In last month's Teacher Trendline, we discussed a group of teachers who are often ignored in teacher quality discussions: substitutes. Given the increasing awareness of the importance of teacher attendance, it is valuable to know more about the policies affecting those teachers who fill in while students' full-time teachers are absent. Did you know, for example, that Portland, OR pays its substitutes just over $180 per day, the most of all the districts in the NCTQ Teacher Contract Database? And that about 50 percent of school districts require their substitutes to have at least a Bachelor's degree, while a third do not require any postsecondary degree?

Interested in looking at the data yourself? You can always browse any of these policies and more across 118 districts and two charter management organizations in the Teacher Contract Database.