Rural Teachers Need A Pay Boost
A new report from the Rural School and Community Trust (Rural Trust) stresses that rural schools are struggling to recruit and retain qualified teachers due to a severe teacher shortage and rural salaries that lag significantly behind those of urban and suburban teachers.
The report, The Competitive Disadvantage: Teacher Compensation in Rural America, outlines the challenges in making sure that no rural children are left behind in the national quest for educational excellence.
“Geography should not dictate which children obtain an excellent education and which do not,” says Lorna Jimerson, Ed.D., the report’s author and a member of the Rural Trust’s policy program staff. “Yet rural districts are having an especially hard time attracting and retaining the highly qualified teachers essential to the goal of providing an excellent education for every child.” These issues are significant, she adds, “When you consider that nearly one-third of all public schools are in rural places, and almost half of all public school districts are rural.”
The study found lower rural teacher salaries in every region of the country. The disparity, Jimerson says, “is significant from the very beginning of a teacher’s career, and gets even worse with training and experience.”
Specifically, Jimerson found that:
— The average salary in rural districts is 13.4 percent lower than in non-rural areas.
— For experienced teachers (those with masters’ degrees plus 20 years), rural teachers are paid 17.2 percent less than their non-rural peers.
— Nationwide, beginning rural teachers earn 11.3 percent less than teachers in non-rural districts.
The report also explores the common perception that rural teacher salaries should be lower because rural areas are cheaper places to live. In truth, says Jimerson, “studies have shown that it will take more money to attract and retain qualified teachers in poorer areas, which often have a lower cost of living. So salaries in these areas may need to be higher-not lower-in order to recruit and retain highly qualified educators.”
A number of policy changes are needed to assist rural districts in attracting and retaining highly qualified new teachers, the report says. Recommendations include:
— At the very minimum, rural teachers should earn salaries and benefits comparable to teachers in suburban and urban areas.
— Additional financial incentives (beyond equitable salaries) should be provided to attract highly qualified educators to hard to staff rural districts.
— The federal government must play a substantial financial role in supporting recruitment of highly qualified teachers to rural schools.
While increased pay and other financial incentives are critical, the report also identifies strategies to improve teacher quality and retention in rural schools. These include:
— Expanding programs to encourage and support rural people to become rural teachers.
— Strengthening rural components of teacher development programs.
— Supporting rural-specific research to identify factors that contribute to rural teacher recruitment problems and to suggest solutions.
Copies of the report are available as a free PDF download from the Rural Trust’s Web site at http://www.ruraledu.org, or by requesting a hard copy at E-mail: [email protected]
