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Interesting thoughts. I think if done right the daycare aspect could be really fun and socially/academically valuable time for the kids. I actually do think i

Interesting thoughts. I think if done right the daycare aspect could be really fun and socially/academically valuable time for the kids. I actually do think it's a business opportunity but haven't pursued it yet (though I'd like to in the next year or two). As for merit pay, the pay plan I came up with for my hypothetical school would simply be a partnership model. You "make partner" when your colleagues decide they trust you, value your contribution, and would like to keep you on board by sharing profits with you. Then, everyone is paid a base salary but partners get profit sharing. This solves the main problem of tenure while keeping the spirit and benefits of it. Another idea I had for pay plans is to incentivize teachers to create curriculum materials (this would save huge money on textbooks). Ideally there would be a network of schools so that if a teacher crated an amazing lesson or book chapter he/she would be paid a bit extra every time it was chosen/used. Enough that a moderately prolific teacher could earn a 20-40% bonus simply via curriculum creation. Maybe one decides to teach acoustical physics by analyzing a lady gaga song, and the lesson is a huge hit across a thousand schools. In my opinion the ideal teachers are the sort of people capable of creating top quality curriculum... curriculum creation is a natural biproduct of energetic, creative teaching, and a large chunk of the way schools currently allocate money goes into paying textbook firms rather than cultivating a valuable skill in their employees.

loewenskind 16y ago
That sounds very interesting. If someone could solve this, it could be the most important startup in our time. What I would say, though is please put your ideas through the "Satan's computer" and/or game theory test. That is, if you assume every actor will act in their own personal best (best being defined as "optimal short term rewarding") interest at the exclusion or detriment of everyone else but your system still functions then it's a good idea. For example, in your incentive example above it strikes me that some teachers would purposely not use material from other schools because they want that incentive money for themselves (game theory). I would also mention that there will be a potential resource problem. In every field there is a small subset that are the pinnacle of that field. If your system will only pick that pinnacle then you'll be understaffed. Imagine if software development were staffed this way. The software that actually was produced would be much better today, indeed much less would be needed. But we wouldn't have enough.

loewenskind 16y ago

That sounds very interesting. If someone could solve this, it could be the most important startup in our time. What I would say, though is please put your ideas through the "Satan's computer" and/or game theory test. That is, if you assume every actor will act in their own personal best (best being defined as "optimal short term rewarding") interest at the exclusion or detriment of everyone else but your system still functions then it's a good idea. For example, in your incentive example above it strikes me that some teachers would purposely not use material from other schools because they want that incentive money for themselves (game theory). I would also mention that there will be a potential resource problem. In every field there is a small subset that are the pinnacle of that field. If your system will only pick that pinnacle then you'll be understaffed. Imagine if software development were staffed this way. The software that actually was produced would be much better today, indeed much less would be needed. But we wouldn't have enough.