On Monday, the Center on Reinventing Public Education and the Center for American Progress released Separation of Degrees: State-By-State Analysis of Teacher Compensation for Master?s Degrees. The authors concluded,
On average, master?s degrees in education bear no relation to student achievement. Master?s degrees in math and science have been linked to improved student achievement in those subjects, but 90 percent of teachers? master?s degrees are in education programs ? a notoriously unfocused and process-dominated course of study.
In North Carolina, a teacher with a master’s degree receives an additional $4,417 in annual salary compared to a bachelor’s degree level teacher. The state spends over $140 million a year (or $97 per student) to fund a master’s degree bump that typically does little to increase student achievement.
