Since this article appeared on June 5, I have been thinking a lot about the question of whether more money is the way to change the quality of teachers and education in this country. The comments on this article are also worth reading. What stood out most to me in the article was the following statement: “The school, called the Equity Project, is premised on the theory that excellent teachers — and not revolutionary technology, talented principals or small class size — are the critical ingredient for success.”

In thinking about this idea, I remembered back to being in a school when “Smart Boards” were starting to appear. I wasn’t sure whether this expensive, electronic board would help me be more effective in the classroom, and I went and observed a colleague using one with his students. I think that a Smart Board might enhance the work of a good teacher, but a Smart Board couldn’t ever make a bad teacher better.

I’ve watched a lot of change happen with technology in schools over the past twenty years, and while I do think that technology has a role in education and that it can enhance what teachers do, nothing can replace the work of a good teacher. Perhaps the key thing to keep in mind is that everything from technology to administrators and class size is only a way to enhance the work of teachers — and the critical things they do to educate kids — and that these other things are never an end onto themselves. I guess then the challenge is to find the people that can be superlative teachers, and maybe that’s more likely to happen if they are offered $125K.