Private School Salaries (Sidwell)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a Montessori teacher at an independent school with 20 years experience, and a masters degree. I make only $50,000, i have good health benefits/retirement, and 50% tuition discount for my child.

Yikes! I do t know which number to be offended by - your salary or that you only get 50% tuition. I hope you married a rich person.

I am single w/ a child---but my parents are rich!

I'm sure they are very proud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a Montessori teacher at an independent school with 20 years experience, and a masters degree. I make only $50,000, i have good health benefits/retirement, and 50% tuition discount for my child.

Yikes! I do t know which number to be offended by - your salary or that you only get 50% tuition. I hope you married a rich person.

That is really the only way a married couple with kids can make it work.

My spouse left a Big Three because the pay and benefits were terrible. When our child couldn't go to school there because I (not we, I) make too much money ($120K), that was the last straw.

Spouse now makes more money, has much better benefits, and will retire with a pension.

[Anonymous]

I'm resurfacing this very old thread, as it was the first to show up in google when I was looking for teacher salaries in DMV.

Wondering what the updates are in teacher comp in the past 6 years, in a post-covid world?

My niece teaches HS math at a private in Farmville, VA. She is in the process of getting her masters. If she were to move to the DC area, would she be better off working for public or private, if she were looking for highest salary / comp package (assuming masters is complete)? In DC, MD or VA?

She is single, late 20s, no rich DH. I'm hoping the dating pool will be better for her in DC than Farmville. Most of her co-workers are married and she is lonely. But the COL in Farmville is low relative to her salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm resurfacing this very old thread, as it was the first to show up in google when I was looking for teacher salaries in DMV.

Wondering what the updates are in teacher comp in the past 6 years, in a post-covid world?

My niece teaches HS math at a private in Farmville, VA. She is in the process of getting her masters. If she were to move to the DC area, would she be better off working for public or private, if she were looking for highest salary / comp package (assuming masters is complete)? In DC, MD or VA?

She is single, late 20s, no rich DH. I'm hoping the dating pool will be better for her in DC than Farmville. Most of her co-workers are married and she is lonely. But the COL in Farmville is low relative to her salary.

If she is looking for highest salary, she should apply to DCPS. But it is a lot of work and high stress. Private school teaching is an easier and more fun gig but you get paid less. You also get more vacation in private schools

[Anonymous]

OP, she would benefit from a bigger circle of social connections if she taught in the public school. Sorry, no comment on salaries from me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think they compare to public schools because of the school funding and union contracts. There was a kindergarten teacher at my DD's public elementary who had been there for 20-25 years and he was making about $125K. He has since retired but that was about 5 years ago. I believe the starting salary in DCPS is about 60K or 65K.

That's definitely not the starting salary in DCPS. The only teachers who start that high will have extensive prior teaching experience and/or a Masters or higher degree.

I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

😱 This is tragic. WTF is wrong with this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

😱 This is tragic. WTF is wrong with this country. [/

A
Lot, but not because a phd is getting paid what every other teacher in dcps is getting paid. The problem is that someone is getting a PhD to work in k-12
Do you also expect your manicurist to get paid the same as your neurologist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just saw a posting and considering an application. Looking for any insight into teacher salaries (I have a Master's if that matters). No private school teaching experience, but several years of college-level teaching. Are salaries varied across lower, middle, and upper schools? Thanks.

It's pretty hard to get a private school teaching job without teaching credentials. They can employ uncredentialed teachers, but with such a huge pool of teachers available (there are far more teachers than teaching jobs), there's not a lot of reason to, unless the job is an especially hard one to fill (like Chinese teacher, maybe). In general, college teaching is not great preparation for being an effective high school teacher.

This is not at all true. Many privates actually pride themselves on hiring teachers who did not have teaching backgrounds. The old joke was that if you had a teaching degree you go to public school because the salaries and benefits were so much better. I think these days more private school teachers have or get teaching degrees after they begin work, but my understanding is that this is more of a recent change.

Try at Field OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

😱 This is tragic. WTF is wrong with this country. [/

A
Lot, but not because a phd is getting paid what every other teacher in dcps is getting paid. The problem is that someone is getting a PhD to work in k-12
Do you also expect your manicurist to get paid the same as your neurologist?

I work at another DC private. Several of my fellow teachers have PhDs. Why would it be unusual to you that someone highly educated would wish to work in education? Are you suggesting that K-12 teaching isn’t “worth” a PhD? I have a Masters, as do almost all of my colleagues, and most of us are continuing education in various ways. It is not unusual for educators to be highly educated. Instead of saying PhDs don’t belong in K-12 education, perhaps we should value education more and pay accordingly so additional highly-educated people consider the field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

😱 This is tragic. WTF is wrong with this country. [/

A
Lot, but not because a phd is getting paid what every other teacher in dcps is getting paid. The problem is that someone is getting a PhD to work in k-12
Do you also expect your manicurist to get paid the same as your neurologist?

I work at another DC private. Several of my fellow teachers have PhDs. Why would it be unusual to you that someone highly educated would wish to work in education? Are you suggesting that K-12 teaching isn’t “worth” a PhD? I have a Masters, as do almost all of my colleagues, and most of us are continuing education in various ways. It is not unusual for educators to be highly educated. Instead of saying PhDs don’t belong in K-12 education, perhaps we should value education more and pay accordingly so additional highly-educated people consider the field.

+100. Educators should be paid more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

😱 This is tragic. WTF is wrong with this country.

A
Lot, but not because a phd is getting paid what every other teacher in dcps is getting paid. The problem is that someone is getting a PhD to work in k-12
Do you also expect your manicurist to get paid the same as your neurologist?

I work at another DC private. Several of my fellow teachers have PhDs. Why would it be unusual to you that someone highly educated would wish to work in education? Are you suggesting that K-12 teaching isn’t “worth” a PhD? I have a Masters, as do almost all of my colleagues, and most of us are continuing education in various ways. It is not unusual for educators to be highly educated. Instead of saying PhDs don’t belong in K-12 education, perhaps we should value education more and pay accordingly so additional highly-educated people consider the field.

Colleges and universities produce far more PhDs than they need to replenish their teaching ranks, so private education is a great field for those people to apply their knowledge and skills to educating someone.

The problem is that we pay a lawyer $400 an hour to shuffle papers correctly, but we think paying a teacher $50 an hour is some kind of unwarranted luxury.

It's all about social values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

😱 This is tragic. WTF is wrong with this country.

I teach at an R1 university with a PhD and a tenure track position and I make about 65K. This seems pretty good for a high school teacher who doesn’t have any pressure to publish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

😱 This is tragic. WTF is wrong with this country. [/

A
Lot, but not because a phd is getting paid what every other teacher in dcps is getting paid. The problem is that someone is getting a PhD to work in k-12
Do you also expect your manicurist to get paid the same as your neurologist?

Are you comparing your child's teacher to your manicurist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have a PhD and was offered a position with DCPS a year ago and the salary was 65k.

😱 This is tragic. WTF is wrong with this country.

I teach at an R1 university with a PhD and a tenure track position and I make about 65K. This seems pretty good for a high school teacher who doesn’t have any pressure to publish.

There's a fantasy that all college faculty are comfortably tenured with 6-figure salaries and an easy life. Pull back the curtain, and the picture is not so pretty. Teaching in a high school is simple, straightforward, and usually much less fraught with politics and personalities, depending on the school. My first school was a Petri dish of dishonesty and bad management, then I moved to a much less prestigious school and found wonderful people to work for.

But I wouldn't do it if I had to depend on my teaching salary alone, which is better than yours at a DC charter.