Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion SAT scores of teachers by subject taught

To clarify, by "raising pay" I meant that you have to make salaries equivalent or better than the salaries the people you want to employee will make elsewhere. My dh and dI both had great SAT scores and graduated from highly respected engineering colleges. We, and our colleagues, some of whom would love to teach and would make great teachers, make a heck of a lot more money in the private sector than we could ever make teaching.

I'm not saying you want to reward mediocre teachers with higher salaries, but what you need to do is raise the salaries to attract the caliber of teacher that you are able to attract and retain. In the private sector, if a company sets their salary bar below competitors, they will lose all but the most loyal of employees to other companies that pay higher salaries. Same reason a lot of very highly qualified potential teachers choose to pursue other careers.
polarbear