Incredible new school concept in Washington

It is my limited understanding that there exists a middle ground between public and private schools in the US: charter schools that are publicly funded but self-run (i.e. independent of meddling bureaucrats). Or something. It doesn't really matter. All that matters is that a nascent Washington charter school called The Equity Project (TEP for short) is going to pay its teachers US$125,000 p.a. + bonus. That's rather incredible, probably double the average salary for teachers in the US (just my guess).

The school is guided by the principle that teacher quality is the most important contributing factor to student learning. They are setting high expectations of their teachers, of course. Not only will they have to demonstrate their expertise very thoroughly in order to get a job there, their job description goes well beyond classroom teaching to include professional development, extra-curricular activities and essentially running the school. To afford the teacher salaries, the idea is to employ only teachers as far as possible. Very few administrators, no substitute teachers, no professional development. Teachers take a forced sabbatical every five years, and spend six weeks of non-term time in collaborative curriculum and lesson development.

But it's not all hard work. It appears that teachers there would spend less time in the classroom than I do, and they teach only one subject at only one grade level. That is, a teacher may have four Year 10 maths classes, instead of, for instance, my current load of Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12. There's an obvious advantage to that: a smaller burden of preparation. The disadvantage is a lack of variety. I don't know which I'd prefer.

It seems that everything about this school is very interesting. The website certainly makes interesting reading. I hope to hear progress reports over the coming years.