Teachers Recruited to Find Solutions to Vexing Policy Issues

Compensation is inaugural topic hand-picked group members tackle.

Chicago

That the 18 teachers gathered recently in a hotel meeting room here included 14 with national-board certification, members of state and national commissions and committees, eight winners of top awards from private funds, and six teachers of the year was surprising enough.

But almost unheard of was this: Amid the clutter of water pitchers, laptop computers, and thick binders, the teachers were single-mindedly focused on education policy.

Specifically, they were seeking to define better ways of paying those in the nation’s public school classrooms, a topic that this year has snagged the interest of almost half the nation’s governors and grabbed headlines as the Houston schools and then Florida and Texas very publicly...