Memo to the superintendent Assignment

Memo to the superintendent

Order Instructions:

Teachers Project , ECO N 315, Jadrian Wooten, Fall 2014 .

This assignment is due in class AND to Angel by the end of class on Wednesday, October 1 5 . Written
material should be typed, 12 pt. font, double spaced, and the whole assignment in one stapled packet ,
including copies of all supporting material identified in 7 below. Please do not ask me to accept assignments that are not stapled, and please do not exceed the space limit of three written pages– my grading will stop there. You will submit the memo in the appropriate Angel Drop Box, and turn in a paper copy with your additional material in class.

We will discuss this assignment in class, so on the due date please have computer- readable copies of your graphs available, either on a CD, flash drive, or via e – mail. You may be in vited to show them to the class and describe them briefly. As with all assignments, this is to be independent work.

The superintendent of a Texas school district wishes to better understand how economic factors affect
inequality in academic achievement across the district. Several web sites will be of use in finding out:

• Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) :

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2010/index.html

• Texas School District Maps: http://wgisprd.tea.state.tx.us/SDL/
• Texas School Accountability Rating System ( 2010 version):

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2010/

• Individual School District Web Sites (look up on Google)
• Journal of Human Resources (JHR) article by Hanushek, Kain, and Rivkin

Here is what to do:

1. The district must have at least twenty elementary schools that include the 5 th grade, and should have
some variation in socioeconomic status across schools. You can use the Map site to look at districts.
You will not need to study every school in your district, just twenty elementaries, selected to
maximize variation in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students (who receive free or reduced lunch) in the school.

2. Obtain a copy of the teacher salary schedule from your district and four surrounding districts. These
are generally available on the district’s web site, but occasionally you will have to call and have them
FAX /EMAIL it to you.

3. Read the JHR article, focusing on the main points and not getting bogged down in details.

4. Go to the AEIS and obtain, for each of the twenty schools you have chosen, the percent passing the
5th grade TAKS mathematics, the percent passing the 5th grade TAKS reading, the percentage of
students on free or reduced lunch (economically disadvantaged), the perc entage of teachers in the
school with five years of experience or less, and the average total operating expenditures per student
(by function). Each of these numbers should be for 2010 (2009 – 2010 school year), because the
testing system changed for 2011. R ecord these numbers in a nicely organized spreadsheet.

5. Create nice- looking scatterplots of the percentage of economically disadvantaged students vs. math
scores (% passing), economic disadvantage vs. reading scores, economic disadvantage vs. the percent of teachers with less than 5 yrs. experience, and economic disadvantage vs. average operating
expenditures. Treat economic disadvantage as the independent, or X, variable, and the others as
dependent, or Y, variables. Include a trend line in each .

6. Also create a graph of percent teachers with less than 5 yrs. experience vs. math scores, and another
that replaces math scores with reading scores. Here, the percentage of inexperienced teachers is the
independent variable and the test scores are the dependent variable. Again, include trend lines .

7. Write a memo to the superintendent, organized around answers to the questions below, to explain
how economic factors affect inequality in academic achievement across the district. Make the memo
no longer than three type written pages maximum, with printouts of your data, graphs, and salaries,
stapled to the back. Submit this packet in class on the due date. Turn it in to me and I will forward it
to the superintendent for you…

Here are the questions!

1. Competitiveness of Markets . First, compare salaries across districts. What does it mean for teaching salaries to be competitive? Are they reasonably competitive across your market area? Why? Are they more competitive for beginning teachers or experienced teachers?

2. Labor Demand. Carefully examine the teacher salary schedule for your district. Describe the patterns that it contains. Theory suggests that the amount employers are willing to pay workers reflects their productivity. If so, what does the salary schedule indicate school districts do, and do not, value in teachers? Does this make sense?

3. Labor Supply. Briefly summarize the JHR article. Then briefly summarize your graphs in #5 above.
Interpret the trend lines. Do your graphs suggest that teacher supply follows the patterns described
in the JHR article?

4. Equilibrium . Your teacher salary schedule has no compensating differentials of any kind. In this labor
market, what does that mean?– what would it be like, instead, to have compensating differentials?
Describe how the lack of compensating differentials affects the teacher supply patterns you described
above. Does the lack of compensating differentials have any other repercussions in this market?

5. Output . Finally, let’s look at performance, as measured by test sc o res. Ba sed on your graphs in #6
above, are these scores related to the percentage of inexperienced teachers? Quantify the relationship
by interpreting the trend line. Do the pay policies of school districts appear to influence student
achievement in the schools you studied?

One or two paragraphs should suffice to answer each set of questions (1- 5). Conclude your write- up with
brief concluding remarks that focus on the big picture.

SAMPLE ANSWER

Memo

To: The Superintendent

From: The Economists

Re: How Economic Factors Affect Inequality In Academic Achievement Across Districts.

Competitiveness of Markets

The competitiveness of pay across the major district schools can be analyzed by the illustration below.

	Salaries	Mathematics	Reading
Midland	43622	99	82
Clarendon	42736	81	95
Farwell	42198	50	60
Calvert Independent school District	42193	93	93
Happy	41444	84	74
Claude Independent school District	40355	82	91
Grandview	40150	98	94
Follett	34796	60	58
Briscoe	34338	84	87
Channing Independent school District	34038	53	71
Groom	34023	83	70
Darrouzett	33821	86	95
Adrian Independent school district	29400	86	86

The performance of teachers is positively affected by the increment of the rate of salaries payable to the teachers. The percentage performance in the TAKS Reading performance seems to improve as salaries continue rise across different schools. The perfectly competitive salaries can be determined by the labor market when marginal factor of the cost of labor equals the equilibrium wage that can be accomplished by the laws of labor supply and demand.

Performance in Mathematics & Reading Compared to Increment in Salaries

The performances of the teachers who are well paid are better in Reading than in mathematics as the trend indicates above. However, the increment in salaries for the teachers is also associated with higher and better performance of the students. (Stinebrickner, 2001)

Labour Demand

The demand of experienced teachers is on the increase as most of the teachers who transition to other trades, schools or districts continue to rise. Most schools are willing to pay more for experienced teachers as their performance is much better than the inexperienced teachers. Teachers earning higher salaries are associated with higher performance scores among the students. The demand of experienced teachers is higher than the demand for teachers with less experience.

Trend of Salaries and the Percentage of Teachers with Less than 5yrs Experience

The higher salaries also attract teachers with less experience but the teachers who are well compensated perform better than the less compensated teachers even though the level of experience is the same.

Labour Supply

The JHR article focuses mostly on the number or percentage of teachers who transition from teaching in one district, from one school to another or quitting the profession. On the performance of students, the article affirms that on average, new teachers who are still inexperienced register slightly lower scores in student’s average performance. The experienced teachers who are paid much better than the inexperienced ones register good scores in the student performance. (Murnane & Olsen, 1989) Most schools end up having more inexperienced teachers as a result of experience teachers transition to other districts, schools or quit the teaching profession.

 

The Trend of Teachers with Less Than 5yrs Experience in Economically

Disadvantaged Student Areas

Equilibrium

Certain jobs are relatively more appealing than others for such reasons as better working conditions, more wage benefits, job security, social contribution and greater opportunities for advancements. The concept of compensating salary or wage differentials affirms that most employees will accept low paying jobs if non wage benefits are higher. To accept unappealing jobs, higher salaries have to be paid to compensate the unappealing nature of the jobs.

The perfectly competitive salaries can be determined by the labor market when marginal factor of the cost of labor equals the equilibrium wage that can be accomplished by the laws of labor supply and demand. (Oyer & Schaefer, 2011)

The teaching jobs in regions that are considered disadvantaged may require higher salaries to attract experienced teachers. Other determinants that may influence the wage differentials are community type, ethnicity, gender and other differences that are not responsive salary increments and students characteristics.

The Trend of Teachers with Less Than 5yrs Experience in Economically

Disadvantaged Student Areas

The number of teachers with less than 5 yrs experience is higher in areas with higher economically disadvantaged students. These may be due to the availability of more teacher vacancies with low salaries that can only attract inexperienced teachers.

Output

The general results of teachers with less than 5 years indicate a decreasing trend which means that their general performance is reducing and the performance of students is going down. The schools administration has to control the number of teachers with less than five years experience as their growing numbers may affect the performance of the school negatively.

Teachers with less than 5yrs Experience Student’s TAKS Math’s % Scores

The pay policies also affect the performance of the school. The trend line on the graph that compares the teachers with less than 5 years experience and the amount of salaries payable indicate that teachers with less than 5 years of experience and are paid higher salaries perform much better than those with lower salaries. The pay however is not the overall retention motivating factor as other determinants like community type, ethnicity, gender and other differences that are not responsive to salary increments and student’s characteristics determine to a large extent the retention and performance of teachers. (Hanushek, Kain and Rivkin, 2004)

Teachers with less than 5yrs Experience Student’s TAKS Reading % Scores

The Rate of Economically Disadvantaged Students Compared to the Average Operating                      Expenditure per Student.

Finally to conclude, the performance and retention of teachers also rely on other factors beyond the rate of salary compensation. The community type, ethnicity, gender and other differences that are not responsive salary increments and students characteristics determine to a large extent the retention and performance of teachers. The experience of teachers determines the quality of teaching involved. The more experienced teachers perform better than their inexperienced counterparts. The economically disadvantaged students also receive less average operating expenditure per student. Though their performance is not affected by the reduced average operating expenditures.

References

Hanushek, E.A.,  Kain, K.F. and Rivkin, S.G. (2004) Why Public Schools loose Teachers, The Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 39, No.2 pp. 326-354, University of Wisconsin Press.

Murnane, R.J. & Olsen, R. (1989) The Effects of Salaries and Opportunity Costs on Length of Stay in Teaching: Evidence from Michigan Review of Economics and Statistics 71 (2) 347- 352.

Oyer, P.  & Schaefer, S. (2011) “Personnel Economics: Hiring and Incentives,” chap. 20, Handbook of Labor Economics, v. 4B, pp. 1769–1823.

Stinebrickner, T.R. (2001) Compensation Policies and Teachers Decisions, International Economics Review 42 (3) 751-779.

Appendices

	Region 16				Teachers		Average Expenditure
	Elementary Schools	TAKS MATH	TAKS Reading	ECON DIS	>5yrs Exp	Salary	Per Student
1	Adrian School	86	86	86	18.5	29400	9207
2	Carver El Academy	86	86	86	28.6	42193	5867
3	Kirksey EL	95	99	93	18.5	42930	6371
4	Bovina EL	93	93	91	30	44245	6410
5	Mimi Farley EL	82	91	99	25.7	41092	5902
6	Channing School	53	71	43	30.6	34038	9559
7	Clarendon EL	81	95	70	29.6	42736	5953
8	Claude El	86	95	99	24.1	40355	5712
9	Darrouzett Schools	50	60	44	26.4	33821	9022
10	Cactus El	60	58	30	32.4	45040	6641
11	Green Acres El	84	87	65	31.3	43622	6404
12	Hillcrest El	98	94	96	27.7	41376	6178
13	Morningside EL	99	82	71	33.2	42189	6116
14	Sunset EL	83	70	51.5	31.9	44226	6596
15	Farewell El	84	74	65	30.4	42198	5973
16	Follett School	90	80	78	23.6	34796	8919
17	Fort Elliot	88	88	90	22.8	34338	7971
18	Grandview-Hopkins	93	93	0	26.5	40150	5667
19	Groom School	90	80	0	21.9	34023	8174
20	Happy El	99	99	99	27.4	41444	5730

Salaries In Different School Districts

School District	Salaries	Performance in Mathematics	Performance in Reading
Midland	43622	99	82
Clarendon	42736	81	95
Farwell	42198	50	60
Calvert Independent school District	42193	93	93
Happy	41444	84	74
Claude Independent school District	40355	82	91
Grandview	40150	98	94
Follett	34796	60	58
Briscoe	34338	84	87
Channing Independent school District	34038	53	71
Groom	34023	83	70
Darrouzett	33821	86	95
Adrian Independent school district	29400	86	86

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