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  • Tr3 Trends: Substitute Teachers

    May 31, 2013

    May 2013:  Substitute teachers

    Welcome to Tr3 Trends, NCTQ’s monthly newsletter designed just for school district
    officials.  Each month we use data from
    NCTQ’s
    Tr3 database to highlight the latest trends in
    school district policies and collective bargaining agreements nationwide. Tr3 contains teacher policies from
    114 school districts, including the 50 largest districts, the largest district
    in each state, Broad Prize winners, Gates investment districts and members of
    the Council of the Great City Schools. Teacher policies from all 50 states are also included.

    Substitute teachers spend a lot of time with students, yet policies
    governing their work don’t often make it into the spotlight. This month we compare districts’ requirements
    for becoming a substitute, policies on evaluating subs, and substitutes’ pay
    and benefits. Here’s what we found:

    Only about half of the districts for which we have
    data (45 of 94) require that substitutes have a bachelor’s degree.

    Nineteen
    districts (20%) require an associate’s degree; 18 districts (19%) require some
    college; and 12 districts (13%) require a high school diploma or GED.

    States often decide for their districts what
    the qualifications of a substitute must be. 
    In a little over half of all states, substitutes are required to earn a
    license or certificate. 

    The “No” category includes:
    Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts,
    Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South
    Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

    The “Determined at district level” category includes: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, and Vermont.

    12% of districts (14 of 114) evaluate all substitutes

    New Haven; Minneapolis; Dekalb County,
    Georgia
    ; Brownsville, Texas; Seattle; and Fresno are some of the 14 districts that
    evaluate all of their substitutes. An
    almost equally large group of districts (12 of 114), including NashvilleBoston, Los Angeles, and Oakland, evaluate only long-term
    subs.

    In most districts substitute pay varies based
    on assignment longevity and/or a substitute’s qualifications. The daily rate of pay ranges from a low of $50 (Baltimore City) to a maximum of $234 (Los Angeles). (This doesn’t include full-time teachers who are assigned to be
    substitutes.)

    Here’s a
    district-by-district breakdown of substitute pay rates:

    23% of districts offer health benefits to at
    least some substitutes


    Chicago, San
    Francisco, Houston, Detroit,

    and Philadelphia are among the 24
    districts we know of that give health benefits to long-term subs, full-time
    subs, or subs who work a minimum number of days per year. In Denver, long-term subs
    can participate in all district benefits programs “at their own expense,” according to the teachers’ contract.

    Duval County,
    Florida
    and Cincinnati
    are the two districts that say they give substitutes health benefits but don’t
    specify which subs receive the benefits. Cincinnati’s teacher contract says “district substitutes are eligible for the same health benefits and Term Life
    Insurance as other full-time teachers, by making the same contribution,” while
    a Duval
    website
    says that “health benefits” and a “401k plan” are some of the benefits offered
    to substitute teachers.

    Go toTr3‘s custom report page to access all the data we use in Tr3 Trends and to compare teacher policies in 114 school districts
    nationwide. Send feedback to 
    gmoored@nctq.org.