Show Me the Money

Back in January I wrote about how teachers are usually in the middle of the pack when it comes to their own academic achievements. I argued that if teacher salaries were significantly higher, the profession would attract brighter, higher-achieving students. Well, now we will have a test case. Zeke Vanderhoek is opening a charter school in New York City, and teacher salaries will begin at $125,000. Since many of the best people leave teaching for better-paying jobs, it will be interesting to see if the attrition rate slows down with the higher salaries. Vanderhoek put it best when he said, "...money, in our culture, is a signifier of how jobs are valued, and right now schools are telling teachers that they are not valued."

Slowing Down

Today's New York Times includes an article about turning off the electronic equipment once a week to slow down time. Being unplugged is harder to do than ever before. I know people who check their email every 15 minutes on their Blackberry--now that's just obsessive. I think the new trendy thing will be not how much you do, but how much free time you have to relax. If more people just said no to things, then they wouldn't be so busy, and they wouldn't be depressed that they have no free time, and they wouldn't have to visit their therapist, and they'd be happier--ok, this might be an oversimplification, but I think it works.

Retaking tests

Just a point of clarification: Cherry Hill East gives students the chance to retake tests. However, they cannot score above a 70% for their final grade--the incentive is to master the material, not artificially inflate their grades. It continues to surprise me how often this information is incorrectly interpreted.