District revenue and teachers' salaries in selected Georgia counties

by 1972- Waymack, Matthew Parvin

The purpose of this study was to examine district revenue and teachers’ salaries in selected Georgia counties. This study examined whether a district that has greater revenue per FTE than its neighbors tends to pay higher teacher salaries than its neighbors. This study used data collected from school districts that indicate the pay of teachers at eight levels on the teacher salary schedule: (a) beginning bachelor’s, (b) experienced bachelor’s, (c) beginning master’s, (d) experienced master’s, (e) beginning educational specialist’s, (f) experienced educational specialist’s, (g) beginning doctor’s degree, and (h) experienced doctor’s degree. These salaries were compared to the neighboring school districts at each salary level. A comparison was made at each degree-experience level between the revenue per FTE pupil of those districts that paid more than predicted with those districts that paid less than predicted. Regression lines were generated between the salaries of individual districts and the mean salaries of their neighboring districts on the levels of degree earned and experience. School districts that fall above the regression line have higher salaries than predicted from the average of their neighboring school districts, and school districts that fall below the regression line have lower salaries than predicted from the average of their neighboring school districts. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test at the 0.05 level was performed on revenue per FTE pupil of the school districts falling above the regression line and the revenue per FTE pupil of the school districts falling below the regression line for each of the degree-experience levels. The study found Georgia counties that pay higher beginning teachers’ salaries than their neighbors have higher revenue per FTE than school districts that pay lower than their neighbors. School districts that pay experienced teachers with advanced degrees higher salaries than their neighbors do not have statistically significant higher revenue per FTE than school districts that pay experienced teachers with advanced degrees lower than their neighbors.