5 out of 10 of states which receive the worst pay do the best on SATs

So I was reading a lot about how unionized states tend to better on test scores and I remembered an interesting fact I read years ago. And that was that in 2009 North Dakota scored the highest on standardized tests while they also had the worst teacher salaries in the county. Now I’m all for raising teachers salaries, but to act as if the teacher pay and test scores go hand in hand simply isn’t true. Strangely it’s almost the exact opposite with 5 of the top ten performing states also receiving the worst salaries in the US. This to me indicates that there are other factors to be considered. Ironically the school disctricts in the US which receive the most funding are also the poorest performing (this most likely is because students in problem neighborhoods need more attention, and thus, more money). The District of Columbia and New Jersey are the two worst performing, and they also spend the most per pupil.  Now, I’m all for increasing funding for education, but to act as if it will solve all the educational problems in the US is simply faulty logic. The situation is more complicated than that and can’t be summed up in a catchy headline (as many are doing currently when comparing non union states to low test scores). So it would be easy for a right winger to take this data and say “hey look! it’s the teachers who are paid the least who do the best!” . Just as it is currently easy for a Democrat to say “states that don’t have unions perform more poorly”. Both are emotional statements that aren’t really bound to reality and both statements don’t take into account other factors such as participation rates, income level, race, and english language skills.  Nonetheless, with all the fighting going on about education there needs to be a nationwide overhaul of the entire educational system because like it or not, the rest of the world isn’t catching up with the US, they’re lapping us.  So stop your bickering, and get to work on making a functional system that can be the envy of the world.

EDIT:

I am in no way saying that the solution is to pay teachers less. Simply pointing out the complexity of the statistics and all the factors which need to be considered.

Average SAT Scores (2009)

………………………Reading   Math Writing Total………………………………

1 North Dakota       610         615       588      1813
2 Wisconsin             594          608      582       1784
3 Minnesota            595          609      578       1782
4 Missouri                595          600     584        1779
5 Illinois                   588         604     583        1775
6 Michigan               584         603      575       1762
7 South Dakota      589         600      569       1758
8 Nebraska              587          594     572       1753
9 Iowa                       590         593      566        1749
10 Kansas                581          589      564         1734

Lowest Average Teacher Salaries by state (2009)
50. North Dakota $24,872
49. Wisconsin $25,222
48. South Dakota $26,111
47. Vermont $26,461
46. Utah $26,521
45. Maine $26,643
44. West Virginia $26,704
43. Iowa $27,284
42. Idaho $27,500
41. Kansas $27,840
40. Nevada $27,957

source

Also for those wondering whether or not there is another measurement which takes into account overall standard of living. There is.

“The Comfort Score examined average salaries (both starting and overall) and compared that to the cost of living. We then ranked each state by this metric to find which states were friendliest to teacher’s – from a salary perspective.http://teacherportal.com/salary-comfort-index

The worst comfort of life are the following

50 Hawaii

49 Vermont

48 New Hampshire

47 Maine

46 Montana

45 Nevada

44 California

43 North Dakota

42 Rhode Island

41 South Dakota

40 West Virginia