Evidence mixed on District 158 salaries

Are teachers in Huntley Unit District 158 underpaid?

This has been one of the central questions during this year's teacher contract negotiations.

The teachers union has argued District 158 teachers are underpaid compared to their colleagues in other suburban districts.

School board members have said that while the starting salary for District 158 teachers is on the low end, the salaries increase faster than those in neighboring districts, making up for the slow start.

Other observers have pointed out that District 158 can't be directly compared to many of its neighbors, which may have more experienced teachers, more revenue, more students and higher test scores - all factors that may influence teacher salaries.

The charts below provide evidence for and against the claim that teachers in District 158 are underpaid compared to their suburban peers.

The first compares District 158, which lies largely in McHenry County, to four K-12 districts in Kane, Cook, Lake and DuPage counties.

The second chart compares District 158 to the four other K-12 school districts in McHenry County.

Both charts draw on data from the 2006-07 school year provided by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The average salary of teachers in District 158 in the 2006-07 school year was $47,579, lower than the four suburban districts we chose for our first comparison, and the second lowest among K-12 districts in McHenry County.

But the first chart also shows that District 158 had the lowest revenue per student of the five suburban districts.

Teachers had, on average, worked almost four years fewer than the next least-experienced district in the first comparison.

Scores on the ACT, a standardized test taken by high school juniors, were lower in District 158 than in districts in the first example where teachers made more money.

These trends are not as clear in the second comparison of McHenry County districts.

In the second chart, while District 158 teachers still had less experience than their peers in McHenry County, there is no clear correlation between revenue per student and salaries or between ACT scores and salaries.

The baseline row provides another point of comparison.

By comparing District 158's numbers in the last three columns to the baseline and to other districts, you can get some idea of whether District 158 teachers make more or less than you would expect for a district with comparable revenue per student, experience and test scores.

In both examples, District 158 is under the baseline in the column titled "Pay to revenue." This shows that based on District 158's revenue per student, you would expect teachers in District 158 to make more.

District 158 also is under the baseline in "Pay to ACT," meaning you would also expect District 158 teachers to make more based on the district's ACT scores.

But District 158 is well above the baseline in "Pay to experience," which means you would expect District 158 teachers to make less when you consider their average level of experience.

Ours is by no means a comprehensive comparison. Other factors that influence salary may show District 158 teachers are underpaid or overpaid.

What is clear is that what has sometimes been portrayed as cut and dried is actually a very mixed picture that provides arguments both for and against the contention that District 158 teachers are underpaid.

How does Huntley teacher pay stack up?

Example one: 158 teacher salaries compared to other large suburban school districts.

1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2>DistrictSalaryRevenue/studentExperienceACTPay to revenuePay to experiencePay to ACT158$47,579$9,4576.820.65.036,9972,310300$55,771$9,93510.620.15.615,2612,775U-46$62,452$9,89112.519.26.314,9963,25395$63,340$11,24111.922.85.635,3232,778200$65,215$10,77612.223.36.055,3452,799Baseline$60,229$10,10311.521.25.965,2482,841

Note: The above districts are Huntley Unit 158, Community Unit 300, Elgin Area School U-46, Lake Zurich Unit 95 and Wheaton Unit 200.

Example two: 158 teacher salaries compared to other large districts in McHenry County.

1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2>DistrictSalaryRevenue/studentExperienceACTPay to revenuePay to experiencePay to ACT19$43,399$10,71911.120.64.053,9102,107158$47,579$9,4576.820.65.036,9972,31050$51,172$9,20614.120.45.563,6292,508200$54,447$10,83511.520.85.034,7352,61812$59,689$9,40914.420.76.344,1452,884Baseline$51,621$9,90210.320.65.215,0082,503

Note: The above districts are Alden Hebron Unit 19, Huntley Unit 158, Harvard Unit 50, Woodstock Unit 200 and Johnsburg Unit 12.