interested in teaching for $125,000?…
May 1, 2008
conventional wisdom would tell you that a raise in the average teacher’s salary would lead to better teachers in more classrooms. and getting better teachers might be a worthy goal: i hear often that the single most important factor in pursuing educational equity is having more bad-ass teachers in schools. better technology, healthier foods, and more resources will always help, but attracting (and keeping) great teachers may have the most significant impact of them all.
one charter school in ny is taking this theory very seriously. the equity project charter school, the brain-child of a tfa alumnus, is set to pay their teachers $125,000/year when it opens in 2009. or about 3x more than i’ll be making. the principal won’t even make that much — and he’s the founder of the school! predictably, they’ve been receiving inquiries from people all over, some of whom will be invited to go through their rigorous application process.
this wall street journal article tempers the enthusiasm surrounding the idea that better teacher pay is “the answer” by arguing that better compensation hasn’t been demonstrated to make all that much of a difference. at $34.06/hr, public school teachers are already paid better than many other professionals (why, oh why does progressive seattle give their teachers the lowest salaries on the west coast??), but districts who offered teachers higher pay did not see much of a pay-off in the way of better student performances.
but i have a feeling that a six-figure salary might be a game-changer.
May 1, 2008 at 5:25 am
Thanks for this information. Interesting. I think that $125,000 will make a difference int he beginning but in a few years it will amount to the same old routine for teachers and students. Variables like class size, teacher student ratio, and actual suuport for teachers need to be addressed. Will the salaries of the teachers breed even more friction between the community and the school? Hope it turns out well for both teachers and students.
May 1, 2008 at 5:35 am
yeah, interestingly enough, class sizes will be even larger for these high-priced teachers at about 30 kids per class. on top of that, they’ll carry many extra responsibilities, since the school will not have the typical staff on site. being a good teacher is already tough, but having to deal with all those extra burdens can be brutal. their staff will be really highly qualified though, so it’ll be very interesting to see how the school does in the first few years.
May 1, 2008 at 6:05 am
With 6 figures, maybe it’d hopefully mean teachers who spend their money on their own classrooms won’t feel like they’re having to choose to feed their students over their families.
I know the first thing I’d do with scrilla like that is make sure everyone of my kiddos had a healthy, tasty, and complete breakfast. Hungry kids = kids can’t learn. Mazlow was right.
May 2, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I wonder if this would cross the threshold necessary to draw other industries into teaching. I’d love to see the day when someone had to choose between accepting partner at their law firm or being a middle school teacher for the same pay.
May 4, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I have mixed feelings about this school. On one hand, teachers should get paid more, especially considering the amount of education and continuing education we are required to get. On the other hand, this is going to reward very few teachers with a high salary and leave the rest of New York’s teachers — who are teaching the same kids, with probably fewer resources — earning what they always earned. Here’s a greater ill that needs to be addressed: it’s almost impossible for bad teachers to get fired. So every school ends up with some teachers who have iron-clad job security and just kind of give up on being creative and innovative and interesting teachers.
I do agree with Jack though, and I definitely agree with G. The $250 tax deduction for “class room expenses” does not come remotely near the amount I spent on teaching my first two years. Thankfully this year my school builds things like copies and books into the budget. I heart my school. Lam — come work here.
May 4, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Oh, and 30 kids is a pretty average class size for middle and high school. My freshman classes are smaller, but I’ve got 34 juniors. In Baltimore, some folks had classes of 40. A few people I knew had to assign kids seats on the window sills and give them a clipboard to use as a “desk”.