Blog / SAT & ACT

The Case for a Raise: Higher Teacher Salaries Mean a Better Shot at College

by Brainly Staff / Updated July 18, 2019

A new study reveals a striking relationship between the average teacher pay by state and the average student performance in that state. The gist: Higher-paid teachers produce higher-performing students, giving them a boost in the race for college acceptance.

Background

Every year, millions of high-school students sweat through standardized tests like the ACT and the SAT. A good score on one of these tests can boost the chances of acceptance into a prestigious college or university, a scholarship, or even a future job.

Behind the education of each test-taker lies the tireless efforts of hard-working teachers, who together form one of the most critical workforces in our country. Many argue that teachers aren’t paid enough. We took a look at average teacher salaries by state against average test scores to learn more.

Here’s a summary of what we found:

There is an extensive range of both test scores and teacher salaries across the country.
States that pay their teachers more tend to see better results on the ACT.
Improvement on test scores builds a more competitive college application.

Methodology

We used two distinct statistics in our research: NEA’s estimated state averages of public school teacher salaries in the 2018-19 school year, and the state averages of SAT and ACT composite scores from the 2018 graduating class via each organization’s annual reports.

Our study includes all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. No two places are the same, both in average scores on standardized tests and teacher compensation. But is there a relationship between these differences? We think so.

Overall Trend

American teachers earned an estimated average salary of $61,730 in the 2018-19 school year. This includes elementary, middle, and high school teachers in public institutions. That average is slightly above the 2017-18 school year, measured at $60,477. However, when price inflation is factored in, the average teacher salary has decreased by 4.5% since 2009.

The 2018 national average ACT score was 20.8. The ACT is comprised of 4 sections: Math, English, Reading, and Science. Scores on these 4 sections are scaled and averaged to a composite score out of 36 possible points. Only a tiny fraction of students achieve a 36; out of almost 2 million test takers in 2018, fewer than 4,000 nailed the perfect score.

As it turns out, the states with higher average public school teacher salaries tend to see higher average ACT scores as well. We can see this trend reflected in the higher-paying states like Massachusetts ($82,042 average wage, 25.5 average ACT score) and New Jersey ($70,212, 23.7), as compared to South Carolina ($50,395, 18.3) or New Mexico ($47,826, 19.4). The trend in the linear pattern of these two datasets shows that every $5,000 increase in teacher compensation on a state level produces an improvement in statewide ACT scores by about 0.7.

Participation in the ACT varies widely across the country. Some states require this test for graduating seniors and therefore have 100% completion. Others, with ACT testing participation as low as 7%, see higher demand for the SAT. When removing the 9 states with less than 25% ACT participation, teacher salaries and ACT scores by state correlate with an R-value of 0.73. This leads us to believe there is a strong positive relationship between teacher salary and ACT score.

A few states defy this pattern. Colorado, for example, achieves the 9th-best average ACT score in the nation (23.9) without making the top half of average teacher salary ($53,301). On the opposite end, Alaska pays its public school teachers the 8th-highest average salaries in the country ($70,277) but doesn’t crack the top 25 in ACT score (20.8). Take a look at where your state ranks in the chart below.

Salary Tiers

To compare this data more holistically, we put U.S. states into 3 groups of average public school teacher salaries. That gave us 7 states in the “low” tier of under $50,000 per year, 28 in “medium” ($50,000-$60,000 per year), and 16 in “high” (over $60,000 per year).

We used averages of these groups to compare them to one another. The result was significant: We found that the average ACT score in the high salary tier (23.52) is 14% higher than medium (20.69) and 17% higher than low (20.13). Here’s why these numbers are significant.

In 2018, a score of 20 on the ACT put you ahead of 52% of the nationwide graduating class. A score of 23 put you ahead of 69%. An increase of this amount to your score would put you over another 17% of the test-taking population, which equates to about 325,000 more students in the graduating class. That makes a big difference if you’re applying to a competitive school or scholarship, especially considering the national trends of declining college acceptance rates and rising tuition costs.

Another interesting statistic surfaced through normalizing ACT and SAT scores to comparable values. This helped us measure how each state performed on the two tests relative to one another. To do this, we adjusted the scores to percentages of the full range, which gave us values between 0 and 1 for each state’s tests. We found that 5 out of the 7 states in the low salary tier performed better on the SAT, while 14 of the 16 states in the high salary tier performed better on the ACT.

State Differences

On a state level, scores and salaries both vary widely. Connecticut has an average ACT score of 25.6, while Nevada averaged 17.7. By our previous calculation, about 750,000 students scored between those two numbers. Ironically, the high school with the best ACT score in the country is located in Nevada! Check out our report on the other top high schools by test scores.

Public school teacher salaries show a similarly broad range across the country. Mississippi is estimated to pay its teachers an average of $45,574, while New York averages $85,889. That’s almost 2 Mississippi teachers for the salary of one in the Empire State!

Where Does Your State Rank?

State	ACT Score (2018)		Avg. Salary (18-19)
	Score	Rank	Salary	Rank	Avg. Rank
Massachusetts	25.5	2	$82,042	3	2.5
New York	24.5	4	$85,889	1	2.5
Connecticut	25.6	1	$76,465	5	3
Rhode Island	24.2	6	$67,040	11	8.5
District of Columbia	23.6	14	$78,477	4	9
California	22.7	16	$82,282	2	9
Michigan	24.4	5	$61,825	15	10
Illinois	23.9	10	$66,600	12	11
New Jersey	23.7	13	$70,212	9	11
New Hampshire	25.1	3	$58,146	20	11.5
Vermont	24.1	7	$61,027	16	11.5
Pennsylvania	23.5	15	$68,141	10	12.5
Maryland	22.5	18	$70,463	7	12.5
Delaware	23.8	12	$62,308	14	13
Washington	22.2	20	$72,965	6	13
Maine	24	8	$54,974	24	16
Alaska	20.8	27	$70,277	8	17.5
Oregon	21.3	26	$64,385	13	19.5
Colorado	23.9	9	$53,301	32	20.5
Iowa	21.8	22	$58,140	21	21.5
Virginia	23.9	11	$52,466	33	22
Minnesota	21.3	25	$58,221	19	22
Georgia	21.4	24	$57,137	23	23.5
Ohio	20.3	32	$57,799	22	27
Indiana	22.5	17	$50,937	38	27.5
Texas	20.6	28	$54,155	27	27.5
Wyoming	20	38	$58,618	18	28
Idaho	22.3	19	$50,757	41	30
Nebraska	20.1	35	$54,506	25	30
North Dakota	20.3	31	$53,434	30	30.5
Wisconsin	20.5	29	$51,453	36	32.5
Kentucky	20.2	34	$53,434	31	32.5
Montana	20	37	$54,034	28	32.5
Hawaii	18.9	48	$59,757	17	32.5
South Dakota	21.9	21	$48,786	47	34
Kansas	21.6	23	$49,800	46	34.5
Utah	20.4	30	$50,342	43	36.5
Tennessee	19.6	40	$51,714	35	37.5
North Carolina	19.1	47	$53,975	29	38
Oklahoma	19.3	43	$52,412	34	38.5
Nevada	17.7	51	$54,280	26	38.5
Arkansas	19.4	41	$51,019	37	39
Missouri	20	36	$50,064	44	40
West Virginia	20.3	33	$47,681	50	41.5
Louisiana	19.2	45	$50,923	39	42
Alabama	19.1	46	$50,810	40	43
Florida	19.9	39	$48,395	48	43.5
Arizona	19.2	44	$49,892	45	44.5
New Mexico	19.4	42	$47,826	49	45.5
South Carolina	18.3	50	$50,395	42	46
Mississippi	18.6	49	$45,574	51	50

College Acceptance

Colleges and universities commonly report the 25th and 75th percentiles for the standardized test scores of their enrolled students. These metrics neither guarantee nor disqualify admission for new applicants, but rather communicate a relative idea of what they seek. Often, high-school students use these numbers to help identify their “safety” and “reach” schools, projecting their likelihood of acceptance if they were to apply.

Achieving a school’s 25th percentile puts you ahead of a good chunk of their enrolled students; however, it also means that more often than not, an accepted student has a higher score. An ACT score of 23 would put you in the 25th percentile the University of Alabama and the University of Portland. A score of 30 makes the 25th percentile at schools like Dartmouth College and Tulane University.

Achieving a school’s 75th percentile means that you’re ahead of most of its matriculated students. For more sought-after colleges, this bar is often set far above state averages. At schools like Adelphi University and Siena College, one would need a 27 on the ACT to make the mark, which is above the mean of all states. Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Columbia start at a 35.

So, how does this relate to teacher pay? Since states with higher-paid teachers generally see higher ACT score results, their students will more often make the cutoffs for these percentiles. Let’s flesh this out in examples.

An average ACT score in Missouri, who is estimated to pay their teachers $50,064 on average, is 20. According to a recent survey of 356 popular US colleges and universities, an average Missouri student would score in the 25th percentile of 23 of the schools and in the 75th percentile of 2. In a state like Rhode Island, who pays their teachers $67,040 and achieves an ACT score of 24.2, an average student would make the 25th percentile of 165 schools and the 75th percentile of 12 schools.

Many elements go into the complex decision of college admission, but nearly every school in the country cites standardized tests as a contributing factor. And since we know paying teachers more results in higher scores on standardized tests, it’s not hard to see the link between these measurements.

Other Factors

Though standardized tests are taken by many students across the United States, they’re not a requirement nationwide. Average test scores tend to be higher in states that don’t require them; when a test is optional, the field of test-takers is skewed to those who are motivated to take it, rather than those who have to. In 2018, only 24 out of the 50 states required at least one of the United States’ two prevalent standardized tests, the ACT or the SAT, for college admission.

Many other factors affect standardized test scores, like the availability of test-taking resources, ethnicity, poverty, and other important socioeconomic factors. The same goes for teacher pay on the state level, including variables such as professional experience, level of education, and cost of living.

Conclusions

Can we say outright that you’ll get into a better college or university if you can get your school to pay your teacher more money? No. Are we implying that you should take one test over another based on how your teachers are paid? Not that either.

What we’re pointing out is a few noticeable differences and trends in the American education system. We think these trends deserve the attention of the private organizations that administer national standardized tests and of the local and state institutions designed to support our teachers. Do you?