According to a recent New York times article, a charter school in NYC is promising to pay teachers $125K plus bonuses based on school wide performance! Why? “The school’s creator and first principal, Zeke M. Vanderhoek, contends that high salaries will lure the best teachers. He says he wants to put into practice the conclusion reached by a growing body of research: that teacher quality — not star principals, laptop computers or abundant electives — is the crucial ingredient for success.”
We agree that teachers, not fancy computers or electives, is what drives success but we also believe that setting the wrong incentives can lead to failure. Having such a strong incentive tied to school-wide performance will cause teachers to focus on passing required tests and not teaching the students. All the small things such as being a mentor, developing each student’s personal growth, and learning about life will be pushed into the background.
Compare that to how NOLA180 operates it’s charter school in New Orleans. “One wonderful thing about having young, moldable, and able educators is that with a new system comes a very new and remarkably different way of “doing school,†and in a sense we need flexible people who are open to new ideas and new ways of thought to achieve this very entrepreneurial goal of reinventing public education in New Orleans.”
The school in New York has a whole system and model based on schoolwide performance. The charter school in New Orleans has a whole system and model based around innovation. Which one is better?
3 responses so far ↓
1 Elizabeth Foughty // Mar 10, 2008 at 10:57 am
Friendly disagreement:
How many of us Aren’t teachers even though we’re bright, young, do-gooders? I mean, honest gut-check…why aren’t YOU a teacher (unless you are–in which case, I eat my words :-))?
Actually, I agree about paying teachers more. I was going to write about this one in a positive light.
The reality is, America’s best and brightest want to do well for themselves. I’ve got no compunction guiding them into the teaching profession via economic incentives. Even if you’re totally unconcerned about making a lot…if you have a family you think long and hard about trying to raise one in or near a big city on 50K a year. Heck, it’s hard to be Single for that amount in some cities!
I’m sure both options have their merits…I’m not sure one should be chosen over the other. Instead, maybe we should spend more on education, period. (well, maybe we could divert money from standardized testing, ugh).
2 mikekarnj // Mar 10, 2008 at 11:05 am
Nope. I’m not a teacher. I never disagreed with paying teachers more. I disagreed with setting the wrong incentives. NOLA180 pays it’s teachers 10-15% above the average in New Orleans. And they have a model around innovation, reform and positive change.
3 dLo // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I’m not sure it’s either or. Like you said, NOLA bases it’s model around innovation but at the same time it also pays it’s teachers more. so in the same way that a table has multiple legs to keep it standing, a school system should have multiple arms/legs to keep the model strong.
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