An error in a recently released study on teacher earnings placed Duval County Public Schools 10 spots higher than it should have been, the study’s researchers now say.
The “Smart Money” report released last week by the National Council on Teacher Quality ranked Duval County among the lowest of the nation’s largest districts: 98 out of 125.
However, researchers later discovered the ranking wasn’t low enough. The district actually ranks 108, according to Nancy Waymack, managing director of district policy.
The group made an “important miscalculation in adjusting for cost-of-living differences among school districts,” she wrote in an e-mail to WJCT.
“The result is that, for districts where the cost-of-living is unusually high, their numbers changed impacting the rankings,” the e-mail stated.
The error also affected findings on the length of time it takes teachers to reach peak earnings. Originally, the study reported that it would take 24 years for a Duval County teacher to go from a starting salary of $39,000 to nearly $70,000, after adjusting for cost of living.
The revised report, released over the weekend, shows it would actually take a teacher in Duval more than 30 years to reach peak earnings.
The revised study also shifts around the rankings of other Florida districts, including Broward County, which originally ranked below Duval County. It now ranks slightly above Duval in 107th place. Brevard County also falls down to 115th place. Lee County ranks 110 out of 115.
Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Pinellas, Polk, and Orange counties still all rank above Duval, but the report now shows Hillsborough in 66th place, slightly lower than its originally reported ranking of 59th place.
And while the revised report shows an average Hillsborough teacher can earn about $300,000 more over his or her lifetime than a Duval County teacher can, both districts take about the same amount of time to reach a peak salary of $70,000 a year.
Last week, in response to the initial figures, Duval Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the district needs to look toward a more progressive approach to teacher payment.
He said he hopes to work with the teachers' union to develop a salary schedule that allows beginning teachers to make more money faster through a performance-based payment model.
The district is still in negotiations with the union over teacher salary schedules for the year. Vitti said he is hoping to reach an agreement by January.
You can follow Rhema Thompson on Twitter @RhemaThompson.
