SIOUX CITY -- When Republican legislators called for stricter academic standards in September to keep Iowa's education system from "slipping into mediocrity," their Democratic counterparts termed the GOP plan for more testing "a tired old idea" and said lawmakers should focus instead on raising teacher pay and refining curriculum.

There's no apparent correlation between teacher pay and student performance in the state, however, based on data from the Iowa Department of Education.

The Journal compared last year's average teacher pay and student test scores for the Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Iowa City, Sioux City, Waterloo and West Des Moines school districts and found that the best-performing students didn't necessarily have the best-paid teachers.

For instance, of the nine districts, Dubuque paid the lowest average teacher salary, $48,448, but recorded the third-highest achievement scores. Sioux City paid the second-highest average salary, $54,911, but had the second-lowest test scores.

"I don't think it's as simple as dollars in, results out," Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said Friday. "That's why we've worked hard on the Iowa Core Curriculum. For the first time in years, we're creating state standards and mentoring programs for first-year teachers."

But state Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said refining curriculum is not the same as setting statewide academic standards.

"We don't have standards," Rants said. "(Gov. Chet) Culver is doing it backwards. You establish first what you want the kids to know, and after you establish that you set up the curriculum to make sure they're learning that."

Keys to success?

Educators in the state seem to agree that student achievement doesn't hinge on teacher pay, but there doesn't seem to be a consensus about what is key to turning out well-prepared students.

Dubuque Community Schools District Superintendent Larie Godinez said teacher retention rates, staff development and student mobility and socioeconomic status all play a part.

In the mind of Sioux City Education Association President Bruce Lear, reducing class sizes is the most important step toward dramatically improved student performance.

"Class-size numbers are alarming," Lear said. "We routinely have classes of 29 or 30, and that is too big."

Sioux City's fourth-grade teachers have 18 to 29 students in a class; in fifth grade, the range is 18 to 32.5 students, according to Alison Benson, district spokeswoman.

Sioux City schools Superintendent Paul Gausman said the most significant and pronounced component of student success is socioeconomic status. Sioux City has a wide disparity among socioeconomic groups that is reflected in an achievement gap, he said.

West Des Moines School District Superintendent Tom Narak agreed and said students from low socioeconomic groups are at a disadvantage nationwide.

"The research shows that's where schools can make the biggest difference, but you have to figure out what you have to do to make that occur," Narak said. "It's not easy work, and it does consume a lot of time and resources."

West Des Moines had the best student achievement scores but, at $51,165, was in the midrange for average salary out of the nine districts in the Journal's comparison.

"Its hard to say one thing over another is the key to our success," he said, acknowledging there's still room for improvement. "It's more challenging when you get new students to our schools or country. Teachers look at students individually to meet their needs."

In Iowa City, school district Associate Superintendent Jim Behle said schools focus on teacher quality. "We believe that professional development for our teachers is a very important piece in improving achievement."

Iowa City paid its teachers the most out of the nine districts, $55,839 on average, and had the second-highest student achievement scores.

"It's the quality of the training and the types of courses the teacher has taken," Behle said. "More learning by the teacher is absolutely critical, but that doesn't have to result in a degree."

Higher education

Although it's home to the University of Iowa, Iowa City has fewer teachers with advanced degrees than some other districts. Of the nine the Journal looked at, Sioux City, with the second-lowest test scores and second-highest teacher pay, had the most teachers with advanced degrees, 59.4 percent, last year. In higher-scoring Dubuque, where pay was the lowest, 29.7 percent of the teachers had advanced degrees. High-scoring, top-paying Iowa City had 43.7 percent of teachers with an advanced degree, and top-scoring, mid-range-paying West Des Moines had 42 percent.

Sioux City's Gausman said he's proud of his teachers' high level of education. "We believe a prepared educator is the front line of a successful approach toward student achievement."

Education level figures into pay level, as does length of experience, said Scott McLeod, coordinator of the educational administration program at Iowa State University. But pay "has nothing to do with how you are as a teacher."

And although there will always be a relationship between student poverty and student success, he said, "The No. 1 factor that impacts student achievement, above and beyond the characteristics of the individual child, is the quality of the teacher in the classroom."

One measurement of that, McLeod said, is whether the teacher has a valid license to teach the subject he or she teaches and whether the teacher has true accreditation versus a six-week program.

"It's so complex," he said. "There's so many factors that impact how well a student does in school. Everything from teacher skill, parent support, adequate nutrition, the kind of system the school has to help struggling students, medical care and successful academic role models. It's very hard to make broad judgments about what's going on to impact student achievement."