A new study by Matt Ladner at the Goldwater Institute – “New Millennium Schools” (PDF of full-study is here) – proposes a new charter school model that is based on identifying and rewarding “master teachers,” and adding more students to those teachers’ classes. The study hypothesizes that excellent teachers could be earning six-figure salaries in such a school, and that the prospect of such compensation could attract high-performing individuals to the profession of teaching. Such is the case in South Korea, explains Ladner. He goes on to explain that it would be unwise to directly copy the South Korea model in the U.S., given clear market research that U.S. parents have a deep (somewhat inexplicable) obsession with small class sizes, despite evidence that teacher quality is more important to good educational outcomes than small class sizes. (And in a sense, small class sizes – by limiting access to the bst teachers – work against better outcomes.)
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