60 Minutes - The Equity Project (TEP) - NYC Charter Schools pay teachers $125K/year but no tenure - Inspiring piece

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7359538n&tag=contentMain...

Could we do this in Hoboken?  This 60 minutes piece that aired tonight is allowing a charter school to allocate its budget as it wishes to allow it to pour money into the classroom. I found this piece inspiring. 

The charter school offers starting salaries at $125K year to attract the best and the brightest but does not offer tenure.  Teachers are employed at will and can be terminated at any time.  Two were let go because the school felt they could do better for the money.  Former Chancellor of NYC schools says that it's too difficult to jettison teachers for performance so almost no one attempts it.   

Teachers at TEP are constantly - not just once or twice a year - evaluated.  Classroom taping is used with group debriefs on how the teacher's performance could have been improved. The principal claims that instead of having a small number of outstanding teachers by offering such compensation every teacher is outstanding.  He goes onto say that taking a mediocre teacher and just paying them more has no impact on performance.  Offering much more attracts candidates that would not otherwise teach or would not teach in an urban area. 

Instead of hiring staffers to help teachers with teaching technics and other support staff, the school hires teachers that have the demonstrated ability on their own and are expected to do those other tasks on their own.  Teachers work as much as 80 hours a week to do what it takes for the kids in their class. At $125K - a salary that certainly rivals the best private jobs, overtime as needed should be expected. 

They hold class in a group of trailers to save on facilities costs so that the school is funded without outside funding ie just the public funding that they normally get.

Really inspiring piece and I think we should watch how they do closely.  By August they should have another year of results.