Minimum High School Graduation Requirements and Teacher Compensation

In the last forty years of educational reform, significant changes have been made to the number and type of high school credits students are required to complete for graduation. As these requirements have changed, the demand for higher-level academic courses has increased while teacher shortages, particularly in high-demand areas such as math and science, have continued to increase. This study uses data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Student and Staffing Survey to examine the relationship between minimum graduation credit requirements in core subject areas (English, math, science and social sciences) and teacher salaries, both holistically and in specific geographic contexts (cities, towns, suburbs and rural areas). Through the use of multiple regression models, this study examined the impact of graduation requirements and other district-level variables (including total student population, the number of teacher contract days and the percent of district students qualified for the National School Lunch Program) on both the lowest and highest fulltime teacher salaries. The results suggest minimum graduation requirements, specifically science and social science courses, do impact teacher salaries, though the effect size is quite small