Pay varies significantly between different states and cities.
There are elementary school teachers in San Francisco whose total pay and benefits in 2023 were $150k or more:
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Eld%20C...
And to compare those salaries to other jobs, you have to consider:
- the typical academic achievement of those teachers and the alternative roles available to them, and
- the fact that in another role they would have to work 25% more (50 weeks per year instead of 40 weeks per year)
In 2025 San Francisco we have ads on buses advertising low income housing to people making less than $185k/year.
Depends on where you teach. Some communities are much better than others.
I believe the majority of those reading this message have kids who respect their teachers (or if you had kids they would). You also live in an area where other kids respect their teachers if you have a choice (some of you don't, but if you have the choice and you will make that choice).
Near where I live there is an "inner city" school where the average teacher has been teaching for about 9 months - despite many teachers who have been there are 30 years. The typically teacher works just long enough to get some experience and then gets a job at a "suburban" school that pays less(!) but the students respect the teachers more.
> low-attention span of kids due to tech.
Kids have always been low attention span. Things are probably better than before because we have ADHD treatments that work that we just ignored in the past. Blaming tech is just the latest thing, but you can always find parents blaming low attention span on whatever the latest fad to blame it on is. Truth is kids are not really "designed" to sit in a classroom for hours every day - but it is still the best way we have to set them up for a modern life so we force it anyway.
Also when I was in school we didn't have smart phones, at least a slide phone with a full qwerty keyboard was the latest thing, can do a lot less than a full computer in your pocket/social media
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/podcasts/hardfork-educati...
https://joincolossus.com/episode/building-alpha-school-and-t...
I like the vision and believe in the good intentions. I don't know whether they've achieved much so far.
https://go.alpha.school/hubfs/MAP%20Results%20-%2024%2025/20...
Assuming a normal distribution, this will indicate whether your child is above or below the median Alpha School student. This may be impact your view about how well Alpha School is doing vs whatever school your kid goes to.
Really the only options for after school activities after graduating from elementary school are competitive sports, competitive math, competitive music, competitive chess, etc. which are pretty much all zero sum in nature.
I'd love options for kids that let them gradually explore their interests to help them discover future vocational interests in a way that was beneficial to society such that they don't have an existential crisis when they hit senior year in high school and have to pick a college major.
What's happened since?
rahimnathwani•30m ago
I'm not saying this to cast doubt on any of the facts in the article. Just pointing out that Dan, in general, has a less optimistic view of AI in education, than I'd expect of the median HN commenter.
That said, I'll share my thoughts on Alpha School, based on everything I've read (both things published by the school, and things I've read from parents online and in private forums):
- the '2x growth' in their marketing is way oversold; their typical 4th grader isn't doing math at the level of a typical 8th grader.[0]
- the '2 hours/day' in their marketing is oversold; students often work longer than that.
- only 25% of their students use Math Academy. The rest use IXL or ALEKS.
- in their charter school application, the amount they proposed charging for their software platform was unreasonable, given the minor role it plays in outcomes (10% according to Matt Bateman, who works there) [1]
- the core idea of their 'timeback' platform (that monitors student activity in realtime via video camera and screen recording) is good, but I have not seen it and have no idea whether it's real or how good it is
More of my thoughts from back in April: https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1912571014107787730
[0] https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1971804784475996469
https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1971817857286803873
[1] https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1912586493086036148
arjie•23m ago
I don't know about that, but when I discovered that San Francisco schools weren't teaching algebra I was at first impressed that American children were doing Group Theory in 8th grade (something we only learn in the 12th standard in Tamil Nadu in India where I'm from) and figured moving that to 9th isn't a big deal only to find that they meant the basic stuff (linear equations and the like, what we learn in the 7th grade).
Honestly, I can't take anyone seriously who would try so hard to set back children from learning what is fairly basic Mathematics at that age. Children are capable of learning this. Or at least a sufficiently large amount are that we should be teaching them to a high standard.
For Alpha School, I think the Slate Star Codex review is likely more informative than this clearly polemic article.
0: https://x.com/garrytan/status/1953654484997169443
tl;dr This is from the people who want to delay Mathematics education to later in a child's life (algebra to 9th grade onwards)
tptacek•18m ago
arjie•9m ago
If you feel less convinced by this, it's simply that you're not in my audience. But I think it's probably worth sticking a tl;dr on the original. Let me do that.
Zagreus2142•7m ago
Alternatively titled: How to "unskew" homicide data to include everyone in ear or eye shot of a crime to deal with the "problem" of American cities being per capita safer than rural areas.
His comment didn't engage with one bit of the linked article, just ad hominem by proxy. And his blog shows that is how he thinks so don't expect anything more here.
vonneumannstan•17m ago
The anti-math moron??