensive.

Current reports on actual salary data are only available at the state level and are not comparable

TCS Data Collection

Administrative records survey

Collect individual level data on each public school teacher

School year 2006-07 and 2007-08 data- 17 states participated

School year 2008-09 data- 23 states committed to participate

States Participating in TCS

TCS 2007-08 Data Collection 17 states- 1.4 million records

1.12 million unique teachers (34.4% of teachers in US)

approximately 31,300 schools in 5,400 districts

Total Teachers Teachers in TCS Teachers not in TCS

3,178,142 1,119,711 2,058,431

100% 35.23% 65.57%

TCS 2008-09 Data Collection

23 states participating-approximately 1.437 million unique teachers

Approximately 45.2% of teachers in US

Teacher Compensation Survey VariablesDependent variables

Base salary Total salary Health benefits Retirement benefits Other benefits

Identifier variables State assigned Teacher ID

(use for longitudinal studies)

Linking variables LEA ID (tie data to NCES Local

Education Agency Universe survey) NCES School ID (tie data to other

NCES School Universe survey, e.g., locale codes)

Independent Variables Experience Education: highest

degree earned Teacher status Salary indicator Demographics: gender,

race, age New teacher in state New teacher in district Contract days FTE

Challenges to TCS Data perspectives differ by State

Variable definitions need to be understandable and consistent

Reconciling data

Carrying teacher ID’s forward

Tracking teachers across state borders

Attracting and retaining volunteer states

Data Availability All states can report base salary

6 of 17 states reported health and retirement benefits data

4 states able to assign consistent teacher identification number

Data quality Variations in State data collection period, variable

definitions and response patterns

Snapshot reporting limits data on teachers who joined mid-year or left mid-year

Business rules developed and applied based on data plans, review of state policies, and response pattern consistency

Comparison of TCS with Other Sources of Data FTE counts in the TCS and School Universe are within 4

percent of each other in 14 states

Schools in TCS and School Universe match up well: 31,410 in TCS and 31,087 in School Universe

TCS mean base salary higher than SASS in 15 of 16 states

Mean total teacher salary from TCS data agreed to within 5 percent of average teacher total salary reported by NEA in 11 of 13 where comparison could be made

Mean Teacher Salaries from NEA and TCS, 2006-07

Limitations of TCS Not all SEA’s collect administrative data on teachers

compensation

Differences in how states interpret variable definitions

Unique ID’s not being reported on longitudinal basis

ID’s cannot be used to track teachers across state borders

TCS cannot meet all data needs-less comprehensive than SASS

Advantages of TCS First individual level teacher data base in the

country

Reliable database

TCS can be linked with the NCES School Universe- provides ability to analyze the association of teachers salaries with free and reduced lunch eligible students, ELL students, and geographic areas, etc.

Data Analysis

Descriptive statistics such as the median salaries of teachers and counts for different groupings by experience, education level, age, race, and gender; new teachers’ salaries (Research and Development Report: Evaluation of

Data from Pilot TCS 2006-07)

Teachers’ Mean Base Salaries: School year 2006–07

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Teacher Compensation Survey," school year 2006–07, Version 1a.

Median years of experience, school year 2006–07

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Teacher Compensation Survey," school year 2006–07, Version 1a.

Participating state

Median Base Salary by Years of Experience SY 2006-07

Teachers Level of Education and Base Salary, SY 2006-07

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Teacher Compensation Survey," school year 2006–07, Version 1a.

New & Exp. Teachers’ Median Base Salaries, SY 2006–07

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Teacher Compensation Survey," school year 2006–07, Version 1a.

Percentage distribution of teachers by age, SY 2006–07

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Teacher Compensation Survey," school year 2006–07, Version 1a.

Examples of Research Questions What is the association between the percentage of

students eligible for free or reduced lunch and teachers’ base salaries?

What is the association between geographic location (urbanicity) and teachers’ base salaries?

What is the association between teaching in charter schools (compared to regular public schools) and teachers’ base salaries?

Regression Analysis Merge the TCS file with the Public Elementary/

Secondary School Universe Survey of the Common Core of Data (CCD)

Remove outliers

Establish “cut points” after review of salary schedules

City, rural, suburb, and town variables created by collapsing categories from locale codes

TCS Data Files and Products School Year 2005–06 (available now)

Research and Development Report: An Exploratory Evaluation of the Data from the Pilot Teacher Compensation Survey: School Year 2005–06 (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008440)

Restricted-Use Data file (http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/rutcs.asp) Public-Use Data files (http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/tcssurv.asp)

School Year 2006–07 (available June 2010) Research and Development Report: An Evaluation of the Data from

the Teacher Compensation Survey: School Year 2006–07 Restricted-Use Data file Public-Use Data file

Contact information

Stephen.Cornman@ed.gov (202)502-7338 Frank.Johnson@ed.gov

(202)503-7362 Elizabeth.e.Holland@census.gov

Example of Regression ModelDependent Variables: teachers’ base salaryIndependent Variables (variables of interest) Proportion of students eligible for free or reduced lunch Rural, city, town (compared to suburbs)Controls for Teacher Characteristics Experience (years teaching) Education: MA, PhD, less than BA (compared to BA) Teacher gender: Female (compared to Male) Teacher race (American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, Black (compared to White)School Independent Variables School level: middle school, HS (compared to elementary school) Charter schools (compared to regular schools) Type of school: voc., special education, other (compared to regular schools)