PlainTeacher

PlainTeacher Data

Teacher Salary Rankings

States ranked by teacher pay, enrollment, and district count - all from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) F-33 survey, FY2022.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, these rankings are compiled directly from the FY2022 Common Core of Data F-33 Local Education Agency Finance Survey, published June 2024, covering 13,138 public school districts across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. See our methodology for the exact calculation.

Teacher Salary by State

Average teacher pay in all 50 states and D.C., using FY2022 NCES F-33 data.

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  1. 1 District of Columbia $127,962
  2. 2 New York $125,882
  3. 3 California $123,951
  4. 4 Washington $117,433
  5. 5 Connecticut $106,216

Average Teacher Salary by State

State-by-state average salary comparison with mean and median context.

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  1. 1 District of Columbia $127,962
  2. 2 New York $125,882
  3. 3 California $123,951
  4. 4 Washington $117,433
  5. 5 Connecticut $106,216

Highest Paying States for Teachers

States ranked by FY2022 estimated average teacher salary.

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  1. 1 District of Columbia $127,962
  2. 2 New York $125,882
  3. 3 California $123,951
  4. 4 Washington $117,433
  5. 5 Connecticut $106,216

Lowest Average Teacher Salary

States where teachers earn the least on average.

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  1. 1 Arkansas $55,703
  2. 2 Mississippi $57,919
  3. 3 Oklahoma $58,364
  4. 4 Missouri $62,482
  5. 5 West Virginia $62,740

Largest Total Enrollment

States with the most students enrolled in public schools.

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  1. 1 California 5,254,444
  2. 2 Texas 5,035,815
  3. 3 Florida 2,812,487
  4. 4 Illinois 1,848,585
  5. 5 Georgia 1,699,250

Most School Districts

States with the most public school districts.

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  1. 1 Texas 904
  2. 2 Illinois 757
  3. 3 California 748
  4. 4 Ohio 646
  5. 5 New York 635

How PlainTeacher Rankings Are Compiled

Our rankings are computed directly from the upstream dataset - not editorially curated and not influenced by advertisers. Each ranking surfaces a clear, reproducible metric (for example, count of records per jurisdiction, share of records within a category, or rate per capita), and the underlying numbers are visible on the associated record pages so you can verify them. We recompute rankings whenever the upstream data refreshes, and we publish the refresh cadence on the methodology page.

What Rankings Mean (and What They Do Not)

A ranking is a useful lens - it tells you where to start looking - but it is not a judgment about quality, safety, or reputation. Being at the top of a count-based ranking typically reflects scale: more records in a jurisdiction, more entities in a category. It does not mean "better" or "worse." Whenever a ranking could be misread as a quality claim, we include an explanatory note on the page. When a ranking is rate-based (per capita, per thousand, share), we describe the denominator so you can sanity-check whether the normalization fits your question.

Why We Publish These Rankings

Rankings make large public datasets navigable. Most visitors arrive with a question ("Which jurisdiction has the most records?" or "Where is this category concentrated?") and benefit from seeing a ranked list with direct links to the full records. Publishing ranked views of public data is a long-established practice in civic journalism; we are careful to surface the raw numbers, link to the official source, and avoid editorial spin. If a ranking ever implies a value judgment not supported by the data, please email us at the address on the contact page and we will review the wording.

Methodology, Sources, and Corrections

Every ranking is derived from the source dataset linked on the methodology page. We do not blend proprietary signals; we do not substitute editor opinion for data. If you believe a ranking is miscomputed or that a record is misclassified, please contact us with the specific record ID and the expected correction, and we will investigate within the next refresh cycle. Corrections that affect the published ranking are rolled forward immediately; minor formatting fixes go out with the next scheduled refresh.

According to the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) F-33 Local Education Agency Finance Survey, PlainTeacher's figures are computed directly, no number is typed in by an editor. Every ranking is recomputed directly from the source FY2022 F-33 submissions, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Data current as of FY2022.