Research question
Across the 50 US states and DC, which states report the highest population-weighted average public-school teacher salaries, and how do state rankings reflect cost of living, urban concentration, collective-bargaining frameworks, and per-pupil finance levels?
Methodology
We queried the PlainTeacher states table at server render time and pulled the columns state_name, avg_salary, total_districts, total_enrollment. The query ranks records by avg_salary DESC and returns the top 10. Every numeric value rendered on this page derives from a live SELECT against the production states table — no figure is hardcoded, and the table refreshes whenever the underlying National Center for Education Statistics dataset is reingested.
Column lineage: each field maps to a typed column in the states table. Identifier columns carry the entity slug or code used elsewhere in PlainTeacher; quantitative columns store values as exported by the National Center for Education Statistics (preserving the original measurement unit). Where the source publishes values in thousands of dollars, we render them via the standard PlainTeacher money formatter that converts to billions or millions depending on magnitude. Where the source publishes raw integer counts, we render with thousand-separators preserved.
The ranking returned by this page reflects the most recent ETL run captured in the portal database. Every page load executes the same SQL against the read-only SQLite snapshot. Cache headers on the response are managed by the portal middleware: edge cache lifetime is bounded so a rebuilt dataset propagates within hours rather than days. The methodology page documents the full ETL pipeline, source vintage, and column lineage for PlainTeacher.
Coverage and exclusions: rows are filtered by the WHERE clause on the primary query to remove null or zero values on the ranking column. National Center for Education Statistics occasionally suppresses values for reasons of confidentiality, sample size, or quality control; suppressed rows are excluded from this ranking by design rather than displayed as zeros. If the underlying source revises a value in a subsequent vintage, the revised value will appear on the next ETL run without changes to this page's source code.
See the methodology page for the complete ETL pipeline, source vintage, and column lineage.
Top 10 US States by Average Public-School Teacher Salary
Live data, rendered from a SELECT against the portal database at request time
- New York
New York
$171,245.35 Est. avg salary
- District of Columbia
District of Columbia
$162,478.976 Est. avg salary
- Connecticut
Connecticut
$148,614.656 Est. avg salary
- New Jersey
New Jersey
$135,395.172 Est. avg salary
- Massachusetts
Massachusetts
$135,357.379 Est. avg salary
- Minnesota
Minnesota
$124,620.77 Est. avg salary
- New Hampshire
New Hampshire
$123,346.565 Est. avg salary
- Rhode Island
Rhode Island
$122,534.945 Est. avg salary
- Alaska
Alaska
$117,983.821 Est. avg salary
- Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
$117,244.635 Est. avg salary
What this shows The highest-paying states cluster in the Northeast and West Coast, reflecting strong collective-bargaining frameworks and higher costs of living in those regions.
The ranked top 10
Every row below is rendered from a live SELECT against the 10-row result returned by the query in the frontmatter above. Refresh the page after an ETL run to see the latest values.
| # | State | Avg teacher salary | Districts | Total enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | $171,245 | 673 | 2,331,604 |
| 2 | District of Columbia | $162,479 | 1 | 48,635 |
| 3 | Connecticut | $148,615 | 171 | 469,646 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $135,395 | 577 | 1,274,837 |
| 5 | Massachusetts | $135,357 | 318 | 859,323 |
| 6 | Minnesota | $124,621 | 352 | 800,886 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | $123,347 | 159 | 159,592 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | $122,535 | 36 | 122,587 |
| 9 | Alaska | $117,984 | 52 | 129,904 |
| 10 | Pennsylvania | $117,245 | 519 | 1,504,434 |
Source: National Center for Education Statistics -- NCES Common Core of Data + F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Values are queried live from the PlainTeacher SQLite snapshot at request time; the snapshot is refreshed by the portal ETL pipeline. National Center for Education Statistics -- NCES Common Core of Data + F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Values are queried live from the PlainTeacher SQLite snapshot at request time; the snapshot is refreshed by the portal ETL pipeline.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is New York, with a value of $171,245 on the Avg teacher salary column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value derives from the underlying states table; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the source agency publishes a revision and our ETL pipeline reingests, the ranking and the prose around it update on the next page load.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record ($171,245) and the 10th-ranked record ($117,245) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full states population, the aggregate query returns the following summary statistics. These anchors situate the top-10 ranking against the underlying population: how many records exist in total, what the sum of the ranking column is across all qualifying rows, and what the mean per-record value looks like. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied by the aggregate query (records with null or zero values on the ranking column are excluded).
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from National Center for Education Statistics, specifically the NCES Common Core of Data + F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances. PlainTeacher ingests the source vintage published by the agency, transforms it into a normalized SQLite schema, and serves it from a read-only snapshot. Every render of this page is a fresh SELECT against that snapshot.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records.
What this analysis cannot tell us
Average salary figures reflect instructional-staff salary reported on the F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances, divided by full-time-equivalent (FTE) instructional staff. The 'instructional staff' denominator includes classroom teachers and excludes administrators, support staff, and counselors. State averages are sensitive to district enrollment weighting — a state with one very large district (NYC, LAUSD) will reflect that district's salary scale more heavily than the unweighted state mean. Salary figures are nominal dollars and not adjusted for cost-of-living differences across states; states with high salary rankings (NY, CA, MA, NJ) also typically have high cost-of-living indices. Collective-bargaining law, district-property-tax frameworks, and state-aid formulas all shape the underlying state-level distribution and are not captured in the salary number alone. Comparisons between states with binding statewide salary schedules (e.g., some southern states) and states where districts negotiate independently can be misleading. F-33 fiscal year reflects two years prior to data release; the table reflects the most recent published fiscal year only.
Top 10 States by Median District-Level Teacher Salary
Less sensitive than mean to extreme-high-salary outliers in large districts
- District of Columbia
District of Columbia
$162,478.976 Median salary
- New York
New York
$156,091.493 Median salary
- Connecticut
Connecticut
$136,811.594 Median salary
- Massachusetts
Massachusetts
$129,890.256 Median salary
- New Jersey
New Jersey
$120,966.258 Median salary
- New Hampshire
New Hampshire
$119,903.382 Median salary
- Alaska
Alaska
$118,606.515 Median salary
- Rhode Island
Rhode Island
$113,098.374 Median salary
- Maine
Maine
$108,286.75 Median salary
- Vermont
Vermont
$103,897.059 Median salary
What this shows Median salary rankings largely mirror mean rankings, but states with a few extremely high-paying large districts show a smaller gap between mean and median.
How to read these state averages
A state's position reflects structural forces more than any single policy lever. Collective-bargaining density, statutory minimum salary schedules, pension funding obligations, and licensure reciprocity between neighboring jurisdictions all shape where educators cluster. Regional cost-of-living differences and local property-tax capacity widen the dispersion: affluent suburban tax bases sustain richer step-and-column schedules and longevity stipends, while rural districts with thin enrollment lag despite cheaper living. Because these are enrollment-weighted means of district estimates rather than reported individual contracts, the seniority mix of a state's workforce, its veteran-to-novice ratio, and metropolitan wage premiums also tilt the headline figure.
Sources
- National Center for Education Statistics -- Common Core of Data (CCD) -- https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/
- NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances -- https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/f33agency.asp
- U.S. Department of Education -- National Teacher and Principal Survey -- https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/