Dive Brief:
- SmartAsset, a personal finance technology company, released its 2016 ranking of the best places to be a teacher, finding Pennsylvania and Ohio are home to seven out of the top 10 metro areas.
- The second annual ranking takes into account cost of living, teacher union strength, student achievement, teacher salaries and violent crime rates in each of the 140 largest metro areas, and Pennsylvania’s strong teacher unions helped bring it to the top of the ranking.
- In Florida, a high cost of living compared to teacher salaries contributed to making seven of its metro areas fall among the worst places to teach.
Dive Insight:
Pennsylvania ranks high using the SmartAsset methodology but the results are, in some ways, surprising given that state’s recent, tumultuous budget fight. Pennsylvania went almost the entire 2015-16 fiscal year in a stalemate over the state budget and only in May did the state legislature agree on a new funding formula for schools.
District leaders throughout the country can still take lessons from the SmartAsset rankings. As schools struggle with teacher shortages, they can recognize the impact of unions, salaries and student achievement on job quality. Obviously there are financial constraints that limit how high administrators can raise salaries, but developing positive relationships with teachers unions can help, along with supporting high student achievement.