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Introduction

School leaders at public schools nationwide have reported an increase in teacher turnover compared to pre-pandemic rates, with 1 in 10 teachers having left their position in the 2021-22 school year.¹ Teachers that have thought about leaving cite “compensation, unreasonable expectations, and an inability to protect their well-being” among the top reasons for wanting to leave their role.² Other school characteristics, such as class size, have been found to have an impact on burnout and teacher retention.³

Having effective, highly qualified teachers is critical for student achievement.⁴ ⁵ ⁶ Recruiting and retaining these teachers requires that schools have the incentives and structures in place for their sustained growth (e.g., competitive pay, benefits, professional development opportunities) as well as clearly defined responsibilities to help them work at a sustainable pace and reduce burnout. ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰

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Introduction

A Focus on Islamic Schools

From their inception, full-time Islamic schools in the United States have sought to provide Muslim students with a positive and affirming educational alternative to U.S. public schools.¹¹ The roots of Islamic education can be traced to the Clara Muhammad Schools, originally called the University of Islam, established in the 1930s to promote self-knowledge and self-reliance in African American Muslim children and families.¹² Muslims of predominantly immigrant backgrounds later established full-time Islamic schools starting in the late 1970s.¹³

Islamic schools operate as non-public schools which are tuition-based. The size and specific curricular and extracurricular offerings vary across Islamic schools throughout the country, but generally speaking, they all provide academic instruction alongside Quranic, Arabic, and Islamic studies classes. In recent years, there have been notable signs of growth in Islamic schools as evidenced by increasing enrollment and construction initiatives that seek to expand Islamic school campuses around the country. The Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA) has identified nearly 300 full time Islamic schools in its directory which serve an estimated 60,000-70,000 students in grades K-12.¹⁴

These schools also face key challenges and threats. Primarily, operating as private educational institutions, they are not supported by public funds in the same manner that public schools are, and they must find sustainable financial models that prime them for scalability and growth and allow them to offer competitive salaries and benefits to professional educators. As private schools may find themselves dependent upon tuition and fundraising to cover operational expenses, they also struggle with being able to attract and retain qualified staff. As noted in research on teacher and administrative retention, the instability caused by lower retention rates can impact student achievement and success.¹⁵ Therefore, it is imperative that we take a critical look at who is working at Islamic schools, what they are paid, what benefits are offered to them, and how the broader community can support the further development of full-time Islamic schools in America.

Executive Summary

Introduction

This report explores the landscape of teacher compensation, filling position vacancies, and retaining teaching staff in full-time Islamic schools in the United States. It aims to understand the factors that contribute to attracting and retaining qualified teachers in these schools which play a crucial role in providing Muslim students with an educational alternative to U.S. public schools.¹⁶ 

These schools offer academic instruction alongside Quranic, Arabic, and Islamic studies classes. While there have been notable signs of growth in recent years, with the Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA) identifying nearly 300 full-time Islamic schools serving an estimated 60,000-70,000 students, these institutions face significant challenges.¹⁷ Primarily, without public funding, they must find sustainable financial models that allow them to offer competitive salaries and benefits to attract and retain teachers.¹⁸

Analytic Strategy and Methodology 

This report uses data collected from the U.S. Full-Time Islamic School Profile Survey conducted by the Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA). The survey was distributed to full-time Islamic schools in at least 39 states and the District of Columbia. Between November 2022 and June 2023, 104 schools from 30 states completed the questionnaire. Participants were administrators at the schools who had access to and knowledge of enrollment, salaries, demographic information, and other school data.

The survey data was used to analyze four key outcomes related to teacher compensation and staffing:

1. 1. Teacher salary: measured as the average annual compensation for full-time teachers in elementary, middle, and high school grades.
   2. Available benefits: measured as a list of eight potential benefits (health insurance, employee tuition discount, retirement plan, paid leave, professional development, continuing education reimbursement) provided to employees.
   3. Teacher recruitment: measured by the ease or difficulty reported in filling teacher vacancies across various positions for the 2022-23 academic year.
   4. Teacher retention: measured as the reported percentage of teachers who remained employed at the school between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.

To benchmark teacher salaries, the report used data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on the employment and average annual wages of elementary, middle, and high school teachers across the country.¹⁹ ²⁰ ²¹ The NCES data provided a national average as well as averages for different regions of the U.S.

The analysis examined how the four key outcomes (teacher salary, benefits, recruitment, and retention) were related to the following factors:

• • School financial resources: operating budget and annual revenue (tuition, fundraising, and grants).
  • School characteristics: accreditation status, enrollment, teacher-to-student ratio, number of principals in the past 10 years, number of full-time and part-time teachers, and teacher qualifications (percentage with state certification, bachelor’s degree in education, master’s degree, additional credentials).

Statistical analyses were conducted in STATA to identify relationships between these factors and the key outcomes.

Results

Pay Landscape: Islamic school teacher salaries are significantly lower than the average annual wages of public and private school teachers nationwide. The average teacher salary in the surveyed Islamic schools is $39,653, approximately 60% of the national average wage of $65,910 reported by NCES in 2022. Nearly two in five Islamic schools (39%) offer a low average annual compensation of $20,000-$35,000 to their full-time teachers.

• • School Financial Resources and Teacher Pay: Islamic schools with higher operating budgets and annual revenue pay their teachers substantially higher salaries compared to schools with fewer financial resources. Schools with high operating budgets (ranging from $2 million to over $5 million) paid an average teacher salary of $45,492, nearly $7,600 more than schools with lower operating budgets. Similarly, schools with high annual revenue (ranging from $2 million to over $5 million) paid their teachers an average of $46,468, about $8,700 more than schools with lower revenue.
  • School Characteristics and Teacher Pay: Schools with more teachers, particularly full-time teachers, tend to offer higher salaries. Forty-two percent of schools with 30 or more teachers reported a high average teacher salary (between $45,000-$65,000), compared to only 22% of schools with 10 or fewer teachers. Additionally, schools with a higher percentage of credentialed teachers generally pay higher salaries, especially in lower grade levels. For instance, schools where more than 51% of elementary teachers had a bachelor’s degree in education paid an average of $38,814, about $4,100 more than schools where 50% or fewer elementary teachers had this credential.

Benefits Offered: The surveyed Islamic schools offered an average of five employee benefits during the 2022-23 school year, with 39% offering six or more benefits and 34% offering four or fewer. The most common benefits were professional development (90% of schools), paid sick leave (88%), and employee tuition discounts (87%). Fewer than half (47%) offered health insurance, and only 29% provided paid family leave. Schools with higher financial resources and larger student enrollment tended to offer more benefits, including health insurance and retirement plans.

Recruiting teachers: Islamic schools faced difficulties in hiring qualified teachers, particularly for core subjects like Math (34% reported very difficult to fill vacancies) and English/Language Arts (33% reported very difficult). However, the relationship between compensation and filling position vacancies was not straightforward, as some high-paying schools still reported difficulties in hiring for certain positions.

Retaining teachers: During the period from the 2021-22 school year to the 2022-23 school year, one out of every four Islamic schools faced a high rate of teacher turnover, with less than 75% of their teaching staff remaining employed at the school. Higher teacher salaries and more benefits were associated with higher teacher retention rates. Eighty-six percent of schools with high salaries ($45,000-$65,000) reported high retention rates (76% or more teachers retained), compared to only 59% of schools with low salaries ($20,000-$35,000). Similarly, 88% of schools offering six or more benefits reported high retention, while only 69% of schools with four or fewer benefits did.

Conclusion

The report concludes that teacher salaries in U.S. Islamic schools fall far below the average annual wages of public and private school teachers across the country, even when accounting for the generally lower pay in private schools. 

The analysis highlights a clear positive relationship between the financial resources available to Islamic schools and the level of compensation provided to teachers. Schools with higher operating budgets and annual revenue are able to pay substantially higher salaries and offer a more robust benefits package compared to schools with fewer financial resources.

While certain school characteristics, such as the number of teachers employed (particularly full-time) and the percentage of credentialed staff, also appear to influence teacher pay and benefits to some extent, these relationships are not as consistent as those observed with school financial resources.

Importantly, the report finds that competitive salaries and benefits are crucial factors in retaining teachers in Islamic schools. A larger proportion of schools with higher salary levels and more available benefits reported high teacher retention rates. Specific benefits like health insurance, paid sick leave, and continuing education opportunities were among those most strongly associated with higher retention.

However, the impact of compensation on the recruitment of teachers, particularly for core academic subjects like Math and English/Language Arts, is more nuanced and complicated. Some high-paying schools still reported significant difficulties in filling certain vacancies, suggesting that other factors beyond just compensation may be at play in the hiring process.

The report has a few limitations. First, the data was collected over a relatively short time frame, potentially failing to capture long-term trends. Additionally, technical glitches may have resulted in some missing responses. Finally, the sample of schools involved was not fully representative of Islamic schools across the nation. Despite these constraints, the report still offers valuable insights into the subject matter.

Recommendations

For School Administrators:

• • Understand the salary landscape and use data to determine competitive compensation packages.
  • Present data to boards and funders to justify raising teacher salaries and benefits. 
  • Identify school characteristics related to compensation, retention, and recruitment that can be influenced.
  • Consider alternative benefits to buffer against burnout, such as adequate planning periods and compensatory days off. And consider implementing other less common benefits like mental health support, flexible working conditions, and childcare services to improve teacher satisfaction and retention.
  • Provide pathways for professional growth and teacher credentialing.
  • Promote data literacy by collecting and analyzing data on various school characteristics to inform decision-making.
  • Promote community-building initiatives to strengthen ties between Islamic schools and their communities, enhancing teacher support.

For Teachers:

• • Understand the salary landscape to evaluate compensation packages.
  • Self-advocate for competitive compensation, benefits and development opportunities.
  • Self-advocate for introducing less commonly offered benefits in Islamic schools to attract and retain qualified teachers.
  • Advise school leaders about the importance of  some of the key findings to recruitment and retention.

For Policymakers, Non-School Education Organizations, and Researchers:

• • Identify ways to support Islamic schools in attracting and retaining qualified teachers.
  • Conduct further research to uncover additional factors impacting teacher recruitment and retention.
  • Provide insights on cultivating a more enriching, rewarding, and supportive professional environment for teachers in the industry, as well as recommendations to strengthen Islamic schools throughout the United States.
  • Foster collaboration between Islamic schools, educational organizations, and researchers to improve teacher recruitment and retention.

ANALYTIC STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGY

This report explores the landscape of teacher compensation, filling position vacancies, and retaining teaching staff in Islamic schools. We start by looking at teacher pay for elementary, middle, and high school teachers at U.S. Islamic schools and compare it to the average annual wage for teachers in schools across the country. We benchmark salaries using the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) tables of the employment and average annual wage of elementary, middle, and high school teachers in the elementary and secondary education industry (across a blend of both public and private schools) by state.²² ²³ ²⁴ We provide a blended average annual wage by taking the average of teacher salaries across grade bands. 

We used data collected by the Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA) in the 2023 U.S. Full-Time Islamic School Profile Survey, where we identified the factors related to attracting and retaining teachers in Islamic schools. The survey was distributed to full-time Islamic schools in at least 39 states and the District of Columbia. Between November 2022 and June 2023, 104 schools from 30 states completed the questionnaire. Participants were school administrators who had access to and/or knowledge of enrollment, salaries, and demographic information.

In this report we explore four key outcomes and examine if there is regional variation for each: 1) teacher salary; 2) available benefits; 3) teacher recruitment; and 4) teacher retention. We examine how the various aspects of schools’ financial resources and schools’ characteristics are related to our key outcomes. Each of these are described below and full descriptive tables for each measure can be found in the Appendix.

Teacher salaries are measured in the survey as the average annual compensation for full-time teachers in elementary, middle, and high school (separately) in our sample of Islamic schools. For our analysis, we look at the salary both at the grade band and the average for the school, depending on the type of analysis. We created a numerical scale for teacher salaries using the top salary from the original survey range. In addition, we created a categorical variable to indicate high, mid-range, and low salaries for some analyses. 

Teacher benefits were measured in the survey as a list of eight benefits that participants could select if they were provided to employees at their school: health insurance; employee tuition discount; retirement plan; paid sick leave; paid vacation; paid family leave; professional development; and continuing education reimbursement. For our analyses, we looked at the raw number of benefits that the school provided and a categorical variable that captured whether the school provided a high, mid-range, or low number of benefits. Additionally, we created a dichotomous variable (yes/no) for each of the eight types of benefits that the school might provide. 

Teacher recruitment was measured by the ease or difficulty (easy, difficult, or very difficult) participants reported in filling teacher vacancies for a number of positions for the 2022-23 academic year: Elementary Lead; Math; English/Language Arts; Social Studies; Science; Islamic Studies; Quran; and Arabic. 

Teacher retention was measured as a categorical scale of the school’s reported teacher retention rate between the past academic year (2021-22) and the current one (2022-23). 

School financial resources include the average annual operating budget and the average annual revenue (which includes tuition, fundraising, grants, etc.). Both operating budget and revenue are measured as either a numerical value, based on the midpoint of the survey’s scale, or a categorical variable indicating high, mid-range, and low amounts. 

School characteristics include a number of factors such as accreditation status (accredited vs. any other selection), enrollment (number of students enrolled), teacher-to-student ratio (measured for each grade band, taking the maximum reported for the school where appropriate), and school staff characteristics (the number of principals that the school has had in the past 10 years, the number of full-time teachers, the ratio of full-time to part-time teachers at the school, and teacher qualifications). Teacher qualifications are the percentage of teachers in the school that have each of the following (separately): 1) state teacher certification; 2) bachelor’s degree in education; 3) master’s degree or higher; and 4) additional credentials. Each of the teacher qualifications is captured at the grade band, and we take the maximum percentage reported by a school where appropriate. A categorical variable to indicate low, mid-range, and high levels was created for most of the school characteristics examined in our analyses. 

Statistical analyses were conducted in STATA to identify relationships between these factors and the key outcomes.