This report examines available data on the relative compensation of public school teachers in Nevada.
Nothing is more important to the educational success of Nevada’s students than effective teachers. If all out half million K-12 school enrollees had effective teachers throughout their elementary schooling, we would not have as achievement gap between middle class and poverty impacted students, and Nevada students would rank with Finland as the highest achieving students in the world.
But how can Nevada ever construct such a cadre of effective teachers, a teacher corps that knows how to teach reading and mathematics. utilize modern instructional techniques and technology, tailor teaching to the needs of students, engage productively with parents, and on and on across the spectrum of complicated activities that comprise the workday life of a professional teacher? Even if daunting, this is not a rhetorical request.
The answer can unlock a marvelous educational future for Nevada’s children. Teachers, like all humans, are motivated by many forces and circumstances. Some see teaching as a missionary-like calling. Others think of it as a professional career. Yet others see it as a job. A few probably see it as an easy path to a comfortable middle class life. Regardless of all the complexities involved, virtually all teachers and prospective teachers are at least moderately concerned with compensation.
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