Texas teachers saw a healthy pay increase for the 2009–10 school year—3.8 percent on average. That’s according to the annual Teacher Report released in December, part of the TASB/TASA Salaries and Wages in Texas Public Schools survey series published by HR Services. The survey respondents represent 90 percent of classroom teachers in Texas. The average pay increase is larger than the 3.1 percent average increase teachers received in the previous year (2008–09).
In some years, 3.8 percent may not seem like such a large pay raise. But compare that increase with the rest of Texas where the average pay increase for all employers in 2009 was only 2.1 percent, as reported in WorldatWork’s 36th Annual Salary Budget Survey for 2009–2010. Nationally, other professionals received an average pay increase of 2.2 percent, according to the same survey. The WorldatWork survey also reports that 30 percent of employers froze salaries and did not grant any increase to any employee group.
Why did Texas teachers see larger increases than other professionals last year? Because districts were mandated to provide a pay increase for classroom teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors and speech pathologists for 2009–10. During the regular Legislative Session ending in May 2009, H.B. 3646 required Texas school districts to provide their teachers with a pay raise of the greater of $800 or a uniform amount using $60 per student in weighted average daily attendance (WADA). The required increase was in addition to any salary steps built into the district’s local salary schedule for 2008–09, whether the district was planning to increase salaries or not.
This year, Texas teachers earn $48,650 on average, up 3.2 percent from last year’s average salary of $47,158. The average teacher salary tops $50,000 in four of the 20 education service center regions in the state: Houston (Region 4), Dallas (Region 10), Fort Worth (Region 11), and San Antonio (Region 20). Fifty-eight percent of teachers in the survey work in districts in those four ESC regions.
Starting salaries for brand new Texas teachers are also up. This year, the average starting salary for a beginning teacher is $35,793, a 4 percent increase from 2008–09. The average starting salary is 31 percent higher than the entry salary on the state minimum salary schedule. Beginning teachers in districts with more than 10,000 students earn $43,286, on average. Those districts employ 72 percent of teachers in the survey.
Continuing the trend seen in recent years, more districts are paying shortage stipends to teachers with certification in hard-to-staff teaching fields. This year, three-quarters of Texas school districts pay stipends to teachers in at least one shortage area. That’s up again from last year when 71 percent paid shortage stipends.
Math continues to be the teaching field for which additional stipends are paid most often. Fifty percent of districts pay stipends to math teachers. The average math stipend is $2,324. Science is close behind math. Forty-six percent of districts pay an average stipend of $2,233 to science teachers. Teachers with bilingual certification see the largest stipend on average at $2,513. Forty-two percent of districts pay stipends for bilingual certification.
Even when districts are directed on exactly how to distribute pay increases to teachers, they still find ways to use incentives to reward special knowledge and skills, professional collaboration, or taking challenging assignments. The following types of stipends are not common in all districts, but show continued growth in use across the state:
The Teacher Report 
is available to HR Services member districts (myTASB login required). Highlights from the report are available here. DataCentral subscribers can download data and create custom salary comparison reports using the data from the 2009–10 Teacher Report.
—WorldatWork 36th Annual Salary Budget Survey: 2009-2010
