Monthly Archives: December 2013

In Education, as in Shopping for Clothing, You Get What You Pay For

Inequity between teacher salaries – when looked at by state and district – is marked in this country, and this inequity has a huge impact on schools. Last year  in Massachusetts teachers earned an average of $73,000 while their peers in Maine earned an average of $48,000. That is a difference of $25,000 per year. […]

Want Better Schools? Follow the PISA Brick Road!

Education policy-makers at the state and local levels in Maine would do well to use the results of last year’s PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) tests – released December 3 – as a roadmap for decision-making. Mr. Schleicher, the head of education at the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), says that the […]

Do Local School Boards Still Make Sense?

What is the best way to organize decision-making in relation to schools and school districts? Does our system of local school boards work well? Most countries do not have school boards. Decisions are made at the national and local levels by educators. In our country decisions about schools are made by elected boards of taxpayers […]

Are School Teachers a Dime a Dozen?

Today I read this comment about teachers – School teachers are a dime a dozen  – and I realized that if one person expresses this idea out loud in print then probably tens of thousands more quietly express it in private. Given that this is presumably the case, it’s no wonder our society relegates teaching to an […]