Show Me the Money: Analysis of teaching careers and school districts
Introduction
Teachers have a reputation for being a low-salary career. The average salary in the United States is about $51,000, compared to a doctor who makes $142,000 on average, an finance major who makes $77,000 on average, and engineers who make $92,000. While the average looks low compared to other professions, there are some opportunities to make a reasonable living in the education field if one chooses the right district to work in.
For my Math Studies project, I chose to research the differentiation in teacher salaries over a variety of different districts in the state of Illinois. I chose to do this project because, as an educator, I see the gaps in teacher pay and the teachers who are attracted to different districts based on pay. I hypothesized that teacher salaries are very dependent on the districts one works in, and less on their experience they bring to the school.
The plan I had in order to complete this research was to gather data from a salary search engine; data would include a teacher’s salary, their years they worked in the district, and the district they worked in. Because there are 642 districts in Illinois, I decided to focus on just a few districts for comparison. Therefore I chose to do one rich neighborhood districts, one middle class neighborhood districts, and one lower class neighborhood districts. Within each of those districts, I picked 20 teachers to represent their district. After the teachers were organized so they were in salary order, three represented the max, three represented the min, four represented the lower quartile, four the upper quartile, and 6 the median. I did this so that a good representation of the district as a whole.
Once my salaries and districts were gathered for raw data, I organized it in various charts so I could see what trends were happening. From this I chose to run some statistical tests to see if my data could support my hypothesis. Throughout the following report, you will see my mathematical process and the results I found, as well a discussion and conclusion of what I have found out from this research.
Raw DataNew Trier
Position / District / 2010 Salary / 2009 Salary / Increase / Experience / Degree
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $167,476 / $159,463 / 5.00% / 32 / Masters
Special Education Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $152,614 / $143,731 / 6.20% / 30 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $150,471 / $141,739 / 6.20% / 20 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $121,843 / $115,311 / 5.70% / 17 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $121,614 / $137,784 / -11.70% / 14 / Masters
Special Education Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $121,494 / $125,966 / -3.60% / 20 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $97,748 / $87,321 / 11.90% / 10 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $97,506 / $97,539 / 0.00% / 8 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $97,069 / $84,250 / 15.20% / 10 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $96,871 / $90,493 / 7.00% / 9 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $96,352 / 9 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $76,819 / $71,265 / 7.80% / 4 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $76,795 / $71,071 / 8.10% / 30 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $76,466 / $70,951 / 7.80% / 6 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $26,380 / $54,516 / -51.60% / 14 / Masters
High School Teacher / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $25,157 / $19,131 / 31.50% / 11 / Masters
Social Worker / New Trier Twp HSD 203 / $16,632 / $26,470 / -37.20% / 3 / Masters
Lisle
Position / District / 2010 Salary / 2009 Salary / Increase / Experience / Degree
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $122,504 / $119,289 / 2.70% / 32 / Masters
High School Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $116,916 / $111,116 / 5.20% / 29 / Masters
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $114,287 / $106,173 / 7.60% / 19 / Masters
High School Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $96,606 / $93,972 / 2.80% / 32 / Masters
Guidance Counselor / Lisle CUSD 202 / $96,237 / $91,783 / 4.90% / 20 / Masters
High School Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $94,654 / $86,893 / 8.90% / 16 / Masters
High School Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $76,903 / $72,551 / 6.00% / 4 / Baccalaureate
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $76,888 / $65,269 / 17.80% / 5 / Masters
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $76,338 / $69,503 / 9.80% / 7 / Masters
Elementary Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $76,088 / $73,213 / 3.90% / 22 / Baccalaureate
Elementary Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $75,710 / $74,886 / 1.10% / 20 / Baccalaureate
Reading Specialist / Lisle CUSD 202 / $63,724 / $77,456 / -17.70% / 12 / Masters
Elementary Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $62,883 / $58,000 / 8.40% / 7 / Masters
Special Education Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $62,459 / $50,238 / 24.30% / 5 / Masters
Elementary Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $25,473 / $23,779 / 7.10% / 7 / Baccalaureate
Elementary Teacher / Lisle CUSD 202 / $18,340 / $59,652 / -69.30% / 8 / Masters
Speech/Language Pathologist / Lisle CUSD 202 / $12,747 / 6 / Masters
Indian Creek / Position / District / 2010 Salary / 2009 Salary / Increase / Experience / Degree
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $80,752 / $76,181 / 6.00% / 34 / Masters
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $75,020 / $74,947 / 0.10% / 24 / Baccalaureate
High School Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $74,913 / $70,672 / 6.00% / 32 / Masters
Special Education Director / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $60,789 / $44,206 / 37.50% / 6 / Masters
Elementary Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $60,782 / $58,585 / 3.80% / 24 / Baccalaureate
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $60,351 / $59,206 / 1.90% / 24 / Baccalaureate
Guidance Counselor / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $48,550 / $46,769 / 3.80% / 3 / Masters
High School Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $48,540 / $46,829 / 3.70% / 13 / Baccalaureate
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $47,372 / $44,796 / 5.70% / 8 / Masters
High School Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $41,243 / 1 / Baccalaureate
Elementary Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $40,357 / $36,958 / 9.20% / 12 / Baccalaureate
Special Education Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $39,515 / $32,207 / 22.70% / 5 / Baccalaureate
Special Education Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $23,033 / $38,155 / -39.60% / 3 / Masters
Social Worker / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $22,949 / 1 / Masters
Junior High/Middle Teacher / Indian Creek CUSD 425 / $18,106 / $18,126 / -0.10% / 9 / Baccalaureate
Math Process
Gathering Data
I chose 2 districts with a high per capita income, 2 districts with a medium per capita income, and 2 districts with a low per capita income.
Districts: New Trier District 203, Lisle District 202, Sycamore District 427.
Given the number of teachers in each district, I found the min, max, and three quartile positions so I could gather those teacher’s salary data.
New Trier- 419 teachers
Min = Position 1
Max = Position 419
Q1 = 419 (.25) = Position 105
Q2 = 419 (.5) = Position 210
Q3 = 419 (.75) = Position 314
Lisle- 151 teachers
Min = Position 1
Max = Position 151
Q1 = 151 (.25) = Position 38
Q2 = 151 (.5) = Position 78
Q3 = 151 (.75) = Position 113
Indian Creek- 81 teachers
Min = Position 1
Max = Position 81
Q1 = 81 (.25) = Position 20
Q2 = 81 (.5) = Position 40
Q3 = 81 (.75) = Position 61
Organized Data
From this raw data, I organized my data to see what kind of trends I saw and what relationships seemed present.
Figure 1.1: Median salary per district. New Trier clearly has a higher median salary than the others.
Figure 1.2: Years experience were compared to salary earned. There appears to be a positive trend with this data, though not significantly strong to the eye.
Figure 1.3 The experience per district was illustrated in this graph.
Summary Statistics
Mean Salaries:
Median Salaries:
Mode Salaries:
Standard Deviation:
Minimum Salary:
Maximum Salary:
Range:
Mean Years:
Median Years:
Mode Years:
Standard Years:
Minimum Years:
Maximum Years:
Range:
Type of Degree Frequencies:
Statistical Tests
Relationship between District and Salary: Chi Square Test at a 5% significance level.
Ho: H1:
Degrees of Freedom:
Critical Value:
Χ2 Value:
Decision:
I chose to do a Chi-square test for independence because I had categorical data and wanted to test the relationship amongst the two variables. I found the two variables, school district and salary, to be ______. I made this conclusion by doing a 5% significance test, in which my chi square value was ______than me critical value, so I ______my null hypothesis and ______my alternative hypothesis.
Relationship between salary and years experience: Least Square Regression and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient.
Formula: