Teachers by the numbers

Area schools have received their report cards, and the results showed how are students are doing in math, reading, science and writing. But while the school report cards show the results of how students are performing on standardized tests, they also tell us more about the teachers who are educating our kids.

Which students are benefiting from teachers with years of experience, and how many schools have numerous teachers with masters’ degrees?

Which teachers and administrators are earning significant salaries, and which are just scraping by?

How did your school district’s teachers measure up last spring?

Average years teaching experience

On the whole, Bureau County’s teachers have been teaching for quite awhile. In 11 of the county’s school districts, teachers have been teaching longer than the 12.4 years that are the state’s average. The Neponset School District tops the list, with teachers there having a whopping 21.6 years of experience. The Ladd School District teachers come in a distant second with an average of 17.9 years experience, followed by the Princeton Elementary teachers with an average of 17.3 years.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Dalzell School District teachers have the least amount of experience, with an average of only 7.0 years. The only other school district in the single digits is Leepertown, where teachers have an average of 8.8 years experience.

Years of higher education

Across the state, 53.2 percent of all teachers earned enough credits to obtain a master’s degree. That percentage drops in Bureau County, with only two school districts exceeding that percentage. The district with the highest percentage of teachers with masters degrees is the Hall High School District, where 60 percent of the teachers have their masters’ degrees. Princeton Elementary is the other district to exceed the state average, with 54.6 of the teachers with a master’s degree.

On the other end, the Dalzell School District has the lowest percentage, with none of its teachers holding a master’s degree. Dalzell is followed by Neponset, where 4.6 percent of its teachers has earned a master’s degree, and Ladd with 7.5 percent.

Teachers salaries

Only the teachers at Princeton High School earn more than the state average, with PHS teachers earning an average salary of $67,630, almost $7,000 more than the state average. Slightly below the state average is Hall High School, where the teachers earn an average of $57,621.

After those two districts, averages drop below $50,000. The lowest average salary is earned by teachers in the Leepertown district with an average salary of just $32,089, followed by Dalzell with an average salary of $32,419.

Administrators salaries

Administrators’ salaries also lag behind the state average in every district across Bureau County except for the Hall district where the average administrator’s salary is $108,552, slightly more than $3,000 more than the state average. Coming in second is the Ladd School District with an average of $104,012, but Superintendent Michelle Zeko also functions as the district’s principal.

On the low end of the scale is Dalzell, where the average administrator salary is $43,922.

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Editor’s note: This is the sixth in a multi-part series on the 2008 Illinois Report Card.