What Happens When We Pay Our Teachers More? Evidence from New Jersey Public Schools. EdWorkingPaper No. 24-1104

Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: annenberg@brown.edu; Web site: https://annenberg.brown.edu/

N

46

Public Schools; Public School Teachers; Teacher Salaries; Salary Wage Differentials; Elementary School Teachers; Secondary School Teachers; Educational Improvement; Teacher Motivation; Beginning Teachers; Educational Quality; Teacher Effectiveness; Institutional Characteristics; Elementary School Mathematics; Secondary School Mathematics; Language Arts; Grade 4; Grade 8; High Schools; Graduation Rate

This paper examines the impact of increasing teacher salaries on student outcomes by exploiting variation from the "50K The First Day" campaign that established a $50K salary floor for new teachers across New Jersey school districts. Using school-level data from 2003 to 2019, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) approach and first show that the campaign raised salaries for all teachers in New Jersey by approximately $1.5K. Our results indicate that districts implementing the salary increase experienced improvements in 4th grade and high school Math and English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency scores. We also observe modest gains in graduation rate and college enrollment. Analyzing the mechanisms through which these positive effects could have been observed, we rule out teacher migration as a key driver suggesting that the observed improvements are more likely due to changes in teacher motivation and the quality of new teachers entering the profession. Lifting teacher salaries for all teachers--regardless of their performance level--seems to be improving student outcomes in New Jersey.

As Provided

2025

ED665408