Where Teacher Pay Improved Most (2019-2023)

What This Ranking Tells Us

This ranking compares each state's average estimate across a balanced panel of the same districts in FY2019 and FY2023. The fixed cohort reduces district entry and exit as a source of apparent change, but the result remains a derived district-level estimate rather than an individual raise or salary schedule.

By the Numbers: Where Teacher Pay Improved Most (2019-2023)

This ranking covers 49 jurisdictions. Alaska and Illinois have no district with a usable teacher-salary estimate in this extract (reported salary between $30k and $200k with enrollment of at least 200), so they are omitted rather than imputed. It uses estimated teacher-pay change since FY2019 from the NCES Common Core of Data F-33 Local Education Agency Finance Survey, FY2023. New Hampshire leads the list at +39.3%, while New Mexico sits at the bottom with - - a +33.5% spread between the highest and lowest reporting state. The national mean is +16.5% with a median of +14.5%, a gap that reveals how concentrated the top of the distribution is.

• Scope: this page reports the ordering produced by the documented FY2023 source fields and transformations. It does not infer why a state occupies a position, predict a policy outcome, or substitute for a local salary schedule, contract, or benefits record. Use the state profile and the methodology to inspect the data and calculation behind a row.
• Salary methodology: the estimate is derived from NCES F-33 instructional-salary expenditure and reported teacher FTE. It is a district-level aggregate, not an individual contract or total-compensation figure. The multi-year ranking compares a fixed district cohort, so a change is a change in this derived estimate rather than proof of any individual raise. Click a state below for its district-level context and source notes.