The Jay Mathews column in the Washington Post posed this question:  If you had $100 billion to fix our schools, what would you do?  The column sites a list of suggestions that range from common standards to better teacher evaluations to helping struggling students.  Mathews has ranked each suggestion with a grade according to his opinion.  The two lowest scoring suggestions are 'develop common American standards' and 'conduct meaningful teacher evaluations'.  I tend to think that implementing common curriculum standards would be a positive thing for our schools.  Not only does it help when students move from state to state, but it also helps researchers have a clearer picture of where school, systems, and states are weak and need improvement.  I also believe that having meaningful teacher evaluations is significant.  In eight years of teaching and probably close to one hundred observations, I have never recieved any constructive criticism or suggestions in the classroom.  Now, I'm good but not that good!  Teacher evaluations are often just another bullet on the 'to do' list.  I think the key is to begin with having meaningful teacher evaluators.  How can you reasonably expect that a math teacher turned principal will be able to give me suggestions on how to encourage my students to speak in the target language?  It is just not logical.  Let someone who has had proven success in the specific content area offer suggestions, advice, and criticism.  I believe that one way to improve our schools is to improve teacher pay and benefits.  Make the profession more appealing, stop using it as the punch line for all of your jokes, and respect the incredible amount of pressure and influence that teachers have.  By improving salaries and benefits, you will begin to attract the elite, highly-educated professionals that will pursue excellence in the classroom.