Teacher Salaries in Pennsylvania: Traditional Public Schools and Charter Schools
Open Access
- Author:
- Rohan, Emma
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Theory and Policy
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- April 01, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Maithreyi Gopalan, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kevin Kinser, Program Head/Chair
Katerina Bodovski, Committee Member - Keywords:
- education policy
education
charter schools
teacher salary
CMO
EMO
pennsylvania
nonprofit charter schools
for-profit charter schools - Abstract:
- The landscape of education in the United States is changing, and teachers are placed at the center of this transformation. Traditionally, teacher salaries are determined through a standard pay scale, negotiated by local, state, and federal teachers’ unions. Charter schools, situated at the border between public and private, play by different rules. Are there differences in these patterns depending on whether the school is independently operated, or done so by a nonprofit or for-profit organization? As enrollment in charter schools expands, specifically in certain regions of the state, it is important to investigate how the conventional compensation structure for teachers is changing. This study combines teacher salary data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education Professional Personnel Individual Staff Data with data from the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools to explore the following questions: How do teacher salaries differ between traditional public schools and charter schools in Pennsylvania? How do these patterns differ between non-profit, for-profit, and independent charter schools? I predict that there will be differences between the salaries of teachers employed by charter schools managed by independent, non-profit, and for-profit management organizations. I found significant differences between the charter school and traditional public school sectors, and also important differences between the salaries of teachers in different subcategories of charter schools. Freestanding charter schools and charter schools managed by for-profit organizations paid teachers, on average, significantly lower salaries than traditional public schools. Charter schools managed by nonprofit organizations paid their teachers, on average, several thousand dollars more than traditional public schools. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.