Resources

Educators are the number one in-classroom factor affecting student outcomes. But recruiting and retaining high-quality, diverse teachers requires competitive salaries, which are too often not available and can be the subject of political controversy at the local, state, and national levels.

This is why conversations about teacher compensation must be grounded in research and evidence. This brief outlines five common myths about teacher compensation and provides the research that dispels them. With this resource in your toolkit, you can support constructive dialogue about teacher compensation and respond effectively to unfounded stereotypes or anecdotes.

This resource is part of WestEd’s Teacher Compensation Initiative, developed to surface challenges in teacher compensation and find, articulate, and share with states and school district creative ideas that could lead to larger solutions.