According to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s latest employee payroll report for public school teachers, administrators, and staff, 20 out of the Top 25 highest-paying school districts in the entire state of Pennsylvania are within a 50-mile radius of Philadelphia, but exclude the city itself.

The data speaks to the role compensation and funding play in a district’s overall performance and student outcomes, writes Michelle Caffrey for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Montgomery County is home to nine of the Top 15 highest-paying school districts in the state, including No. 1, Lower Merion.

The following Montco school districts made the Top 25. The first number in parentheses is the number of staff members in that school district, and the second number is their average salary (for the 2015-16 school year):

• Lower Merion (805, $97,480)
• Colonial (417, $92,993)
• Wissahickon (391, $92,751)
• Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (272, $91,339)
• Upper Merion (347, $91,078)
• Upper Dublin (364, $90,100)
• Abington (645, $89,357)
• Cheltenham Township (429, $89,351)
• Lower Moreland Township (192, $89,140)
• North Penn (1,038, $84,927)

It should come as no surprise that nine of the Top 25 highest-paying public school districts are home to high schools listed in the Top 25 of U.S. News and World Report’s 2016 ranking of Pennsylvania high schools.

“Higher salaries can help draw candidates to a job opening, boost applications, and promote high quality hiring, especially for hard-to-fill positions like special education administration rolls,” writes Caffrey.

Click here to read more about the state’s highest-paying school districts in the Philadelphia Business Journal.