Anyone familiar with teacher recruitment in the BA? Title 1 schools, Low ratings (San Jose: neighborhoods)

[Nativa]

Hi all,

I was wondering if there is someone familiar with elementary school teacher recruitment/retaining process and specifics. My question is: would schools with high GS ratings, higher test scores, and generally in more affluent neighborhoods be able to attract better teachers?
And also, what about Title 1 schools? Are they able to offer any additional perks to teachers?
To give the background: my child has graduated from K at a fairly low rating school, and the only thing I was unhappy about was his teacher. Trying to understand if it is just bad luck or it is an issue in most lower rating schools in less affluent neighborhoods?

[jk88cal]

Yes, certain school districts can afford to pay more salary and have better student/teacher ratio than other school districts. In California, there are 2 types of funding.

Revenue limited: State pays $5400 per student. The property tax then goes to the state.

Basic aid: Because local districts get more money from property tax than $5400 per student, these districts do not get any funding from state. Instead, they keep the property tax and put that into schools. Most Bay Area districts are basic aid, because property prices and property taxes are high. But there is still quite a large variation of spending. Spending is anywhere from $5400 to $18,000 per student.

In my district, 84% of expense is on salary, 11% on services, 5% on supplies. So the bulk of the funding goes to salary. Those schools with more funding can pay more for better teachers and/or hire more teachers for better student/teacher ratio.

This link is spreadsheet of spending and API (2010): http://schoolspending.apps.cironline.org/export-csv/

Woodside Elementary spends $19,000 per student. California school spending and test scores | California Watch

Palo Alto spends $13,300 per student. http://schoolspending.apps.cironline...-alto-unified/

Mounvtain View high school spends $13,100 per student. http://schoolspending.apps.cironline...os-union-high/

Mountain View elementary spends $8800 per student. California school spending and test scores | California Watch

Spending is not always related to test scores or performance. Couple exceptions are:

Ravenwood in East Palo Alto spends a lot, but API score is low: California school spending and test scores | California Watch

Cupertino elementary district spending is not so high, but API score is very high:
California school spending and test scores | California Watch

[Nativa]

jk88cal, thank you for your response!
Yes I know spending does not automatically improve test scores. My question was about the quality of teachers. For example, if we have a 10 GS rating school and a 5 GS rating school within the same district, would it be safe to assume that a good teacher is more likely to choose a 10 over a 5? Or maybe vice versa, the 5 GS which is also Title 1 gets additional funding and a good teacher would likely go there?

[jk88cal]

Teacher will go where salary is higher. I just gave you the data on school funding, which is highly related to teacher salary. You can look up direct teacher salary here:

MV-LA (high school district) pay is $101k https://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/App_Re...District=69609

PA average pay is $85.7k https://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/App_Re...District=69641

San Jose- Alum Rock pay is $68k https://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/App_Re...District=69369

San Jose- East Side Union (high school) pay is $77.7k https://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/App_Re...District=69427

Santa Clara is $75k https://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/App_Re...District=69674

Higher rated schools tend to have more funding and higher salary, thus they should be able to attract more qualified teachers.

[Nativa]

Thank you, jk88cal!
Sorry I keep pestering you. But if we talk about two schools within the same district? they should have the same salary level, no?

[jk88cal]

I'm not a teacher. I'm just interested in schools for my own kid. I don't know what you are really asking or what you are getting at. Maybe you should state what is your question, instead of some made up scenario. If you are specific, maybe more people can chime in.

2 schools in same school district? I speculate all schools in same district should have similar pay.