5 Reasons Teacher Pay is the Real Key to Student Achievement
While research clearly shows that paying teachers more improves student achievement, understanding why this happens is crucial for us to fully adopt and implement this innovative approach to improving the American education system. The mechanisms connecting teacher compensation to student success are both straightforward and scientifically proven.
But in summary, paying teachers more does a few things. It:
Increases teacher retention
Reduces financial stress on teachers
Increases job satisfaction for teachers
Attracts better candidates in the field
Increases teacher motivation
All of those things increase a teacher’s ability to do their job well. Let's examine each and their correlation to student improvement in a bit more detail!
1. The Retention Effect: Experience Matters
The retention effect is relatively straightforward: Retaining teachers will lead to better student performance. Why? Well, we know that, on average, teachers improve with experience. Retaining more teachers enables schools to fully capitalize on the cumulative impact of professional development and in-classroom learning, thereby benefiting significantly from their growing expertise. And how do you keep teachers? You pay them more! Research suggests that paying teachers will increase retention and, consequently, improve student achievement.
Additionally, teaching experience is positively correlated with student achievement gains throughout a teacher's career. As teachers gain experience, their students not only learn more, as measured by standardized tests, but they are also more likely to do better on other measures of success, such as school attendance. Gains in teacher effectiveness associated with experience are most steep in teachers' initial years, but continue to be significant as teachers reach the second, and often third, decades of their careers!
So what happens when teachers leave due to inadequate pay? Well, schools lose this accumulated expertise. One unprecedented study collected data on 1.1 million New York elementary school students over a decade. They found that students in "grade-levels with higher turnover score lower in both ELA and math," and eliminating teacher turnover entirely "increased student achievement in math by 2 percent to 4 percent of a standard deviation." In other words, the retention effect is real!
2. Financial Stress: The Hidden Classroom Saboteur
Teacher financial stress has a direct impact on classroom performance. Teachers' financial stress, fueled by lower salaries, high housing costs, and student loan debt, is having a detrimental effect on their mental health and job performance. When teachers feel financially secure, they can focus on what they do best: teaching. A study in Indonesia found that doubling teacher salaries led to teachers reporting higher levels of job satisfaction and reduced financial stress. They were less likely to need a second job.
The cognitive effects are particularly damaging. Work-related stress acts as a silent saboteur, infiltrating the minds of teachers and eroding their cognitive abilities. The detrimental effects on focus, memory, and decision-making... hinder effective lesson planning and delivery, creating a ripple effect that disrupts the entire learning process.
When teachers worry about making rent or paying bills, their cognitive resources are depleted. However, research shows that when those financial concerns are alleviated, students' perceptions of their teachers' support in the classroom improve. Additionally, decreased teacher burnout, both personal and work-related, directly correlated with students' enhanced academic self-perception.
3. Job Satisfaction: The Multiplier Effect
Higher pay significantly improves teacher job satisfaction, which in turn leads to better student outcomes, a very welcome multiplier effect. Satisfied teachers offer higher instructional quality and better learning support for their students.
This research from Pew Research is stark: only 15% are extremely or very satisfied with their pay. And by far the highest level of dissatisfaction is over salary – 51% of teachers say they are not too or not at all satisfied. It goes on to cite that “compared with all U.S. workers (across different industries and occupations), teachers express much lower job satisfaction.”
So the goal is to increase teacher satisfaction. Research confirms that highly satisfied teachers give their best to their students’ success, not only by imparting knowledge but also by giving extra attention to ensure the better achievement of each student. We can all relate to this: who doesn’t perform better when they are happy?
4. The Quality Pipeline: Attracting Better Candidates
We all know doctors, lawyers, and engineers draw people in, largely due to the pay associated with those roles. But what if we pay teachers more? A study examining a salary increase in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) found that "a salary increase in an urban school district can attract more applicants.” It also noted that improvements in the applicant pool can lead to an increase in the quality of new hires.
So, if we attract more quality applicants, does that help student achievement? YES! A global study found that when teachers possess higher cognitive skills, their students tend to perform better academically. Additionally, the study found clear evidence that higher teacher pay is associated with an increase in teachers’ cognitive skills, which, in turn, is linked to improved student performance.
5. The Motivation-Performance Connection
When a teacher is motivated, they are more effective. And research reveals a crucial link between teacher compensation and their professional motivation. Specifically, motivation has a significant influence on teachers' job performance, and financial incentives play a pivotal role.
Like most professions, fair compensation affirms teachers' professional value. Motivated by adequate salaries, rewards, and incentives (essential for supporting their families and facilitating positive engagement and socialization) teachers are better positioned to embrace the demanding nature of their profession. When teachers are meaningfully involved in and enthusiastic about their work, it has a positive impact on their students. In addition, engaged students are 2.5 times more likely than their actively disengaged peers to report receiving excellent grades and performing well in school, and they are 4.5 times more likely to be hopeful about the future.
Simply put, the more motivated a teacher is, the better they do their job: educating our children.
“We’re not doing this for the money, we’re not doing this for the accolades. We’re doing this for the kids. But it’s unsustainable when you pay so little and expect so much.”
The Bottom Line
The mechanisms are clear. Paying teachers more helps student achievement because it:
Enhances teacher retention, providing students with access to experienced educators.
Reduces financial stress on teachers, enabling them to focus on teaching rather than financial survival.
Improves teachers’ job satisfaction, leading to enhanced instruction.
Attracts stronger candidates to the profession, resulting in improved student outcomes.
Validates teachers as professionals, boosting their motivation and effort.
As one teacher poignantly noted, "We're not doing this for the money, we're not doing this for the accolades. We're doing this for the kids. But it's unsustainable when you pay so little and expect so much.”
The research proves what common sense suggests: when we invest in teachers financially, they can invest fully in our students. The pathway from teacher wallets to student success is direct, measurable, and transformative.
If you would like to support our efforts, please feel free to get involved. And if you really want to help drive change, donations are a great way to do so!
