The study, commissioned by the Mayor’s Office in partnership with Metro Nashville Public Schools and the Nashville Public Education Foundation, will be conducted by consulting firm ERS Group, according to a news release.
“Ensuring that our children have excellent teachers is the single most important thing we can do to improve education,” Mayor Cooper said in the release. “This study will help us understand how we can better attract and retain teachers through the creation and implementation of a strategic long-term compensation strategy. It will also develop concrete options for the school board and [MNPS Interim Director Adrienne] Battle to consider as we work together to improve teacher pay and address the problems of the current teacher pay schedule.”
The study, which is expected to be finished in early 2020, will provide guidance for the upcoming budget process for fiscal year 2020-21, the release said. It will also highlight teacher attraction and retention challenges at MNPS.
“Providing our educators with the pay structure they deserve is a key element to giving our students an outstanding education,” Cooper said. “We all agree that our teachers deserve a pay raise. The common goal of my administration and MNPS in initiating this study is to look beyond a quick fix and create a lasting solution that will outlast even today’s generation of young minds.”
The 28-step pay schedule currently in place at MNPS does not provide all teachers with regular pay increases, according to the release. Under the current payment plan, a teacher with a master’s degree can earn $66,412 after 27 years as an MNPS employee.
"Our pay scale has not kept pace with the rising cost of living in Nashville, making it more difficult to recruit or retain great teachers and staff,” Battle said in the release. “I'm grateful for Mayor Cooper's attention to this issue and look forward to reviewing the results of this study.”
