November 1, 2023
By Jeffrey Mitchell, Head of School, Currey Ingram Academy
Introduction
By all accounts it’s a lean market for schools looking to hire new teachers. I am certainly feeling it at Currey Ingram, and I am not sure I have been in a professional meeting in the past two years in which staffing challenges have not been raised. Shedding light on this challenge, Debra Wilson, in her September 30, 2023, NAIS Head Space article, shared some concerning trends with an NAIS Snapshot reporting “that almost 40% of NAIS schools reported that this past recruitment season was worse, or much worse, than the year before.”
NAIS research analyst Brenna Foley summarized salary trends for teachers in independent schools, “like public school teachers and the average worker, independent school teachers have seen their real wages (wages adjusted for inflation) decrease over time. In 2009, the average wage for public school teachers was $55,370; this increased to $65,090 in 2020. However, when adjusted for inflation, it represents a 2.5% decrease.”
Foley says that the same is true for independent school teachers: “The average salary for NAIS member teachers was $62,905 in 2018-2019. Four years later, the average salary had risen $6,428 to $69,333. However, when salaries are adjusted for inflation, teachers at independent schools saw a significant decline in earning power. The real average salary (adjusted for inflation) of independent school teachers in 2022-2023 was $59,677, representing a 5.13% decrease from 2018-2019.”
As a result, and in response to these concerning trends, this edition of FastStats compares teacher salaries of SAIS schools with the salaries of their public school counterparts in their particular states and examines whether teacher salary increases in SAIS schools are keeping pace with increases in public schools.
The states reviewed and the number of SAIS schools in those states are listed in Figure 1. Due to DASL data access limitations, only the seven states with the highest number of SAIS schools will be used in this analysis.
Figure 1
SAIS has close to 400 member schools. Approximately 75% of SAIS schools are represented in this analysis.
Public Schools Teacher Salaries
Figure 2a and Figure 2b summarize the mean salaries of public school teachers from 2016 to 2023 in seven southeastern states.
Figure 2a shows that from 2016 to 2023 public school teachers’ mean salaries have increased by an average of 10.27%. This should be interpreted as follows: a teacher of a given experience and educational credentials (e.g., 10 years with a master’s degree) is earning 10.27% more in 2023 than a person with identical experience and educational attainment would have earned in 2016. However, it is very important not to interpret this as the percentage increase for a particular teacher. That is, a particular teacher with 10 years of experience and a master’s degree in 2016 would have 18 years of experience by 2023. So, they will have progressed up the scale and received experienced-based raises in addition to whatever percentage the overall scale has increased. A specific teacher’s actual increase in salary would be at least 30%.
Additionally, although there is a 10.57% average increase across the seven states, there is a great deal of variation among the states. From Georgia with a 14.81% increase to their mean salary, to Florida with a 3.69% increase to the mean salary. Clearly, Florida at 3.69% and to a lesser degree South Carolina at 8.03%, are well behind the other five states’ scale increases.
Figure 2b clearly delineates the difference between Georgia ($61,249) and Virginia ($59,965) and the other five states’ average public school teacher salary. Also notable is the upward trend of salaries in Alabama, and to a lesser degree North Carolina since 2020. The black dashed line represents the 10.57% increase over seven years for the seven states.
Figure 3 uses the data from Figure 2a to determine the year-over-year average percentage increases in the mean salaries for teachers in these states. Based on this data, it appears that public schools in these states are not responding with more aggressive increases to their overall scales in the past two or three years, with the possible exception of Alabama and North Carolina, as noted above.
It is worth pointing out that this analysis only represents the mean salaries across entire scales. Some states and districts have manipulated their scales such that the mean salary of all teachers does not change a lot, however, certain segments within the scale have had notable change. For example, the two main Tennessee public school districts in Currey Ingram Academy’s catchment area have significantly increased salaries for the lower experience end of their scales but have not done the same for the middle and top of their scales. This is clearly a strategy to attract prospective teachers early in their career.
SAIS Schools Teacher Salaries
Figure 4a(i) and Figure 4a(ii) present a summary of mean salaries for SAIS schools in the seven focus states. The data is rank ordered. Note that Tennessee independent schools enjoy the highest average salary among the seven states and Alabama has the lowest average teacher salary. A closer look shows that Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida have essentially the same average salary, as of 2023. North Carolina and South Carolina trail by about $4,000 per year and then Alabama is behind another $4,000 per year.
Figure 4b(i) and Figure 4b(ii) provide a ranking of the percentage increase in the mean teacher salary for SAIS schools. Notably, North Carolina independent schools have implemented the largest increases to their scales, with a 16.79% increase in the past seven years. Whereas Florida independent schools have increased their mean salary by 7.74% during the same time period. Overall, independent schools in the seven states examined have increased their mean salary by 12.46%, about 2.00% more than the public schools in the same states.
Figure 4c shows the year-over-year increases in the mean SAIS teachers’ salaries. Contrary to the findings for the public schools, there seems to be a more concerted and consistent effort to increase the mean salaries of teachers in the past three years. Note that from 2020 to 2023 there are consistently larger scale increases, with only a few exceptions, compared to the data shared in Figure 3 for public school teachers. This suggests that SAIS independent schools are recognizing the current market dynamics and responding with more aggressive increases to their overall pay scales.
State-by-State Comparisons
Perhaps the most interesting analysis for this FastStats is a state-by-state comparison of SAIS schools with public schools. Figure 5 illustrates the disparity between SAIS schools and public schools in each of the seven states on both mean salary and the percentage increase in the mean salary over the past seven years. The data from Figure 5 suggests that, overall, the mean salaries at SAIS schools are on par with their public school counterparts, although there is state specific variation. Tennessee and Florida SAIS schools appear to surpass the public school mean salaries, while Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia seem to be a little behind their public school counterparts. In terms of salary increases, North Carolina, Florida, and South Carolina SAIS schools seem to be outpacing their public school counterparts. While Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia appear to be keeping pace.
Cost of Living
Cost of living consideration allows a better understanding the earning power of teachers in various states. Figure 6 shows the cost-of-living ranking of the seven states in this analysis, with a lower ranking indicating a more affordable state. Perhaps not surprising, Alabama is a very affordable state, however, the very low average salary of a teacher in Alabama, especially in SAIS schools, does not help. A quick review of this chart along with previous data, it seems that Georgia and Tennessee have a nice combination of affordability and competitive teacher salaries.
Figure 6
It is, however, wise to consider the fact that teachers everywhere continue to be paid significantly less in comparison to their college-educated peers. “In 2009, the average wage for a public school teacher was $7,341 lower than the national average.” “In 2021, the Economic Policy Institute found that teachers earn 23.5% less than those with the same amount of education, a gap that has increased over time.” “Even when the benefits that public school teachers receive are factored in, this gap is still around 14.2%.”
Final Thoughts
We must be ever vigilant and mindful of the balancing act that is independent school sustainability. We need to fairly compensate our teachers (and other staff) while staying competitive in our markets, refraining from raising tuition beyond the means of our parents, and avoiding increasing class sizes to the detriment of our promised mission. This has been and will always be one of our essential challenges.
In the critical and necessary pursuit of sustainability, we must remember that while our faculty and staff certainly need to be valued through their compensation, they also want to be in a place where they self-actualize, find purpose in their work, and find quality in their work life.
Dr. Jeffrey L. Mitchell is the head of school at Currey Ingram Academy in Brentwood, TN, where he has been since 2014. Prior to coming to Currey Ingram, Dr. Mitchell served for five years as head of Tuscaloosa Academy in Alabama, four years as director of Park Tudor Lower School in Indiana, and as a teacher and administrator for eleven years at St. George’s School in Vancouver, British Columbia. He received his BA from the University of Winnipeg, and his Master’s in educational administration and Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. His focus and passion is educating students with learning differences.
