Introduction

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is an annual collection of public elementary and secondary education data administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its collection agent, the U.S. Census Bureau. Data for CCD surveys are provided by state education agencies (SEAs).

This report presents summary data from the Pilot Teacher Compensation Survey (TCS), which collected data for school year 2005–06. This pilot collection is a research and development effort to see if it is possible to collect and publish teacher-level data from the administrative records residing in state departments of education. Seven states participated in this survey: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma. These states provided data on salaries, years of teaching experience, highest degree earned, race/ethnicity, and gender for each public school teacher. Data on government expenditures on employee benefits were also solicited, but only three states were able to provide even partial employee benefits data. Since this is a universe survey of administrative records for all teachers in participating states, no statistical testing was required.

SEAs participate in the CCD voluntarily, following standard definitions for the data items they report. For more information on the data collection, methodology and definitions, readers should see appendixes A and B.

The TCS is the first attempt to collect data, at this level, by NCES. The data presented here have been chosen to demonstrate the range of information available when using the TCS rather than to discuss all of the observed discoveries. The results are not meant to emphasize any particular issue.