Russlynn Ali Director, The Education TrustWest

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Hidden Spending Gaps in California

• Russlynn Ali Director, The Education Trust-West
• April 20, 2006

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How are Oakland students doing on our
standards-based assessments?
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CST Oakland - All Students
2005
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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MATH CSTOakland - All Students 2005
General Math Tests Grades 6 7 Standards
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Success on CAHSEE 2005 All Oakland Students
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Underneath The Averages, There are Wide Gaps.
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In OUSD, African American and Latino 7th graders
read below the level of White 3rd graders
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified 4th Grade Readingby Ethnicity,
2005 CST
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified 4th Grade Reading by Economic
Status, 2005 CST
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified 8th Grade Reading by Ethnicity,
2005 CST
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified 8th Grade Readingby Economic
Status, 2005 CST
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified, 11th Grade Reading by
Ethnicity, 2005 CST
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified, 11th Grade Reading by Economic
Status, 2005 CST
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified Success on English Portion of
CAHSEE 2005, By Ethnicity
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified Success on Math Portion of
CAHSEE 2005, By Ethnicity
Source California Department of Education, 2005
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Oakland Unified A-G Completion Rates9th graders
who graduated four years later with A-G mastery,
class of 2005
Note Estimated A-G Graduation Rate includes
those students who have completed the full A-G
course sequence with a C or better in each
class.
N/A
Source Education Trust-West Analysis of CDE
data, using the Manhattan Institute methodology
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Good Teachers Have the Greatest Impact on Student
Achievement. Teachers Matter Most.
There are a number of factors that contribute to
pervasive low achievement, but this evening
youve asked me to talk about what we know
matters most
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• But poor and minority students dont get their
  fair share of our strongest teachers.

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In Californias highest minority schools, 1 in 5
teachers are underprepared or novice. In
Californias lowest minority schools, only 1 in
10 teachers are under-prepared or novice.
Source Center for the Future of Teaching and
Learning, The Status of the Teaching Profession
2005
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More than half of the teachers with internship
credentials work in the highest minority schools
Source Center for the Future of Teaching and
Learning, The Status of the Teaching Profession
2005
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And, not surprisingly, when students have more
under-prepared teachers, they do less well.
Schools with lowest passing rates on the CAHSEE
have the most underprepared/novice teachers.
Source Center for the Future of Teaching and
Learning, The Status of the Teaching Profession
2005
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If youre a student in CAs lowest performing
schools, your odds of having more than one
underprepared teacher is 3 in 10
In CA schools in the lowest achievement quartile
In CA schools in the highest achievement quartile
3 in 10 a students odds of having had more
than one underprepared teacher.
1 in 50 a students odds of having had more
than one underprepared teacher.
Source Center for the Future of Teaching and
Learning, The Status of the Teaching Profession,
2005
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Dollars Spent on Teachers 80 of a Schools
Budget
Source Californias Hidden Teacher Spending Gap
How State and District Budgeting Practices
Shortchange Poor and Minority Students and Their
Schools, Education Trust West, 2005.
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Californias Hidden Teacher Spending Gap
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Between schools in the same district we found
huge gaps in spending on the thing that matters
most TEACHERS. This is happening everywhere in
California.
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Average School Gaps in Largest CA Districts by
School Type
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The impact on students?Enormous
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Consider a Latino student in a high school where
the estimated average teacher salary is 4,119
less than a high school serving the fewest
numbers of Latino and African American students
If this student has six teachers a day, he is
taught by teachers paid a combined 24,714 less
per year than his counterparts.
Note For the ten largest districts in
California, the estimated average teacher salary
in high schools serving the most Latino and
African American students is 4,119 less than in
a high school serving the fewest Latino and
African American students.
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Over the course of a four-year high school
career, 98,856 less is spent on his teachers as
compared to the teachers teaching in the schools
serving the fewest Latino and African American
students.
Freshman year 24,714 less
Sophmore year 24,714 less
Junior year 24,714 less
Senior year 24,714 less



Total 98,856 less spent on the Latino
students teachers
Note For the ten largest districts in
California, the estimated average teacher salary
in high schools serving the most Latino and
African American students is 4,119 less than in
a high school serving the fewest Latino and
African American students.
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Over the course of this Latino or African
American students K-12 journey, California will
have spent a total of 172,626 less on all his
teachers.
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Two high schools in Los Angeles Unified

• Locke High School
• Los Angeles Unified
• 99 Latino African American
• 66 of students receive free or reduced price
  lunch
• Academic Performance Index 440

• Granada Hills High School
• Los Angeles Unified
• 32 Latino African American
• 27 of students receive free or reduced price
  lunch
• Academic Performance Index 773

Source California Dept of Ed, 2003-04 data
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• Looking at these two schools, some might
  automatically think
• Student demographics lower student performance

But this assumption ignores the underlying
factors.
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• If Locke spent as much as Granada Hills on
  teacher salaries for its 119 teachers, the school
  budget would increase by nearly a million dollars
  (956,056) every year.

Source Hidden Teacher Spending Gaps in Los
Angeles Unified School District A Tale of Two
Schools, Education Trust-West, 2005
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What about in Oakland?
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Oakland teacher-salary gaps are as much as 4403
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A Tale of Two Schools-OUSD

• Lockwood Elementary School
• Oakland Unified
• 94 Latino African American
• 93 of students - free or reduced price lunch
• Academic Performance Index 565

• Thornhill Elementary School
• Oakland Unified
• 32 Latino African American
• 13 of students - free or reduced price lunch
• Academic Performance Index 944

Source California Dept of Ed, 2003-04 data
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• The average teacher at Lockwood Elementary gets
  paid an estimated 8,049 less every year than his
  counterpart at Thornhill Elementary.
• If Lockwood spent as much as Thornhill on teacher
  salaries for its 33 teachers, the school budget
  would increase by 265,617 every year.

Source Hidden Teacher Spending Gaps in Oakland
Unified School District A Tale of Two Schools,
Education Trust-West, 2005
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How does this happen?
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Teachers migrate to schools that are attractive
to them
Which means more affluent and predominately white
schools have their pick of the most experienced,
most highly credentialed teachers
and they bring their higher salaries with them.
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Add to that district policies. . .

• In most districts, a school is told it can hire
  40 teachers, not that it has 2 million dollars
  for teacher salaries.
• So affluent and White schools can hire and
  retain a disproportionate share of the highest
  paid teachers in the district and they dont even
  need to prioritize this expense because teacher
  salaries are charged against a district-wide
  account rather than against school specific
  budgets.
• Oakland Unifieds Results-Based Budgeting
  attempts to address this problem.

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What can we do?
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Lift the veil on school level expenditures

• In this era of transparency, we ought to be
  transparent. The public should know how resources
  are spent at individual schools.

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Until now, districts reported only district
averages for teacher salaries, even on school
level School Accountability Report Cards
Source California School Accountability Report
Card, http//www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/sa
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In California, Senate Bill 687 was passed on
September 28, 2005, which requiresThe
assessment of estimated expenditures per
pupilshall be reported in subtotal by restricted
and unrestricted source, and shall include a
reporting of the average of actual salaries paid
to certificated instructional personnel at that
schoolsite.
Source CA Senate Bill 687
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Parents, students and community groups have a
role in pushing policymakers for transparency and
equity
Source Hidden Teacher-Spending Gaps in Oakland
Unified School District, Education Trust-West,
2005
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Once we have truthful reporting, we must find out
more about the factors contributing and
perpetuating the inequitable distribution of
teachers

• At the local level, figure out whats behind the
  disparities, then make changes to address the
  problem, even if it means changing tenets in
  collective bargaining
• State leaders and policymakers should create
  teacher compensation systems that reward
  effectiveness and create incentives for teachers,
  schools and districts that are tackling these
  problems.

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If we had the courage and creativity to change
these unjust patterns?
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The Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain estimates of
teacher performance suggest that having five
years of good teachers in a row could overcome
the average seventh-grade mathematics
achievement gap .
1.0 standard deviation above average, or at
the 85th quality percentile
Source Eric A. Hanushek and Steven G. Rivkin,
How to Improve the Supply of High-Quality
Teachers, In Brookings Papers on Education
Policy 2004, Diane Ravitch, ed., Brrookings
Institution Press, 2004. Estimates based on
research using data from Texas described in
Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement,
Working Paper Number 6691, National Bureau of
Economic Research, revised July 2002.
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Help us make this information publicly available
and accessible Urge districts to submit their
teacher salary data at www.hiddengap.org.
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The Education Trust - West

• www.edtrustwest.org
• 510-465-6444