Teacher Pay Study Flawed

I thought you'd enjoy this rebuttal to the Manhattan Institute report "How much are Public School Teachers Paid?"


REPORT ON TEACHER PAY DOESN’T ADD UP
Federal agency explicitly warned against methods used to analyze data

Contact: Teri Battaglieri (517) 203-2940 (e-mail) greatlakescenter@greatlakescenter.org
Sean Corcoran (212) 992-9468 sean.corcoran@nyu.edu

EAST LANSING, Mich.—A new Manhattan Institute report uses false and misleading calculations to erroneously assert that teachers are better paid than a vast majority of white collar and professional workers.

The report, How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?, by Jay Greene and Marcus Winters, uses hourly earnings data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to compare public school teachers’ pay with that of other white collar professionals despite the fact that the BLS has explicitly advised users not to use hourly rates of pay in this context.

The report was reviewed for the Think Twice Think Tank Review Project by economists Sean Corcoran of New York University and Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute.

The BLS National Compensation Survey (NCS) uses surveys to assemble information on the average hourly pay for various professions. Greene and Winters uncritically compare the reported hourly pay for various professions and find, for example, that teachers’ hourly pay in 2005 was 36% more than that of the average white collar worker. They also assert that teachers work fewer hours than other white collar workers. They then put forward an analysis that finds no correlation between their measure of teacher pay and student achievement.

The BLS clearly warns against using the NCS data in this context because the data doesn’t adequately reflect differences in paid or unpaid time off among various professions. Certain professions have paid time off included in their “hours worked” data, which artificially lowers their calculated hourly wage. Teachers do not, which artificially raises their pay in comparison to these other professions.

Furthermore, Mishel and Corcoran write, Greene and Marcus understate the actual number of hours teachers work, further inflating their hourly wage.

“In the end,” the reviewers write, “Greene and Winters rely on a fundamentally flawed measure of relative teacher compensation, and this defect in their study prevents any usefulness. It can add little if anything to the public discussion of teacher pay and school policy.”

Find the complete review by Sean Corcoran and Lawrence Mishel as well as a link to the Manhattan Institute report on the web at: http://www.greatlakescenter.org.