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Paul Gardiner's avatar

@cheesemonkeySF

Ideally, I'd restrict the comparison to large unified districts that are near SF but that would mean ignoring most of the districts in San Mateo which may not be comparable as districts but are very real alternatives for teachers (like you). You are absolutely right that high school districts on average pay more than unified school districts. In fact, in the Bay Area, elementary school districts also pay a bit more than unified districts. (simple unweighted means - I haven't checked whether still true when weighted by student numbers). This is driven in part by having more money per student and in part by requiring fewer staff per student. Palo Alto and Santa Clara are two unified districts that are in the fortunate position of having so much money that they can pay high salaries and have high staff numbers.

My point in emphasizing the San Mateo Union High comparison was not to say that SFUSD could or should match it on staff numbers or salary but to emphasize that there is a very real trade-off between the two that results in huge differences in salary. Given the amount SFUSD spends on compensation, it could pay much higher salaries at the cost of reduced staff numbers. SFUSD has, consciously or unconsciously, and with the acquiescence of UESF along the way, chosen to be a high staff low salary district. When you have a lot of (cheaper) early career staff, student achievement is surely affected, partly because early career staff may be less effective and partly because a chunk of your more experienced and higher paid staff are needed to mentor and supplement the junior staff.

Long Beach has about 15% early career staff (to SFUSD's 31%) and the early career staff earn almost exactly the same as SFUSD's. Of course, retention may be affected by what your future earning prospects are more than by what you're currently earning and Long Beach does pay more to more senior staff.

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Jennie H's avatar

Excellent analysis. Thank you for doing this!

One thing this got me thinking about: when I taught in OUSD, I taught at a small school (about 300 students) in the flatlands. We felt incredibly understaffed, given the needs we had — and this contributed to me burning out and eventually leaving the classroom. Of course when schools are too small, they are much more likely to feel understaffed — which I imagine contributes to turnover. Another negative feature of small schools, unfortunately.

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