One more area in which American schools and districts are less than transparent: the budget. In this working paper, presented at a recent Brookings conference on "The Teachers We Need," the University of Washington's Marguerite Roza and Paul Hill work from the bottom up to construct real school-by-school teacher salary figures in four districts, rather than relying on district-wide averages. They conclude that there are wide variations in per-school spending within districts that are masked by these averages, with higher-achieving schools in wealthier areas taking a disproportionate bite of the total teacher salary budget line. This hurts students in low-achieving schools by ensuring that they are taught mostly by younger, less experienced teachers who are apt to move on as soon as they accrue the requisite seniority. Roza and Hill call for more transparent budget practices and accurate reporting of per-school spending, but fall just a bit shy of urging the obvious solution: real incentive pay for teachers, experienced or not, who choose to work in tough schools. However, they do hint - in a masterpiece of understatement - that tackling this problem "would not be politically neutral." Among other reasons, this paper is worth reading for the unintended comedy in the introduction, which recounts some of the difficulties reform-minded superintendents face in trying to obtain accurate information on per-school spending in their very own districts. To check it out, go to http://www.crpe.org/workingpapers/pdf/Roza-Hill.pdf.
