A first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) earns $68,577 in the 2026-27 school year. A veteran with a PhD, or a master's plus 60 credits, and 21 or more years of service earns $141,761. Both figures come from the 10-month ET-15 salary schedule effective October 4, 2026, which DCPS publishes as part of its contract with the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU).
The contract runs from October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2028, and sets base raises of 2%, 3%, 3%, and 4% for fiscal years 2025 through 2028. This year's 3% raise lifted the bachelor's starting salary from $66,580 in 2025-26 to $68,577, an increase of $1,997.
Outside measures of DC teacher pay fall between the scale's starting and top salaries. The National Education Association (NEA) put the District's average public school teacher salary at $95,077 in 2024-25, fourth among the states and DC and up 9.71% from the year before, in its 2026 Rankings and Estimates report. NEA estimates the 2025-26 average at $96,971, which is $20,419 above the national figure of $76,552. NEA says its DC figures are estimates built from American Community Survey data. Other states are covered in the states with the best teacher pay and substitute teacher pay by state.
Federal wage data come in a bit lower. For May 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted 3,750 elementary school teachers in the District with a mean annual wage of $93,910, 1,540 middle school teachers at $84,060, and 2,800 secondary school teachers at $88,460. Those Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics figures leave out special education teachers and count both public and private employers, so they reach beyond DCPS.
The ET-15 scale itself applies only to DCPS. In 2024-25, DCPS had 117 operating schools with 52,030 students and 4,751.2 full-time-equivalent teachers, a student-teacher ratio of 11.0, according to allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data. The District's 125 public charter schools, with 41,833 students and 3,821.9 teachers, are separate employers and are not covered by the WTU contract. DCPS enrolled 55.4% of the District's 93,993 public school students that year, and charters enrolled nearly all the rest. School-by-school figures are on the DCPS district page and the District of Columbia schools page.
How the DCPS teacher pay scale works
The ET-15 scale is a grid. Its rows, which DCPS calls educational level bands, track schooling: bachelor's, bachelor's plus 15 credits, bachelor's plus 30 credits or a master's, master's plus 30 credits, and master's plus 60 credits or a PhD. A teacher moves to a higher band by finishing more credit hours and applying for an Educational Level Promotion, according to DCPS.
The columns are steps, which track years of service. Steps 1 through 11 each take one year, and Step 12 takes four years, DCPS says. The schedule lists Steps 12 to 15 as a single salary. New hires can be placed as high as Step 10 based on full-time experience. Three longevity placements, at 17 to 18, 19 to 20, and 21 or more years of service, apply only to the three master's-level bands. The schedule lists them as N/A for the two bachelor's bands.
Most WTU members are on the 10-month scale, since most DCPS schools are in session for 10 months, though they are paid over 12 months, according to DCPS. Selected steps for 2026-27:
| Education level | Step 1 | Step 5 | Step 10 | Steps 12-15 | Step 16 | 21+ years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | $68,577 | $75,385 | $91,054 | $100,879 | $108,740 | N/A |
| Bachelor's + 15 | $70,862 | $78,619 | $94,311 | $104,133 | $115,246 | N/A |
| Bachelor's + 30 or master's | $73,149 | $84,639 | $104,148 | $116,335 | $126,892 | $134,176 |
| Master's + 30 | $75,436 | $87,922 | $107,418 | $119,602 | $130,229 | $137,512 |
| Master's + 60 or PhD | $80,005 | $91,194 | $110,703 | $123,229 | $134,478 | $141,761 |
Source: DCPS, WTU ET-15 Salary Schedules FY25-28, FY 2027 ET-15 10-month schedule effective October 4, 2026. The 21+ years column is the third longevity placement.
On the bachelor's row, pay rises from $68,577 at Step 1 to $108,740 at Step 16, a gain of $40,163. A master's adds money at every step. At Step 10, a teacher in the bachelor's-plus-30 or master's band earns $104,148, which is $13,094 more than the $91,054 a bachelor's-only teacher earns at the same step. The top 10-month figure, $141,761, is about 2.07 times the bachelor's starting salary.
Teachers at year-round schools are on a 12-month scale, which starts at $81,270 for a bachelor's and tops out at $158,735. One more raise is already set: on the fiscal 2028 schedule, effective October 3, 2027, the 10-month bachelor's Step 1 rises 4% to $71,320.
How IMPACT ratings change pay
DCPS evaluates teachers under a system called IMPACT, which gives each one of five ratings: Highly Effective, Effective, Developing, Minimally Effective, or Ineffective. In the 2026-27 guidebook for teachers in grades 4 and up, a score of exactly 350 counts as Highly Effective. Effective and Highly Effective teachers move up the steps as usual. A WTU member rated Minimally Effective "will be held at his or her current salary step," the guidebook says, and the union contract has the same rule.
Highly Effective teachers can earn more through IMPACTplus, the district's performance pay program. The yearly bonus depends on the school's poverty level, according to the guidebook:
- High-poverty school: a $10,000 bonus, plus $5,000 for teachers who receive an individual value-added (IVA) score, a student achievement measure, plus $10,000 at a CSI school, the label for schools in the bottom 5% of the city on the state's STAR Framework. The total possible is $25,000.
- Low-poverty school: a $2,000 bonus, plus $1,000 with an IVA score, for a total possible of $3,000.
Bonuses do not count toward a pension, and a teacher who takes one gives up certain early retirement and buyout options if their job is later cut, the guidebook says.
The second part of IMPACTplus raises base pay, and it goes only to teachers in high-poverty schools. It follows the district's LIFT career ladder. At the Advanced stage, a teacher gets a two-year service credit, meaning they are paid as if they had two more years in the system. At the Distinguished stage, they move to the master's band if they are not already there and get a five-year service credit. At the Expert stage, they move to the PhD band and get a five-year service credit. DCPS's compensation page says Highly Effective teachers can see base salary increases of up to $27,000.
Sources
DCPS: WTU ET-15 Salary Schedules FY25-28
DCPS: Washington Teachers' Union compensation
DCPS: DCPS and WTU Collective Bargaining Agreement (2023-2028)
DCPS: IMPACT 2026-2027 guidebook, Group 1 teachers
DCPS: Compensation and benefits for teachers
NEA: Rankings and Estimates 2026 (August update)
BLS: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, District of Columbia, May 2025
School, student, and teacher counts from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.
