Our Methodology

Data Source

All data comes from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) F-33 Local Education Agency Finance Survey, collected annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education. The F-33 survey collects detailed revenue and expenditure data from every public school district (LEA) in the United States. PlainTeacher uses the FY2022 release (covering the 2021-22 school year), published by NCES in June 2024.

Salary Calculation Formula

The F-33 finance survey includes total dollar amounts for instructional salary expenditures (variable Z33) but not individual teacher salary records. For the actual teacher headcount, PlainTeacher joins a second NCES source, the CCD Staff Universe Survey, which reports each district's REPORTED full-time-equivalent (FTE) teacher count. For roughly 99% of districts, this gives a real, district-specific denominator:

A small number of districts, mostly large consolidated city systems that report staffing through sub-district agency IDs rather than their single aggregate district ID (New York City is the largest example), have no reported teacher-FTE row for the aggregate district. For these, PlainTeacher falls back to an estimate using the national average student-teacher ratio instead:

Every district page states which method was used for that specific district. In both cases, because Z33 includes teachers, instructional aides, and assistants together (not classroom teachers alone), these figures run higher than survey-reported classroom-teacher-only salaries (such as NEA or BLS estimates). They are best used as a consistent relative measure for comparing districts and states against one another, not as an exact classroom-teacher paycheck.

Processing Steps

We transform raw NCES data into searchable district salary profiles through the following stages:

• Download NCES F-33 LEA finance files for FY2022 containing revenue and expenditure data for every public school district.
• Download the NCES CCD Staff Universe Survey (FY2022) and extract the "Teachers" category FTE count per district.
• Filter to government-entity school districts, excluding most charter-only agencies and non-government LEAs that report differently.
• Apply minimum enrollment threshold of 25 students to exclude non-operational entities and reporting artifacts.
• Compute average salary using the district's reported teacher FTE where available, falling back to the 15:1 ratio estimate otherwise, and record which method was used per district.
• Merge geographic metadata (state, county, city) from NCES CCD universe files for location-based browsing.
• Compute state and national percentile rankings for salary figures, enabling cross-district comparison.

Important Limitations

• These are derived figures, not individual salary records. Individual teacher salary data is not available in this dataset even when a real reported teacher headcount is used.
• Z33 includes instructional aides and assistants, which may inflate figures relative to teacher-only average salaries.
• A small minority of districts use the 15:1 ratio estimate instead of a reported headcount, because they report staffing at a sub-district level; the district page states which method applies.
• Specialized service districts (County Offices of Education, Intermediate Service Districts) may show unusually high figures because they serve many more students than they directly enroll.
• Smaller or specialized districts may have incomplete, imputed, or zero values in the underlying NCES data.

For accurate, individual-level salary data, consult your state's public employee salary database or teachers union contracts.

Coverage

• 13,000+ school districts across all 50 states and the District of Columbia
• FY2022 data (2021-22 school year)
• Data source: NCES CCD F-33, published June 2024

Data Collection Method

NCES collects F-33 data through an annual survey of all local education agencies in the United States. State education agencies coordinate data collection from districts and submit standardized files to NCES. The F-33 survey captures total revenues by source (federal, state, local), total expenditures by function (instruction, support services, administration), and detailed instructional spending categories. NCES applies quality control checks, imputation for missing values, and validation against prior-year submissions before publishing the final dataset. The F-33 is the most comprehensive source of public school district financial data in the United States.

Update Schedule

NCES publishes F-33 data approximately 24 months after the fiscal year ends. We update our database when new F-33 releases become available. Between releases, district financial conditions may change due to state funding formula revisions, enrollment shifts, and local tax rate changes that are not reflected in our data. Dated corrections and methodology revisions are logged on our data changelog.

Not Affiliated

PlainTeacher is not affiliated with the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. Department of Education, or any government agency.

Data Reuse and Licensing

Every page on PlainTeacher carries a stable, citable URL and a "Cite this page" block with a ready-made attribution string, so the figures can be quoted with clear sourcing. Our teacher-salary-by-state dataset is a downloadable CC0 state summary with field definitions and a source link. It is derived from public-use NCES data; it is not a replacement for district salary schedules, a payroll file, or a general bulk export of this site.

Related NCES Data Resources

Beyond the raw F-33 finance survey, these NCES resources let you verify or explore the underlying data yourself:

• NCES CCD F-33 Local Education Agency Finance Survey - the primary source dataset used for salary calculations on this site.
• NCES Elementary/Secondary Information System (ELSI) - NCES's own tool for browsing CCD district staffing and teacher FTE data, including the Staff Universe Survey figures referenced above.