Why is there such a large variance in average teacher salaries between Birmingham and surrounding districts? Are these numbers correct?

Hi Rick! You can check all the numbers at http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140--21514--,00.html.

Highly effective engaged teachers should have the opportunity to earn more. Poor teachers should have the opportunity to join the private sector where apparently they will be paid more just for showing up. Shame on the unions for protecting the few bad apples.

The $94,000 is an error made by the state last year that was not corrected. Average salary in BPS is around $65,000 with many teachers having advanced degrees including two Ph.D in their subject areas.

The Birmingham Patch statement, based on data from MDE, which indicates that the average Birmingham teacher salary is around $94,000 is not correct. This data was published in error by the Michigan Department of Education last year in a report. At that time, we offered a correction to be made with right amount reported. Unfortunately, this was not done.

The average teacher salary in Birmingham is well below that number, especially considering the highest annual salary any teacher can earn in the district is around $87,000. Until the correct figure is calculated and reported, we ask for a retraction from the Patch. It is important to have truthful information.

Thank you,

Scott Warrow
President of the Birmingham Education Association

Laura, You are wrong. The average teacher in Birmingham does not earn that amount. Since teacher salaries are so fascinating to you, especially those in Birmingham, the least you could do is get your "journalism" right. Perhaps you could also write about why this information is so important to you and what its relevance is to others.

Good Journalist research information and make sure it is accurate before they write an article. Shame on The Patch for poor Journalism. Waiting for retraction!!

Thank you, everyone, for your comments. For this story, we used numbers reported to the Michigan Department of Education by the district, and were not informed or aware there had ever been a reporting error. We are investigating the issue now and will soon have further clarification.

Teacher salaries are public information and the current collective bargaining agreement is available on the Birmingham Public Schools website. Your information in the article is INACCURATE and INCORRECT. The MAXIMUM possible salary with 12 years of service and advanced degrees (MA, PhD) is not even above $90,000. Please correct your information and stop propagating this misinformation regarding public education/educators.

Mid career professionals with both experience and advanced degrees SHOULD be attracted to a career in teaching. In fact, some of them already are. Birmingham teachers make far less than what was reported and far less than thier educational counterparts in the private sector. The information in the article is in error... trust me, even teachers at the highest end of the salary schedule WISH they were making 100K annually.

A basic google search of "birmingham teacher salary schedule" leads you to more accurate information than your original investigation. The first link that appears is the tentative agreement from 2011... the salary schedule appears on page 21.

Do your own research people. The numbers that were reported are COMPLETELY inaccurate. Birmingham officials pointed out the wrong numbers and were told that they would be corrected before this article was published, but they weren't. Suprise, suprise! The average salary for Birmingham teachers is around $65,000/y and NOT $94,000/yr. I'm so sick of the public and the media attacking teachers and public education. It's funny, everyone complains and attacks teachers, yet people continue to send their kids to school each and every day...

I assume the salary amount includes benefits and why the number is so high, as well as refuted by the teachers. Regardless it is for 180 days pay or 9 months. Laura’s salary information may not be correct. However, public dialogue and awareness is always a good thing. TEACHERS POSTING, PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR EMAIL AND GO TEACH MY KIDS!!!

Pay teachers for performance just like the private sector. The performance of economically disadvantaged students for example removes race.
This also tells taxpayers how our teachers are performing without the support of private parent-expense tutors. The final result of BPS K-12 education is college readiness.

How are Birmingham’s best-paid teachers in the state performing on the ACT for math you may ask? FEDUP here is some research:

BPS Econ disadvantaged ACT result only 40% meet the minimal benchmark meaning 60% of these students do not meet this minimal benchmark in math.
African American math ACT 27% meet the minimal benchmark or 73% do not.

I would say paying teachers more certainly is not producing a higher outcome. Sorry, I live in the tiny houses by the railroad tracks and can’t afford private tutor for all of my kids. I do not however have the choice in paying higher property taxes, which support the highest paying teachers in the state.

Great teachers are worth every penny. All need to be held accountable for results.

My children are fortunate to attend BPS. They have excellent and caring teachers. They are not in all honors classes; their teachers support their learning needs in many ways- often on their own time (even at 6:30 in the morning), responding to emails at night and grading on their own time on weekends. They attend lots of professional development, too. I wish the PATCH would present accurate information.

While many teachers are priceless, a few are worthless. Union efforts and funds should be directed at rewarding the best and getting rid of the worst.

With all due respect, you and Birmingham Mom really don't know what you're talking about. It's probably not your fault, as I'm certain you don't have your facts from actual teachers or educators, but rather from inaccurate news articles such as this one. Spend a day in their shoes...just one day, and I bet you have a completely different outlook on teachers and education.

You know, I find those that want to push for teachers to be paid on performace just like the private sector are those that have not been successful in their own careers or those that don't feel they make enough money. Worry about YOU and not other professionals.

By the way, I am not a teacher and I am completely fine if the teachers want to take a minute away from my kid to stand up for their jobs.

in most cases, teachers are doing their jobs. It's the parents who are not.

As said many even most Birmingham teachers are well respected and do an excellent job. There are a few that are horrible. For example my student’s geometry teacher spent the month of January planning for a new “elite” student group and a holiday celebration while the kids learned nothing. Schools are no different than any business. [Yes they are in the business of preparing kids for their future]. Parents and students are the direct customers of the education system. There is no better measure of a teachers success than whether the students thrive. Good teachers are also well aware who of their colleagues are engaged. Any teacher that feels the students or families are the barrier to learning should find another career.

Hi everyone. An update on the numbers situation: administrators from Birmingham Public Schools have admitted that there was a reporting error with the 2010-11 teachers salaries, and that error appears not to have been reported on the MDE website. However, as of Wednesday afternoon, the district has not been able to provide an official, updated salary figure for that time period. According to district officials, they are calculating that now. We will the update the article when we receive this information. Meanwhile, the data from the Michigan Department of Education is still the only official record of Birmingham teachers salary for 2010-11.

This is the holy trinity of journalism : TRUTH/ACCURACY/BALANCE. The onus of accomplishing all three of these is on the REPORTER not the sources. The result of sloppy research is sloppy reporting, misinformation, and, often, a negative impact on the people discussed in the article. This is what happens when a journalist does not VERIFY, CROSS REFERENCE, AND REPORT ALL SIDES of an issue. Had Laura verified through the BPS teacher contract, she would have found that no teacher in the district makes $90,000 and, therefore, deduced that this could not possibly be an average salary. Had Laura cross referenced her one figure from MDE with BPS employees, she would have known to dig deeper before publishing this article. Had Laura interviewed BPS teachers and other teachers, she would have written a balanced article. How can you write a balanced article about teacher effectiveness and what draws teachers into the profession without a single quote from a teacher? I'm sure a high school teacher would be delighted to use this article as an example of what happens when lazy research is conducted. (It could apply to many subjects).

@Laura Hauser. You can find these figures yourself! It is public information, posted on the BPS website! Please do not hide behind the "only official record" of teachers' salaries. The information is out there, you merely have to do your job as a journalist and find it! The administrators of BPS have a myriad of things to do on a daily basis, and I don't see why one of those duties should be "calculating" something that you can do yourself.

Also, @dadof4. Your statistics are meaningless unless compared against other schools and districts. How does BPS rank in comparison to other local districts? How does it compare against private schools? Is there an achievement gap? You bet there is. It is not isolated to BPS, however. It is a NATIONAL epidemic, the least of which is affected by teacher salaries.

All of us have had the experience of the teacher we disliked; the old crone who made us cry in 2nd grade or the high school teacher who did not recognize genius in our written work or science project. So we make every teacher THAT teacher and deny them the respect that teachers generally deserve.

You are a journalist Laura Houser and, when journalists make such egregious errors, they correct them immediately. Shame on you for jumping the gun and writing an article without doing your due diligence to the truth and shame on you for not apologizing on behalf of YOURSELF and your sloppy research! You realize the impact of this? This sparked exactly what you wanted it to: a diatribe against the hard working, highly effective teachers in BPS and against teachers in general. Congrats if that was your goal in publishing such false information.

Why has the BPS administration not made a comment concerning this inaccurate story? Should they not correct the public record or does silence serve their interests more than the truth?

Why is everyone picking on Laura? She went to what she felt was a valid source, the MDE website to validate her information. I looked on the BPS website and you can not determine what the 'average' teacher salary is exactly. It seems the BEA should have followed up with administration and made certain the information was changed at the state level. Lets give Laura some credit for starting this dialogue.

Lets assume the surrounding districts reported correctly (Troy, BH, Rochester) that is still an average of $71,000 per year for 9 months of work. Do the math over 12 months which equals $95,000 a year. All work do things outside of work and do not get paid for it. It is part of being a professional.

Jason Wilson will we see you at the Saturday School sponsored by the African American Family Network at Berkshire?
And Fedup, who is not a teacher (yeah right), please put your fondue pot down and join us as well. Love to have the help!

I would write more but I have to go work my second job to pay for my kids tutors.

We have corrected the story to reflect that the average teachers salary for Birmingham teachers in 2010-11 was actually $75,323.07, according to district officials.

Gee, thanks for correcting your original egregious error.

Laura,

Thank you for the correction on the salary information. I am glad the accurate number was calculated and presented.

Given the number of BPS new hires in recent years, I still have to question that “average.” More important, Laura, you haven’t answered my emails or comments in this column regarding why you have FOIA’ed BPS teacher names and salaries, which you did prior to the state superintendent’s statement about salaries. What is your purpose in pursuing this topic?

How sad. Laura's reporting is not the problem here-- she did a fine job, as she always has. If she weren't a good and capable reporter, none of you would be regulars on this site.
What is a concern is how BPS was able to let that incorrect data just there for three years without contacting the MDE to fix the mistake. A government website should be more than considered a credible source for Laura to cite.
To further illuminate the sloppy record-keeping on behalf of BPS, when Laura contacted the district to get the correct numbers, they weren't readily available for her. Laura said, after you all berated her, that the district had to "calculate" the figure and get back to her. How is such important information not at the ready for ANY BPS community member?
I think what is most appalling, however, is how many grown adults have turned into pouting children as a reaction to this error. In the comments section of the original article, Laura was called unprofessional and lazy... by TEACHERS, for an error that was not her own. BPS teachers, your bosses are at fault here. If this is the example teachers are setting for our kids, it's no wonder bullying is an epidemic in our schools.

Thanks for adding insult to injury, Gabrielle, by calling teachers "bullies" who are "pouting." You do realize, I hope, that you're using some pretty loaded language yourself when you call BPS "sloppy record keepers." I challenge you to put yourself in the shoes of teachers who have somehow become public enemy number one. How would you feel if Laura published erroneous information about you? I doubt you would call it a fine job. Laura has simply jumped on the teacher bashing bandwagon but has cowardly couched it in an article about why teachers should be paid more. She should be responsible for what she writes, and the figures should have struck her a incorrect. Journalists know to double check their facts.

EXCELLENT perception of the situation Ms Mason. Putting the blame where it belongs with the record keeping of BPS, in other words, "Don't kill the messenger". I also completely agree with your take on the readiness of grown adults to berate and bully the said "messenger". No wonder our world is in the shape that it is in our schools with the bullying, Children Learn What They Live, if these grown adults are so ready to condemn, their children are set to learn from their example. So so sad, People, THINK before you open your mouth with such distaste.

Before you hurt yourself patting yourself on the back, Lucy, tell us why Laura is "simply the messenger." She chose to publish irrelevant information and FOIA'ed teacher names and salaries. By the way, Lucy, please publish your name and your salary.

Joyce, I refuse to go into a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent. What an absurd question as to ask me to publish my salary, perhaps you would also like my age, height ,weight and race as well. As for patting myself on the back, my arm would never reach, so sorry to disappoint you. However, since you have strayed from the subject at hand and made this a personal attack by asking me to publicly state my salary and having nothing to hide, I will tell you that I have worked since the age of 12, lost my job of 35 years when the company was sold and during the worse of economic times,was unemployed for 15 months and in fear of becoming homeless. I now work for a little above minimum wage and I am about to transition into retirement only to guarantee a very modest fixed income to keep a roof over my head. This past year I have buried a son and a husband, only to learn a much clearer perspective of life in general. This whole forum of bashing Laura for her honest mistake is ignorance at its finest. She probably did not personally "choose" to address this subject, but rather was given an assignment to complete and unfortunately given misinformation by BPS and is now paying a very high price in her career for their error.

to continue Joyce, Yes, perhaps I rally to Laura's defense as my daughter is also a journalist and a journalism teacher who worked three jobs to put herself through college at one of the highest regarded schools in Michigan. "Go Blue! During her unpaid internship she taught journalism to eager students in four of Detroits inner city schools, where you, Joyce, might never imagine setting foot and regards that internship to this day as her highest and most rewarding personal achievement. She has also worked for the biggest newspapers in our state, and done editing for some of the most well known public reporters. In the future, will her career in reporting ever lend to an error in publishing due to misinformation for her sources, perhaps so, and my only hope is that the general public be forgiving, and not taint nor discourage her passion for her gift of writing, I wish the same for Laura. In conclusion, to all who have derogatory commented against this young reporter, Let him or her who is WITHOUT ever owing Fault or Error cast the first stone. It is not the amount of "Salary" in my pocket that values my worth Joyce, but rather, the compassion and forgiveness of my being that is priceless. Adversity does not build character, It Reveals it!!

Lucy

So well said, Sandy!
As for why Laura chose to share the state superintendent's comments--- why not? It is absolutely relevant to every Michigan tax payer, and as much as Joyce may not like it, that is news.
I think this thread should be finished since a spokesperson for the MDE came on her and posted herself how the numbers, while incorrect, were not skewed by this writer. Pitchforks and torches away, folks.
And... is it of concern to anyone else why Joyce is SO interested in this FOIA, especially for someone so concerned with the transparency of others? What does it matter why Laura FOIA'd that information for BPS teachers, she probably puts out dozens of FOIAs a month. If there's nothing to hide, the FOIA will be a dead end. That being said... Mr. Elrick at FOX 2 news has been doing a LOT of FOIAing lately, and the result was 14 parole violations and a weekend in jail. FOIAs are part of journalism, which so many people here seem to know so much about since they're telling Laura how to do it. And its a part of the job even when readers like Joyce, or Kwame, don't like it.

Ladies, I'm puzzled by your comments that teachers are pouting bullies yet find it acceptable to call me witless and to compare me to Kwame, a convicted criminal. Geez. I simply wanted to know why teacher salaries are so important since it appears to be a thinly veiled opportunity to teacher bash, which is where I see this thread has gone. So, good job, Laura. I will say no more, ladies. Insult away. I hope you have a nice day.

Oh, all of a sudden hurling insults in a public forum is inappropriate? Don't dish it out if you can't take it. Teacher salaries are as important as any salary paid for by taxes. I' m glad to read about the payroll that I help contribute to, and I wish more publications would do the same. I fully intend to write Letters to the Editor to The Eccentric, The Eagle, and The Detroit News in hopes they will increase their coverage of such matters.
And you shouldn't be telling Laura she's done a good job-- it's apparent you don't mean it. What you should do is apologize for attempting to wrongfully defame her.

Geez Joyce, now I am the one who is puzzled as to WHY it was so important for me to publicly state my salary before you would consider my comment to be of any worth or value. Although I could validly challenge your values WITHOUT
knowing your salary, I will at this point refrain from further comment in respect of being the better person and not following in your bullying tactics.

Hi everyone. I will be turning off comments on this story as the discussion has gone beyond the subject of the article — Mike Flanagan's statement that Michigan teachers should make $100,000 a year. Thank you for your discussion and engagement. If you would like address any issues pertaining to Birmingham or Birmingham Public Schools, you can submit a Letter to the Editor anytime by emailing me at Laura.Houser@patch.com.