Improving

A Proposed Solution to the LEARNS Salary Issue

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Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary p. 3 – 5
2. Introduction p. 6 – 9
3. Methodology p. 10 – 16
1. Background p. 10
2. The Model p. 11 – 12
3. Model Evaluation p. 13 – 16
4. Results p. 17 – 34
5. Conclusion p. 35 – 45
6. Appendix p. 46 – 47

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Executive Summary

• Many Arkansas educators oppose the LEARNS Act of 2023. One major criticism is that even though LEARNS raised all teachers’ salaries, it created an unfair system where many teachers will now earn the same salary, or very close to the same salary, as far less experienced peers. In some school districts, teachers with more than two decades of experience will earn the same as a first year teacher. ��This project offers a potential solution to the problem created when Governor Sanders’ reform package raised starting teacher pay to $50,000, but only providing $2,000 raises to experienced teachers. ��The solution presented here immediately begins the process to correct the issue, but the process itself will take years to fully achieve its goal–to adequately compensate experienced teachers.

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Executive Summary

• Every district in the state has its own salary schedule, and its own set of certified educators with various years of experience and education levels. In this project, models were constructed using the salary schedule and distribution of certified educators from a single district. ��Proposed changes were applied to the salary schedules with a goal to address the compensation problem for experienced educators with minimal financial impact on the district. The immediate effect, though moving in the right direction, was slight, unlikely to assuage the hurt and anger felt by experienced educators.��A second change to educator compensation was then modeled, changing the traditional approaches districts take to raise teacher salaries over time. Salary schedules for the next 28 years were created using this model, and the career salaries of three hypothetical teachers that begin teaching in the 2023-2024 school year were tracked over a 28-year career.

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Executive Summary

• The models demonstrate that districts can achieve the desired goal of adequately compensating experienced teachers with minimal impact on district finances.��Implementing the changes proposed in this project will improve teacher morale, negate one of the major criticisms educators have of LEARNS, and help LEARNS achieve its goals by improving teacher retention, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the Arkansas’s teacher corps. ���

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Introduction

• Arkansas has a new Governor in Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and she hit the ground running when she moved into the Governor’s Mansion. Her signature piece of legislation was approved by the State Legislature and forwarded to her desk quickly, signed into law before Spring Break, a scant two months after she took office. ��LEARNS¹ – Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking, and School Safety – is a sweeping overhaul of Arkansas’s education system that knocks down some long-standing pillars of typical American educational models. Expanded school choice (including a universal voucher program), mandated retention for students who do not read at grade level in third grade, merit-based teacher bonuses, and other reforms left most educators in the state upset and uncertain of the future.��But the change that seems to have educators most upset is the change in teacher pay structure.

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Introduction

• THE Problem��LEARNS mandates every teacher will receive a minimum $2000 pay increase this year. The law also increased the minimum starting teacher salary in the state to $50,000, vaulting Arkansas from near the bottom in the US for this metric to near the top. Many young teachers will receive a 25% or larger pay increase when school begins in August – $10,000 or more. Prior to LEARNS, Arkansas teachers were guaranteed a minimum starting salary of $35,803, which ranked 48th in the US according to wisevoter.com².��Raising starting teacher pay by $10,000 and many experienced teachers’ salaries by only $2,000 effectively compressed the salary schedule, utterly devaluing years of experience. Some districts’ salary schedules previously peaked at close to $50,000. That means there will be many teachers this year with many years of experience in the classroom earning approximately the same as a teacher with zero classroom experience just entering the profession.

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Introduction

• Pre-LEARNS, teachers operated under a salary schedule with a guaranteed pay increase for every year of service. It was called a step increase that varied from district to district, and the number of steps varied as well. Every public school district had one. The salary schedule presented opportunities for increased pay for various levels of education as well. A teacher could complete graduate level courses and improve their pay too. Pay raises for steps and education were usually modest, but they were guaranteed. ��LEARNS demands districts adopt a salary schedule, but LEARNS does not dictate a structure for said schedule. In other words, teachers have no idea what salary schedules will look like going forward. The guaranteed annual pay increases are guaranteed no longer.��Districts had little time to adapt their salary schedules for the 2023-2024 school year after LEARNS became law. The end of the school year was closing in and contracts for the coming year had to be issued. Many districts across the state took their previous schedules and tweaked them little, if at all, other than bumping every salary that was less than $50,000 to the new mandated minimum. This compression of the salary schedule and uncertain future are major sources of discontent among experienced teachers.

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Introduction

• For example, one 32-year-veteran teacher at a small rural district will receive her $2000 raise this year, to approximately $52,000. A brand new, 22-year-old, fresh-out-of-college, never-had-her-own-classroom teacher at the same school will enjoy a salary only $2,000 lower at $50,000.��This is why so many veteran teachers are upset. They operated off the old salary schedule their entire careers. A lot of teachers with several years experience and graduate degrees will be making the same, or very close to the same, as a brand new teacher in the classroom next to them who earned a bachelor's degree in May.��This project proposes a salary schedule model that will hopefully ease the concerns of offended educators, while offering districts an affordable option to reward experience and move forward under LEARNS.

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Methodology

• The Model��According to Education Week³ in 2018, 44% of new teachers leave the profession within five years. Don’t Quit Your Day Job⁴ has an income percentile calculator that claims $50,000 puts an Arkansas employee at the 64th percentile for individual income, at the 49th percentile for household income. ��This means a fresh-out-of-college teacher standing in front of his first group of students will earn more than 64% of all Arkansas wage earners. A brand new teacher as the sole breadwinner in the home will earn more than 49% of all Arkansas households, including two or more income homes.��With LEARNS in place, starting teacher salaries in Arkansas are going to be desirable. However, that relatively high starting salary may not shore up the dam that currently fails to keep those 44% of new teachers in the field for more than five years. The higher starting wage will likely draw many into the profession, but a large proportion of those will almost certainly leave within five years.

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Methodology

• Proposed Model��The model presented here has three components. The first component addresses the need to reward educator experience and education. In this model, every teacher will remain at the $50,000 minimum salary until they have five years of experience. Then step increases will begin for those with a terminal degree or the equivalent. A teacher at the next lower education level will get her first raise after six years of experience, the next lower after seven, etc. ��This model will compensate teachers for their experience sooner than the salary schedules that were simply changed by increasing all salaries to the new minimum if they were previously below $50,000. It will also compensate teachers for their additional education by advancing them on the salary schedule earlier than their less educated peers.

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Methodology

• Proposed Model��Most pre-LEARNS salary schedules have ceilings for step increases within each education band. This model maintains that practice. Therefore, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree as his highest level of education will not only begin getting step increases later than teachers with more graduate hours and/or degrees, but will also stop getting step increases sooner. ��The second component of this model suggests a change in the way raises (COLA and/or other raises not set in the salary schedule) are implemented. ��Pre-LEARNS, raises that were not automatically set in the salary schedule were typically applied to the base pay, or were achieved by adding a step to the salary schedule. This model suggests applying the raise to all the step increases instead of the base or creating a new step. ��For example, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree working in a district that does not offer that teacher a step increase until he has ten years of experience, would still not receive a raise until his eleventh year teaching. Instead of applying raises to the $50,000 base, they would be applied to the step increases that will begin after his tenth year.

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Methodology

• Model Evaluation��This project utilizes the 2022-2023 certified salary schedule⁵ and the 2022-2023 certified salary information⁶ from the Vilonia School District to evaluate the model. Any district that wishes to implement this type of model going forward will need to adjust the model for the salary schedule specific to that district.��For the salary information, the only data used were the years of service and the education level for the 202 certified employees listed. Employee names and other personal identifying information were not retrieved. Salaries were then pulled from appropriate salary schedule in the model evaluation. ��To evaluate the cost to the district of the first component, the financial impact on the district of an additional year of experience after the 2023-2024 school year, it was assumed that all teachers on the certified salary information list will remain with the district and not advance to a higher education band. The assumption is the only increase in pay for certified employees will be the annual step increase on the salary schedule. This isolates the effect of the proposed salary schedule on the base pay of all teachers in the district.

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Methodology

• Model Evaluation��It was assumed the salary schedule in 2024-2025 will not change from the district’s 2023-2024 salary schedule. Salaries for 2024-2025 were calculated based on the assumption that all teachers will remain at the district and maintain their current levels of education. The same assumptions were then applied to the proposed new salary schedule and the costs to the district of all teachers advancing one step were compared.��Next, raises were applied to both the 2023-2024 salary schedules, the district’s and the proposed, by changing the amount of the step increase for each additional year of experience. The amount to increase the step in each model was determined with the goal of producing a similar cost to the district of a pre-LEARNS style raise by adding a fixed amount to the base.

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Methodology

• Model Evaluation��The raises were applied to improve both the district salary schedule and the proposed salary schedule over the course of 28 years. It is highly unlikely the salary schedule would be improved every year over the course of 28 years. It was therefore assumed the salary schedule would be improved for the 2023-2024 school year, the 2024-2025 school year, and every other year after that. It was also assumed the bi-annual improvement to the district’s schedule would remain constant over the entire career of a teacher.��Once the model salary schedules were built, the salary paths of hypothetical new teachers from different education bands–one with a bachelor’s degree, one with a master’s degree, and one with a terminal degree–were plotted for each model. These plots were created for two purposes.

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Methodology

• Model Evaluation��First, to compare the salary trajectory and total career earnings for teachers under the district’s salary schedule and the proposed schedule, each with future raises applied to the step increase. ��Next, to evaluate whether or not the proposed model and/or the district model achieve the desired objective to widen the salary gap between inexperienced and experienced educators.�

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Results

• Prior to learns, every full time teacher at Vilonia School District received a $690 step increase for each additional year of experience.��Under the assumption that all teachers on the certified salary list will return for the 2023-2024 school year, and none will advance for additional education, 145 of the 202 teachers listed would receive a step increase on the pre-LEARNS salary schedule. The other 57 teachers will have exceeded the years of experience that receives step increases for their highest level of education.��Pre-LEARNS, the annual step increases would cost the district $100,050. (145*$690)

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Results

• The LEARNS act required districts to create new salary schedules with a minimum starting salary of $50,000. The law also mandated every teacher receive a minimum $2,000 raise. To achieve this, Vilonia created an additional step in each education band by adding $2,000 to the highest step on the 2022-2023 salary schedule, then subtracting the annual $690 step increase from each step in descending order. After that, everywhere on the salary schedule that was less than $50,000 was changed to $50,000. ��For example, on the 2022-2023 salary schedule, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree reached the top of the pay scale with eighteen years of experience at $52,501. On the 2023-2024 salary schedule, the top of the pay scale increased to $54,501 at nineteen years of experience. At eighteen years of experience, this teacher’s salary is $690 less, and is $690 lower for each year less experience until that would have dropped below $50,000.

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Results

• With this schedule, every teacher under contract in the 2022-2023 school year will receive a minimum salary increase of $2,000 and every teacher will earn at least $50,000 in 2023-2024, thus satisfying the LEARNS requirements.��Again, it is assumed all teachers on contract in the 2022-2023 school year stay and do not increase their level of education. Each teacher was then given credit for an additional year of experience, and their 2023-2024 salaries calculated using the district’s 2023-2024 salary schedule. The cost to the district for base salaries in the 2023-2024 school year will be $10,994,542.��It was again assumed that all teachers from the 2022-2023 school year will remain with the district for the 2024-2025 school year and not advance their highest level of education. Each teacher was again credited with an additional year of service to calculate salaries for the 2024-2025 school year.

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Results

• Districts sometimes increase the salary schedule from one year to the next. The most common ways are to increase the base pay and leave the step increases the same, or to add an additional step to each column on the schedule. The annual step increase for Vilonia teachers has been $690 since at least the 2009-2010 school year. ��Historically, Vilonia has added a modest amount to the base most years. Until the 2023-2024 salary schedule, only once has a step been added to the salary schedule since the 2009-2010 school year. Some years the salary schedule remained the same from one year to the next.��Next, it was assumed for this project that the 2024-2025 salary schedule will remain unchanged from the 2023-2024 schedule.

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Results

• Salaries of all 202 teachers for the 2024-2025 school year were calculated and summed. If the district keeps the 2024-2025 salary schedule unchanged from 2023-2024, the increase in cost of base salaries to the district will be only $55,553. ��Some districts may follow that track. It could be that some superintendents believe the significant pay increase from LEARNS and the annual step increases should satisfy teachers for at least two years. But, with the uproar from experienced teachers this seems unlikely. More likely, districts will try to incorporate salary schedules that expand the gap between less experienced and more experienced educators, while keeping the cost of annual step increases close to where it was pre-LEARNS. ��As previously mentioned, the new model presented here begins step increases after five years of experience for teachers with a terminal degree or the equivalent number of graduate hours, then a year later for each lower rung on the education level ladder in the salary schedule.

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Results

• The model was run for various values of an annual step increase to find a cost to the district that will be respectable for teachers and affordable for the district. ��If the $690 annual step increase was maintained, the cost of those step increases to the district would be $233,928. This is more than double the $100,050 cost pre-LEARNS and would likely be unaffordable. ��When a $650 step was incorporated, the cost to the district was $171,408. Significantly lower than the $690 step increase, but still possibly unaffordable.��Dropping the step increase to $625 brought the cost to the district down to $132,333. A $610 step increase produces additional cost to the district of $108,888.

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Results

Proposed Salary Schedule with $610 annual step increase. ��This model would produce an additional cost to the district for step increases to the base of $8,838 over the pre-LEARNS cost of $100,050.

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Results

• Adopting the proposed new salary schedule for the 2024-2025 school year instead of the district’s 2023-2024 schedule would not change the salaries of 59 teachers on the certified salaries list. It would cause 97 teachers to earn more, and 46 to earn less for the 2024-2025 school year.��All 59 teachers who will make the same under both salary schedules would earn the LEARNS-mandated minimum $50,000. These teachers will not yet have reached the years of experience to receive step increases. ��All of the teachers who would earn less under the proposed salary schedule reside in the master’s degree or higher education category. All but six of the teachers who would earn more have less than a master’s degree.

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Results

• Obviously, this is not enough of a difference to fully address the concerns of experienced educators, especially since it will reduce what some of the most experienced and educated would have earned under the 2023-2024 schedule if it was carried over to 2024-2025 unchanged. Initially, neither model will not adequately compensate experienced educators. ��This can be resolved, over time, by changing the way raises are applied to the salary schedule. As previously mentioned, districts typically add to the base pay and keep the size of the annual step increase fixed, or add an additional step to the schedule when raising teacher salaries.��Retaining this practice with either the district model or the proposed model will never alleviate the problem–lack of adequate compensation for experience.

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Results

• What if future raises are applied to the step increase instead of to the base? If all salaries are held constant for the first five years of a teacher’s career, several years of increasing step amounts will put the sought distance between salaries of inexperienced and experienced educators.��Several times over the past several years, Vilonia added $500 to the base. For 202 teachers on the certified salary list, this would cost the district $101,000. It would also raise every teacher on the certified list by the same amount, experienced and inexperienced alike, maintaining the primary issue of concern for experienced educators, the lack of compensation for experience.��It would be unlikely a school district will retain exactly the same staff for three years in a row. Moving forward, this project will apply raises to the step increases instead of the base, but will hold constant the distribution of education level and years of service. This assumes the distribution of these variables used to calculate salaries will be typical moving forward as teachers come and go.

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Results

• A dollar amount for a raise to the step increase was sought for both models, with the goal of finding an amount that results in an increased cost to the district in line with the $101,000 cost associated with a pre-LEARNS style raise of a $500 increase to the base.��The value to raise each step increase was experimented with in both salary schedules, the district’s and the proposed, until it achieved the goal stated above, in line with the district cost of pre-LEARNS style raises.��An additional $40, improving the step increase on the district salary schedule for an additional year of experience to $730 from $690, resulted in a district cost of $102,763. Adding $65 to the step increase on the proposed model, from $610 to $675, will cost the district $101,595.

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Results

• It would be nice to believe that cost of living raises would apply to district salary schedules. History tells us that is not likely. The earliest salary schedule available on the Vilonia School District website is from the 2009-2010 school year, where a brand new, starting teacher with a bachelor’s degree earned a salary of $35,525. According to the CPI Inflation Calculator at the website, www.in2013dollars.com, it would take a salary of $50,360.13 in the fall of 2023 for a teacher with the same degree and zero years of experience to have the same purchasing power as that teacher in 2009 had at the beginning of her career.��That means the new LEARNS minimum, though nearly $10,000 higher than the 2022-2023 school year starting salary for the same teacher, still does not equate to the same purchasing power as a Vilonia teacher starting in 2009 enjoyed.

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Results

• While in recent years, raises were achieved at Vilonia by a percentage increase of the base salary, the most common raises from 2009 to 2022 came in the form of $500 added to the base. Several years in that period saw no increase to the salary schedule.��To chart the annual pay of a teacher starting his career in the 2023-2024 school year, prospective salary schedules were created for the following 28 years. Every other year, those salary schedules were improved by adding $40 and $65 to each step on the district and proposed salary schedules, respectively. No salary schedule improvement will take place in the years between those improvements.

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Results

• With the 28 years of salary schedules constructed, the annual salaries for three hypothetical teachers throughout a 28-year career that begins in the 2023-2034 school year. The progression of salaries, along with the career earnings, was calculated for a teacher entering the profession with a bachelor’s degree, a teacher with a master’s degree, and a teacher with the equivalent of a terminal degree. ��Over the course of a 28-year career, under the proposed salary schedule with the previously described improvements in step increases, the teacher with the bachelor’s degree will earn a total of $1,552,230. The teacher with the master’s degree will earn $1,663,800, and the teacher with the equivalent of a terminal degree, $1,749,450.

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Results

• Using the district model with bi-annual raises of $40 applied to the step increases, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree who starts her career in 2023-2024 would earn an annual salary of $65,141 in her last year of a 28-year career. A similar teacher with a master’s degree would earn $74,151 in her final year, and a teacher with the equivalent of a terminal degree would earn $79,941.��Using the proposed model with bi-annual raises $65 applied to the step increases, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree who starts her career in 2023-2024 would earn an annual salary of $63,680 in her last year of a 28-year career. A similar teacher with a master’s degree would earn $75,840 in her final year, and a teacher with the equivalent of a terminal degree would earn $84,960.

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Results

• Annual Salaries Over 28-Year Career with Raises Applied to Steps�(For a teacher beginning career in 2023-2024, no change in education throughout career.)��

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Results

• Now to look at whether the models achieve the primary goal – reward experienced teachers with higher salaries. The next chart shows the difference in the salary of an experienced teacher over a new teacher for 23 years. A hypothetical teacher with 5 years of experience at the start of the 2023-2024 school year is tracked over the remainder of his 28-year career using the proposed and district model schedules with raises applied to step increases. ��The difference in his salary and a new teacher each year is plotted.

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Results

• Difference in Salary (Experienced - New Teacher)�(For a teacher beginning career in 2023-2024, no change in education throughout career.)

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Conclusion

• The primary goal of this project is to create a model salary schedule that addresses one of the major sources of discontent with LEARNS among educators – reasonable compensation for experienced educators. ��It has been argued that there is no evidence between teacher experience and teacher effectiveness. However, a quick Google search yields several studies that refute that notion. At best, the research is mixed on this relationship. ��Regardless, LEARNS removes safeguards that previously protected ineffective teachers. In fact, the law mandates teacher effectiveness as the primary factor in making personnel decisions.

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Conclusion

• If schools successfully implement this practice, a positive correlation between experience and effectiveness should become apparent. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to search for salary schedule models that reward experience moving forward. ��In the rush to design salary schedules that adhere to mandates in LEARNS, many district salary schedules fail to financially reward experience, leaving many teachers with years of experience earning salaries slightly or even no different than novice teachers just entering the profession. ��Because many teachers who leave the profession within five years cite issues other than pay as the reasons they leave, it is unlikely that raising starting salaries will keep all new teachers in the classroom more than five years. Other variables that drive teachers out will likely persist.

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Conclusion

• The 2023-2024 salary schedules and 2022-2023 list of certified employees from Vilonia School District were used in this analysis. Because all districts develop their own schedules and have their own distribution of teachers’ years of service and education, the models presented here will require adjustments to the particulars of the specific district that wishes to implement them. ��In the case of Vilonia School District, these proposed models did in fact achieve the desired outcome, to reward experienced teachers versus inexperienced teachers financially. ��The district’s 2023-2024 salary schedule provided the first raise in pay via a step increase with six years of experience for a teacher with the equivalent of a terminal degree. Under the district’s model, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree first rose above $50,000 with 12 years experience.

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Conclusion

• The proposed model lowered those thresholds to five years experience for the teacher with the equivalent of a terminal degree and ten years experience for the teacher with a bachelor’s degree. Each successive education band on the salary schedule was awarded its first increase one year later than the band immediately below it.�����

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Conclusion

• The proposed model rewards teachers for experience sooner than the district model to address a major concern of educators with LEARNS. However, this change alone is unlikely to allay those concerns altogether. ��Though LEARNS stipulates the state will pay to bring teacher pay to its mandated level, it does not offer additional funding to resolve the issue of inadequately rewarding experience. Districts cannot afford to simply bump all teachers $10,000 in annual compensation, which many educators see as a “fair” solution. In the words of one superintendent who looked at this possibility, “It would bankrupt us in the first year.”��Any resolution of this issue will take time, likely several years. A potential solution is presented here.

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Conclusion

• Historically, teacher pay raises or improvements to the salary schedule are applied to the base salary or adding an additional step for years of experience. Rarely have raises been applied to the amount of step increases. The annual step increase for Vilonia, the district analyzed in this project, has remained fixed at $690 since at least the 2009-2010 school year (the earliest year available.)��A new approach to applying raises can help alleviate the issue of concern here, to adequately reward educators for their experience. ��LEARNS vaults Arkansas to the top five states in the country for starting teacher salaries. At least for a while, this minimum salary should not require adjustment. Most districts budget for salary schedule improvements.

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Conclusion

• If COLA and other raises in the future are applied as they have been in the past, they will do nothing to address the issue of concern here–adequate compensation for experience.��By applying future raises to the annual step increases, instead of the base, districts can build salary schedules that adequately reward experienced teachers, without emptying their coffers.��This was demonstrated using both the district and the proposed salary schedules. The added benefit of rewarding higher levels of education was also achieved with this tactic. Over time, with future raises applied to the step increase instead of the base, both the district model and the proposed model salary schedules achieve the primary goal of this project–to adequately reward experienced educators with higher salaries.

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Conclusion

• Because raises to each of the salary schedules were different, calculated specifically to keep the district cost close to what previous raises cost, and because the number of years when teachers at a particular level of education “maxes out” are different, the district model future salaries outpace those of the proposed models for experienced teachers with a bachelor’s degree. For teachers with a master’s degree or higher, the proposed model future salaries outpace those of the district model.��Because both models were calculated to have similar cost implications, preferences of individual districts would determine which of the models are preferable if future raises were applied to the step increases instead of the base.

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Conclusion

• Because raises to each of the salary schedules were different, calculated specifically to keep the district cost close to what previous raises cost, and because the number of years when teachers at a particular level of education “maxes out” are different, the district model future salaries outpace those of the proposed models for experienced teachers with a bachelor’s degree. For teachers with a master’s degree or higher, the proposed model future salaries outpace those of the district model.��Because both models were calculated to have similar cost implications, preferences of individual districts would determine which of the models are preferable if future raises were applied to the step increases instead of the base. One district may prefer to offer higher salaries to teachers with bachelor’s degrees and opt for the district’s model. Other districts may choose to funnel more to teachers who took classes or earned beyond a bachelor’s degree.

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Conclusion

• The graphs below show the distributions of certified employees’ education level and years of experience. Districts wishing to implement similar models should consider their own distributions of certified employees’ education level and years of experience to determine which model is a better fit.

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Conclusion

• Governor Sanders’ signature legislation, the LEARNS Act of 2023, is a sweeping overhaul of Arkansas’s public education system. While many thrust all blame for the shortcomings of public education on teachers, any reform measure will ultimately be implemented by those classroom educators.��According to Governor Sanders, LEARNS “will expand access to quality education for every kid growing up in our state…so everyone has a shot at a better life right her in Arkansas.”⁷ ��If that vision materializes, teachers in the classroom will be the boots on the ground that make it happen. It will not be the temporary teachers enticed into the field by a flashy $50,000 starting salary who abandon ship within five years who carry the load. It will be the teachers who stick with it, who cross the finish line. Experienced teachers. ��When Governor Sanders’ vision becomes reality, those experienced teachers should be fairly compensated.

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Appendix

Sources�

¹ Arkansas LEARNS Act� https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Bills/Detail?id=sb294&ddBienniumSession=2023%2F2023R

² Teacher Pay by State� https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/teacher-pay-by-state/

³ 5 Things to Know About Today’s Teaching Force� https://www.edweek.org/leadership/5-things-to-know-about-todays-teaching-force/2018/10

⁴ Income Percentile By State Calculator� https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-by-state-calculator/

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Appendix

Sources (cont)�

⁵ Vilonia School District, 2022-2023 Salary Schedule� https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6nWTjq97Ez4YW9zTFlOOUJtY3c?resourcekey=0-VQluP2XuAijut3aiSMFwNw

⁶ Vilonia School District, 2022-2023 Certified Salaries

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6nWTjq97Ez4ZVJ3QTB0SGRQN3c?resourcekey=0-1vnnbg-6vMrmt450_NwaEA

⁷ Arkansas LEARNS Website� https://learns.ade.arkansas.gov/

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