Weekend Reads: Why higher pay might not translate to more teachers

  • One likely beneficiary of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death: teachers unions, whose mandatory dues Scalia had signaled he would rule against. TIME
  • John King is the first former principal to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education. Few of his predecessors even taught. Politics K-12
  • Three students tasked with improving their low-performing school say academic tracking is one impediment. Chalkbeat
  • Virtual teacher coaching could be a lower-cost, higher-impact way to improve instruction. The Hechinger Report
  • D.C.’s teacher of the year says he never had a great teacher of his own. The Washington Post
  • Testing flexibility in the new federal education law doesn’t reduce the pressure that teachers face, according to someone who works with many of them. Chalkbeat
  • How schools get segregated and why it matters, by the founder of a racially isolated New York City school. Vox
  • The politics around Baltimore’s unique charter sector could put mayoral candidate Deray Mckesson in a bind. Slate
  • Get to know the Noble charter school network, Chicago’s largest — and most controversial. Catalyst
  • An uncoordinated background check system means that teachers disciplined in one state can get jobs in others. USA Today
  • Raising salaries is a common suggestion for solving teacher shortages. But it probably won’t work. The Atlantic
  • What fourth graders did after they learned about the water crisis in Flint, Mich. Pedagogy of the Reformed
  • To end Tennessee’s testing crisis, an informed father writes, the state needs to strip the stakes from the scores. Dad Gone Wild