Here’s the current starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree in Georgia’s seven largest school districts:
1. Atlanta $44,312
2. DeKalb $42,500
3. Fulton $41,916
4. Cobb $41,330
5. Gwinnett $41,028
6. Clayton $40,962
7. Forsyth $40,790
Source: Gwinnett County Public Schools.
Here’s the teacher attrition rate, not including retirements, in Gwinnett County over the past five school years.
2009-10: 4.9 percent
2010-11: 5.6 percent
2011-12: 5.4 percent
2012-13: 6.9 percent
2013-14: 7.7 percent
2014-15: 9.2 percent
Source: Gwinnett County Public Schools.
Gwinnett County school officials are in the early stages of revising how the district determines pay raises for its 11,000 teachers.
Currently, Gwinnett’s salary system is largely based on classroom experience. The plan is to tie teacher compensation more closely with growth — a term used to describe student improvement made throughout the year.
“The focus is to compensate every teacher based upon gains in the classroom,” said Frances Davis, associate superintendent of human resources.
The changes are expected to take place at the start of the 2017-18 school year.
Officials hope that will help them keep teachers as more educators leave the profession to take higher-paying jobs in other industries and fewer college graduates consider teaching careers. The percentage of teachers who've left Gwinnett during a school year has nearly doubled in the past five years, according to a presentation made this week by district administrators. Gwinnett's attrition rate, not including retirements, rose from 4.9 percent during the 2009-10 school year to 9.2 percent during the 2014-15 school year, officials said.
Nearly 1,000 teachers left Gwinnett, Georgia's largest school district, between 2009 and 2012, according to district data. The number of teachers in Gwinnett is slightly above 2009, but district leaders recognize they're also competing with other local districts for teachers. In 2014-15, Gwinnett's starting pay for a teacher with a bachelor's degree ranked last among Georgia's largest school districts. Gwinnett increased its starting pay by about $3,000, to $41,028 earlier this year, and is now fifth among those seven districts. Gwinnett gave most teachers 4.4 percent raises earlier this year.
Gwinnett officials said they decided to revise their compensation system to get an early start on recommendations by Gov. Nathan Deal's Education Reform Commission. The commission recommended giving extra pay or bonuses to teachers in high-need subjects or hard-to-staff schools, increasing salaries for teachers earlier in their careers and refraining from using degree level as a significant factor in raises. The commission presented its recommendations to Deal last month. Gwinnett Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks was a committee member.
Gwinnett school board member Louise Radloff raised some questions about the plan, such as, how will the district compensate special education teachers and teachers in low-income schools?
“That will be a concern,” Radloff said during the presentation.
Gwinnett administrators have been meeting with small groups of teachers since October to discuss the plans. Teachers said they want to be rewarded for student improvement. Many also told administrators test scores should not be the only factor in determining raises.
“That was loud and clear,” Davis said.
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