Teachers
LASD and BCS Teachers – Different Employment Practices
SCCOE Annual Charter Schools Data Book - Bullis Charter School Snapshot
LASD Annual Budget - LASD Teaching Staff Demographics
Employment and salary administration practices reflect the values of an institution.
Public education values are the subject of each of our individual, and our collective, beliefs.
For much of the history of our country, public education was a common good, shared equally by all and protected by all. Public schools were charged with creating unity for a nation of immigrants, to preserve democracy and mitigate economic and social inequity.
In the early 1990’s, for a number of reasons, there was a national concern that the existing public-school system was no longer meeting our goals. A politically convenient recipient of the blame was teacher’s performance, particularly unionized teachers. One approach to address this concern was the establishment of charter schools. The charter school approach generally included no fees, pupils who take state-mandated exams, schools that would be subject to fewer rules/regulations/statutes, and would typically receive a fixed amount of funding per pupil.
The charter school approach embraced a number of values which were different than the traditional core values of public education.
One example was the relationship between a charter school and their teachers. For example, charter schools differed in the way they subjected teachers to short-term performance-based employment and salary administration practices. A traditional public school might offer a new teacher tenure after two successful years. A charter school might offer no tenure and annual performance-based employment contracts, potentially incrementing to only 2-year or 3-year contracts.
Embracing a transactional, teacher performance-based culture, based on mutually agreed expectations, is one approach to respond to a changing environment. Naturally, there are many ways to respond to our public education challenge. Will a transactional approach to the employer-employee relationship yield superior results?
The aggregate supply and demand of qualified teachers, and the personal preference of individual teachers, will influence the success of various combinations of employment and salary administration practices.
People choose a career, and eventually find workplaces, which are compatible with their individual values.
LASD teachers, on average, have 4 to 5 more years of teaching experience than BCS teachers.
LASD teachers, on average, have 5 to 6 more years of teaching at LASD than BCS teachers teaching at BCS. A beginning LASD teacher receives approximately 30% less salary than a teacher with 10 years of experience. When a LASD teacher retires, the replacement teacher, typically a beginning teacher, receives $30,000 less compensation than the retiring teacher. In the aggregate, it is less expensive to intentionally manage high teacher turnover and a larger portion of teachers with less career commitment to the school.
LASD maintains an overall teacher attrition range of 10% to 15%, which includes approximately 2% retirees. BCS teacher attrition rate ranges from 15% to 25%.
The teaching experience vintage chart of LASD teachers is weighted (70%) toward teachers with 6 or more years of teaching experience. Data was not available for BCS teachers.
Over 60% of LASD teachers have a masters degree or higher and over 95% are CLAD certified. Data was not available for BCS teachers.
The English Learner (EL) Authorization and Cross-cultural, Language, and Academic Development (CLAD) Certificate authorize instruction to English learners.
LASD teachers receive higher average salaries than BCS teachers. Some of this is due to increased tenure/years of teaching experience in the LASD teacher population.
The employee benefits (retirement, social security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, workers compensation insurance, medical insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, etc.) for LASD teachers has increased from 11% of salary to 20% over the last 6 years. Data was not available for BCS teachers.
Class sizes increase as students’ progress through the grades. LASD and BCS have similar class sizes.
BCS maintains a student to teacher ratio below 15:1 and LASD maintains a ratio below 20:1.
