MinnPost photo by Bill Kelley
Are resources being distributed equitably, and would a realignment in which the money more faithfully followed students, and not teachers, create incentives for wealthier schools to try to serve more challenged students?
In a culture that has historically regarded every conversation about resources as a zero-sum game, the topic of equity has a tendency to be painful for the have-nots and frightening for the haves.
Nowhere is this more true than in Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). And nowhere in the district is it more red hot than when it comes to the issue of teacher assignment and compensation.
As in every other school district in the country, state and federal funds are supposed to follow students, with extra money directed to schools that have concentrations of kids who arrive with multiple challenges.
Yet a MinnPost analysis of 2012-2013 MPS salary data shows the teachers with the highest salaries clustered in the wealthiest, whitest schools. These are the teachers with the most experience and the most advanced degrees. Meanwhile the lowest paid, least experienced are concentrated in the district’s most challenged schools.
The most common question prompted by this kind of disparity is whether the students facing the most academic challenges are getting the best teachers — the presumption being that experience equals effectiveness. Teacher evaluations now in their second year in MPS should help to answer that.
Allocation issues
But there’s another set of questions posed by the data: Are resources being distributed equitably, and would a realignment in which the money more faithfully followed students, and not teachers, create incentives for wealthier schools to try to serve more challenged students?
Among mainline programs, Lake Harriet’s lower campus boasts the highest median teacher salary, at $80,355, not including benefits. Located a few blocks from its namesake landmark, the program is a popular option with wealthy southwest Minneapolis families who compete for admission.
Some 85 percent of its K-3 students are white. Fewer than 8 percent of the school’s students qualify for free or reduced price lunch. That poverty level is so low that the school does not qualify for federal Title I funds, the main pot of money that is supposed to offset the challenges of educating poor children.
A few miles to the north, Bethune Community School has a student body that is entirely impoverished and the lowest median teacher salary in the district, at $49,449. One fourth of its K-8 students receive special education services and a third are homeless or lack stable housing.
And because 94 percent of Bethune’s students are minorities, nearly a third more than the district as a whole, it’s considered racially identifiable — the state’s legal definition of a segregated school. A little further to the north at Lucy Laney, also racially identifiable, the median teacher is slightly higher at $51,510.
The budgeting process
At budgeting time, however, the district bases individual schools’ budgets on the average district salary — this year $66,412 per teacher, plus 31 percent for benefits. Schools may use discretionary funds to “buy” additional teachers at this rate to bring down class sizes or for particular programming.
For more than a decade, parents and other stakeholders have argued that this budgeting process obscures a fundamental inequity. The formula, they note, shortchanges schools with the most poorly paid teachers and subsidizes those with better-paid faculties.
To make the chart below, a list of every MPS teacher’s actual pay was used to calculate each school’s median salary. This was juxtaposed against the schools’ poverty rates, which are closely correlated with minority population. The line across the center of the map shows the district median salary, $70,053.
MPS median salary vs. free/reduced lunch percentage
Source: MinnPost analysis of Minneapolis Public Schools data, via Chris Stewart
Schools on the left side of the chart, with the lowest proportion of students receiving free/reduced price lunch, also have some of the highest median salaries in the district. A table of the data used for the chart is available below.
The highest median salaries by building are displayed in the upper left. The schools represented by green markers are programs that do not serve enough impoverished students to qualify for federal Title I aid. Six of MPS’ seven non-Title I schools occupy this spot on the map.
On the opposite side of the chart, schools identified by orange markers are racially identifiable; they have concentrations of minority students that are 20 or more percentage points higher than district averages for their grade levels. These programs meet the state’s definition of racially identifiable, or segregated, schools.
Many of the other programs on the far right side of the chart are just as heavily minority but are not among the types of schools that have to report under the state’s desegregation laws. (Not appearing on the map at all are some specialty schools, like stand-alone special-ed programs, which have very high, uncommon costs, such as staff psychologists.)
Median teacher salaries at six of the district’s seven non-Title I schools are higher than the district median. At 10 of its 13 schools that are so segregated they meet the state’s statutory definition of racially isolated, median salary is less than the district median.
Similar results in 2007 study
A 2007 study initiated by a group of MPS parents and conducted with assistance from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Regional and Urban Affairs found similar results. Of 28 schools with above-average percentages of students of color or impoverished students, 26 had below-average teacher pay.
Among other findings, that study reported that per-pupil spending on teacher salaries from the district’s general fund, the pot of money not earmarked for specific uses, ranged from $916 to $3,859, with poorer schools getting lesser amounts.
In recent days, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights released a report on equity in American schools that found that minorities are three times as likely as white students to attend schools with concentrations of new teachers.
Add these to a mountain of research showing that teachers with seniority tend to gravitate to schools with fewer challenges. And to the common-sense proposition that teachers are most effective when they want to work in the school where they are assigned.
And while there are numerous experiments in teacher compensation reform under way around the country, teachers unions — badly battered on the political playing field over the last four years — have dug in here and elsewhere on attempts to change the role seniority plays in staffing.
MPS administrators were busy ironing out a snafu involving next year’s estimated school budgets and unable to respond to an interview request for this story. There is, however, a major change in the works that may help address the issue of equity in resources.
The district is moving toward adopting “weighted student funding,” a system now in use in a number of large districts including Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, Hartford, Houston, Oakland, San Francisco and Seattle.
Although details vary by community, the system allocates funding to students based on their needs. More dollars would follow a pupil who was learning English, for instance, or who is homeless. Funds could be adjusted to support district priorities, such as early literacy.
MPS is currently in the process of setting a threshold for academic programming for all schools. Right now, the amount of math, reading and other subjects students receive fluctuate widely.
New funding system coming
Under the new funding system, expected to roll out in the 2015-2016 academic year, money would be budgeted to pay for this equitable level of programming, and schools can use the rest of their budgets to meet their unique needs.
What it doesn’t mean — at least not in the short term — is an end to the practice of allocating teacher salary lines by average salary. Nor does the future budgeting system come with new state or federal dollars for schools.
But it might entice back some of the families that have left MPS over the last decade. And it might fundamentally change the game to give schools incentives to compete for underserved students.
Minneapolis Public School salary data
Show only:
Non-Title I
Racially identifiable
Other
All
School
Median salary
Mean salary
Free/reduced
lunch %
Category
North (ISA)
62,327
59,365
92
Racially identifiable
Pratt Elementary
73,659
70,642
75
Other
Lake Nokomis Wenonah
70,568
66,362
53
Other
Seward Montessori School
76,234
70,535
53
Other
Folwell Performing Arts
67,993
65,491
86
Other
Kenwood Elementary
77,265
75,719
28
Non-Title I
Lake Harriet Upper (Fulton)
72,113
71,701
9
Non-Title I
Armatage
69,023
65,449
28
Non-Title I
Hale Elementary
76,234
74,539
17
Non-Title I
South High
70,053
67,758
55
Other
Edison High
65,932
64,264
91
Other
Henry High
69,023
67,002
90
Racially identifiable
Nellie Stone Johnson
71,083
64,537
96
Racially identifiable
Richard Green Central
60,266
59,875
95
Racially identifiable
Bryn Mawr Primary
69,023
66,994
83
Racially identifiable
Hmong International Academy
69,023
65,005
90
Racially identifiable
Whittier Community School
63,872
62,106
67
Other
Northrop Elementary
65,932
66,030
49
Other
Emerson Spanish Immersion
61,812
56,918
79
Other
Hiawatha Elementary
75,719
75,605
55
Other
Jenny Lind
65,932
63,327
94
Racially identifiable
Lake Nokomis Keewaydin
65,932
65,353
56
Other
Sanford Middle School
69,023
69,419
63
Other
Anne Sullivan
70,568
67,755
93
Racially identifiable
Jefferson Elementary
67,993
64,584
95
Other
Anishinabe Academy
67,993
67,056
96
Other
Harrison Education Center
58,206
58,292
97
Other
Burroughs
72,629
72,314
12
Non-Title I
Bancroft Elementary
70,053
67,716
88
Other
Pillsbury Math/Science/Technology
72,113
68,520
88
Other
Northeast Middle School
63,872
62,215
81
Other
Dowling Elementary
78,296
76,633
39
Other
Anthony
65,417
64,191
39
Other
Ramsey Middle School
58,206
59,030
42
Other
Olson Middle School
52,540
54,772
93
Racially identifiable
Wellstone Intl High School
69,023
65,785
93
Other
Loring Elementary
71,598
71,298
65
Other
Sheridan International Fine Arts
67,993
65,469
94
Racially identifiable
River Bend
59,751
60,736
99
Other
Transition Plus
75,719
71,856
80
Other
North High
64,387
63,357
91
Racially identifiable
Kenny Elementary
72,113
71,034
37
Other
Bethune
49,449
56,036
100
Racially identifiable
Lake Harriet Lower (Audubon)
80,355
78,020
8
Non-Title I
Southwest High
74,174
69,721
39
Other
Field
75,204
71,868
26
Non-Title I
Barton Open
73,144
72,332
26
Non-Title I
Hall International
72,113
68,099
88
Racially identifiable
Lyndale Elementary
67,993
67,265
76
Other
Washburn High
65,417
62,484
48
Other
Lucy Laney Elementary
51,510
56,486
99
Racially identifiable
Waite Park Elementary
73,144
71,007
61
Other
Roosevelt High
67,993
66,521
86
Other
Windom Elementary
65,932
66,431
53
Other
Stadium View
73,659
72,629
93
Other
Marcy Open School
70,053
67,757
45
Other
Pierre Bottineau French Immersion
49,449
52,128
68
Other
Source: MinnPost analysis of Minneapolis Public Schools data, via Chris Stewart
Data and description of data-processing techniques available on GitHub.