To the teachers - welcome to the real world. If you put out a bad product (i.e.; the kids don't improve under your teaching), you are held accountable. This seems like a simple concept, and it's the rules the rest of us live by.

REAGAN fired all the air traffic controllers and replaced them....sooooo fire all the teachers and replace them. $76k a year for pay and their striking?!

OK...Why haven't the teachers written out an evaluation form that takes into account outside factors such as poverty, crime and homelessness?

Experienced, dedicated and creative teachers must have some sort of criteria measurement for risk kids. It is 2012...and poverty, crime and homelessness aren't new.

This might be a valid complaint by the teachers, but why wait to CLOSE THE SCHOOLS ?

How is this HELPING those kids with the handicap of poverty, crime and homelessness.

In an 80% POOR neighborhood... this seems like a bad P.R. idea.

I agree that if a teacher is doing a good job, he/she shouldn't be afraid of being rated, but this isn't a black and white situation. The teachers in some districts have totally undisciplined kids who have no support or discipline at/from home. Not sure why the teacher should be held accountable for a kid whose parent's don't give a damn about them.

I am a teacher and I live in the real world. However, judging my teaching only by standardized test scores doesn't paint a complete picture of how effective I am as a teacher. I am called upon to deal with many, many things outside of my control. I have no control over what my student's home life is like, whether or not they had a safe place to sleep or a meal to eat before a test. I am not saying our performance shouldn't be evaluated, but it should be evaluated on many things, not just on 1 test.

I understand the union's perspective. There are too many variables outside of the teachers' control. If you are the best teacher and do top caliber work in the classroom, but your students come from environments that don't support academics or doing homework, parents aren't educated themselves and can't help with homework, students are homeless and the environments in which they "live" aren't conducive to studying..... how on earth can you hold a teacher responsible for their academic success? What if the parent fails to teach respect at home and the teacher can't get the student's attention in class? How a student tests is dependent on many factors outside of the teacher's control. If you tie student performance to a teacher's evaluation and pay increases, no one will want to teach at-risk students in challenging environments.

So have two education tracks... one, for kids that want to learn and can behave themselves... and one that looks a lot like Parris Island boot camp... wake you up at 4:30am, clean the barracks, PT, breakfast, classes, lunch, vocational training, dinner, one hour of private time, lights out... what's missing? TV, Xbox, drugs, Air Jordans, cell phones...

People seem to forget that standardized testing has one flaw. Lack of motivation by students. I am not a teacher and work in law enforcement, but these kids could care less how they do on standardized testing. You will have those who work their behinds off to prepare and do well, but then you have those that just draw on the test or fill in all of one letter. When was the last time that you were judged on how well you do your job by how much someone else cares?

"The teachers in some districts have totally undisciplined kids who have no support or discipline at/from home. Not sure why the teacher should be held accountable for a kid whose parent's don't give a damn about them." - hs321

Guess what, those same "undisciplined kids who have no support or discipline at/from home" were "undisciplined kids who have no support or discipline at/from home" last year too. It's not like those students suddenly had no support from home as soon as they stepped in that teacher's classroom. The teachers should absolutely be evaluated on those students' improvement year over year. Reward the ones that consistently see improvements and get rid of the ones who consistently see no improvement.

For those of you who think teachers don't live in "the real world," I suggest you step into a classroom and see what "the real world" parents are sending us every day. There are too many variables that are out of our control. I, like many, embrace the idea of being evaluated. It's absolutely necessary. But to evaluate MY performance on the test results of a student who sits in class with his head on his desk because HE doesn't care to learn, is extremely unfair. And there are plenty of those disrespectful students to go around in every classroom.

You see Ron,

The rest of the world (private sector) demands we do a good job and achive merit or, it's a pink slip.

Union employees, that don't do a good job or achieve merit get rewarded just as much as those who do, they can't afford accountablilty for that very reason. How f.u. is that.

These teachers make enough money, it's pure greed on their part. You wonder why our children are held hostage do to these teachers that put their own needs ahead of the children. PITIFUL!!! I say fire all of these teachers and put new ones IN THEIR PLACE who would love to make over $70,000 a year. These teachers should be lucky to have a job, there are those who are less fortunate. PURE GREED.!!!!

Stephanie, acting like you don't know every urban school district has programs to give breakfast and lunch to underprivileged kids is being more than a little disingenuous.

All I know is that my child is getting a great education in the public school system. I agree that it is better to have a system that helps improves teachers rather than punish them unless they show that they are unable to improve if it is necessary.

Using students tests is the easiest and laziest way to evaluate a teacher. That is why it appeals to people who think the world is black and white.

And, strong leader Obama ... of course ... has no comment. NO, maybe he said 'Present'.

Romney took a strong stance against the Chicago teachers strike.

400,000 children roam the streets.

Evaluate us on what we do, not the lives of our children we do not control," Lewis said in announcing the strike.

If you are walking a picket line while school is in session, instead of teaching kids ..... you might be a poorly-performing teacher. (Apologies to Jeff Foxworthy)

So these union "teachers" don't want to be held accountable for their lack of performance.

All you have to do is look at President Obama, they are just copying him

I agree that the teachers do have a challenge. I do not agree that they should be judged only on the test scores of students. But I do not agree that they should get the job next year just because they had it last year. What are they judged on now? If they have been there a predetermined amount of time then they cannot be fired. What kind of system is that? That does not measure if they are a good teacher or not. Good teachers are way underpaid, but the problem is identifying who is the good teacher. There needs to be some kind of evaluation. I do not have all the answers but one thing I do know. If you look at the history of education one fact remains obvious. The more money you throw at it the worse the results are. More money is not the answer. When most of America is taking a pay cut, then they should expect one too.

If are to use the total metaphor then if your boss sees you doing a bad job then he fires you so he doesn't get fired.

Fine, let's go with that.

If your kid shows up unprepared or disrepsectful - I should be able to fire him from free public school and you, the supposed parent who didn't prepare him, should have to foot the bill so your kid can go to rug making school in India ( or if he wants to be really cool we can send him to Nike making school in Viet Nam )

@ RI Mom, Poor doesn't mean stupid or that the kids cant learn. the teachers are to blame IMO. anywhere else, if we dont perform we get fired, same should be for teachers, actually it should even be tougher for them. they are helping (or not) shaping our future..

I am always amazed that people in Unions think they deserve more than everyone else. No deductibles on insurance, employer pay full amount for insurance, outrageous retirement amounts and now they should not be evaluated by what they can get these students to acheive. Wow. The last 30 years that I have worked in supervisory and management roles, I have been judged by what I get others to produce. I say fire their a$$es, make Illinois a Right to Work state (will NEVER happen). I am sure there are many teachers that are are willing to work for these salaries, even in these so called "enviroments". And doesn't it make you wonder what is wrong with this liberal city that 80% of 7th graders cannot read on grade level.

My wife taught every grade from kinder garden through a combination 6 and 7 grade in 7 different states during her teaching career.

The problem we saw with the demise of the educational system was not with the teachers but inept administrators who had zero actual experience in the classroom.

Today they have their pay so out of balance between them and the classroom teacher it will take forever to correct. They simply are not worth that kind of difference.

Also it seems to me administrators should be evaluated just as ofter as classroom teachers if we truly seek better systems! Teachers might not object to that kind of fairness.

Blaming the strike on any political party is asinine. The key sticking point is teacher evaluations and how standardized testing fits in.

I agree with some of the other posters, maybe the union should offer up some proposals and negotiate in good faith...

I think the point you are missing Vern is the teachers do not want to be held accountable for the FAILURES OF THE PARENTS. If you look at the drop out rate in Chicago, it is a staggering 60%. That drop out rate comes from factors beyond the control of the teachers. Likewise, a teacher can teach all day long, BUT if the student lacks the motivation to apply themselves, the teacher is wasting thier time. If the PARENTS are not involved in the learning process, that is helping thier kid with homework, providing guidance, instilling a solid ethic, and motivating the kid to learn, then the TEACHER is fighting a loosing battle.

The problem is not poverty or crime or the host of other standard crutches used by society. The problem stems from pure laziness and a lack of parental involvement. Let's put the cards on the table here. The parents are either too tired, too drunk, too drugged, too self absorbed, or working too many damned jobs to spend time with thier kids. And when the kids come home from the baby sitter (i.e. public school), are the parents even home? Are the parents making thier kids do homework? Are the parents monitoring the "crowd" thier kids are hanging with? Are the parents ignoring the kid and letting em run, play, or do anything other than applying themselves to studying? And let's be even more honest here. How many of these "failing kids" come from single parent homes? The single parent can't do it all, but sure as hell, where is the rest of the family unit that can be helping?

Another issue is the size of the classes. How much time and attention can 1 teacher give to 30-40 students, and adequately teach the rest? It is ridiculous to apply an evaluation on the performance of kids that outnumber the teachers, especially given the outside influences or LACK OF INFLUENCES that attribute to the success or failures of kids.

Here in my rural community, our local school teaches grades K-8th. There is less than 20 kids per class. They go to school 4 days a week, with Fridays being designated as teacher developement, training, and meeting days. They attend school from 8 - 3:45, and these teachers are excellent. Thier CRT scores are 100% in all grades for reading, 83-100% in Math, 90% in Science. The average income in this community is $31k a year, HARDLY RICH or WELL TO DO. In fact, teachers here earn an average of $37k a year, and 80% of the kids that attend this school qualify for free or reduced lunches. So what makes it so successful? Parents being INVOLVED, Smaller Class Sizes that allow for more 1 on 1 teaching if needed, community support for the school, and yes the mindset that the school is a place of education and not day care. Poverty has SQUAT to do with the inner drive, determination, or the application of a student to thier studies. And teachers rightfully so should not have to answer for, be held accountable for, or suffer the consequences of the failures of parents.

I taught in the public schools out of college. Poor pay, hostile parents, long hours and indifferent and unprepared (by parents) students made it the hardest job I've ever had since...I quit after 4 years. The teachers have a point re: the familial situations their kids come from, BUT I wonder how much of their resistance is to protect incompetent union members. How else would they have an estimate of how many of their members would lose their jobs? In my short experience teaching, I witnessed MANY great, inspiring and underpaid and underappreciated teachers...BUT I also saw many incompetent, indiffernet and lazy teachers who richly deserved to be fired. The good ones should be rewarded ... the bad ones should be canned.

If you read the article, it says that the tests are proposed as 25% of a teacher's evaluation, increasing to 40% over the next 5 years. This doesn't say that they are being judged solely on the test scores. The problem is, they are part of a union and as such, think that they are entitled to continue to be overpaid without having to prove that they are performing their jobs up to the expectations of their employer. Fire them and hire new ones...there are plenty of out of work teachers who lost their jobs due to budget cuts in other cities.

For those of you who blame the parents:

Yes, poor parenting is often a contributing factor. But if that was the only problem than only those kids would be getting left behind, not the entire class.

And even with poverty, some teachers get better results than others. If they're not all getting the same results than obviously some must be doing a better job than others. Therefore teacher quality does make a difference and should be evaluated.

You can put the student in a class, but you can't make them think.

I'm not sure the average student understands that if they don't get an education when it is free to them, what they can expect for a future.

I suspect parenting is the primary problem for a lot of todays students, but at the same time there are a number of teachers who would fail an evaluation of any type and they know it and so does the Union, so that if the teacher were fired the Union would lose the dues. Hence the conflict.

The problem with tying teacher compensation to student evaluations is that NO ONE will want to teach in the low-income, "troubled" districts.

When you start with well-educated kids from stable homes, it's easy to get good results.

It makes no sense to penalize the teachers who are willing to take on the "hard cases" and reward those who have the easy berths.

Even from year to year, things outside a teacher's control can affect performance - layoffs of parents, natural disasters, or simply a declining overall economy which hits certain areas worse than others.

Teachers are UNDERPAID in this country. Once they're all adequately compensated for what they do, then we can talk.

The teachers are striking for the wrong reason. Instead of demanding less accountability for themselves, start demanding more accountability from the parents. Teachers and districts should start documenting parent involvement in their child's education. Documenting whether parents are showing up for teacher conferences, responding to email, or other correspondence. That way if one of these students is not succeeding, they have documentation that says they did what they could, or at the very least, what is required. More often then not, the teachers are spending 90% of their time dealing with social issues for a small number of students, while the majority of students have their educations hindered as a result. It all starts at home. Every year I have to fill out about 10 forms that describe my kids home life to the school, so the districts know what is going on. It isn't a new issue.

40% of their rating will be on standardized test scores? I'm not a teacher, but a know several dedicated ones who say that standardized testing is the bane of education today. They find themselves spending soooooo much time focusing on the bringing the bottom up, that the top half gets ignored. The world is a new place and education needs to be re-invented.

What it comes down to is that the teachers union does not want any evaluations of teachers so that those incompetent teachers who have been around forever can keep collecting their six figure salaries (yes, senior teachers in Chicago make that much). They argue that test scores do not indicate teacher performance. Well, first off, no one is saying that the evaluation will only be about test scores. In fact if you read the article it clearly says that this is only one factor that will go from 25% of the evaluation up to 40% later. Also, if student performance is not at least a partial indication of how good a teacher is, I do not know what is. Yes, there are other factors that affect student performance, but the quality of the teacher is definitely one of them. The unions refuse to propose an alternative evaluation system because what it really comes down to is that the union does not want any kind of job performance measure for teachers. They simply want to protect the incompetents and continue to collect their fat dues. They could not give a @!$%# about the students or the quality of the education they are receiving. They should just fire all of the striking teachers and replace them. Their are more than enough teachers out of work who would gladly take the jobs, even for 25% less pay and with the evaluation system.

I am a teacher in a low social economic school and 3/4 of my class is classified as at-risk.

Yes, I should be partially evaluated on the performance of my children. Part of my job is to motivate and inspire them no matter what they face before coming to school. It is our job to teach the whole child, just not the academic side. Our school has come up with creative ways to get parents involved...even the ones that didn't want to participate are starting to show up. It is called WORK.

I should also be evaluated on my knowledge of teaching, my lesson plans, my use of desegragated data in helping children achieve the objectives, and my use of real life/world experiences and hands on lessons that research shows help all students (especially at-risk) students learn.

It is very frustrating to see a "tenured" teacher doing nothing to help children and just collect a paycheck. Get some fresh, inspiring teachers in the classroom and you will see improvement in our children.

You know a lot of people want to blame the parents. That's fashionable to blame poor parents. It's especially 'en vogue' with Teacher's Unions.

I actually think that while parents do have responsibility, and there are some truly bad parents out there, the vast majority of parents, even poor parents in these neighborhoods are good people doing a pretty damn good job raising their kids given the circumstances. I will give you a few examples to illustrate that the failure of these schools lies much more within teacher control then outside of it.

In Washington DC there is a charter school that worked on a voucher system and targeted poor inner city youth. This school took children that were failing and barely learning anything and within 1 year those kids test scores were through the roof. This school was also educating these kids at 1/3rd the price the DC district spent per pupil. The child didn't change, the parent didn't change, the only thing that changed was their teacher and teaching environment. BTW Despite the success of this school, our dear leader Mr. Obama ended the voucher program to this school on day 1 in office as a sop to the DC Teacher's union. It didn't close the school but now since tuition is much higher without the subsidy access is limited - cut off for the poorest and neediest recipients.

I've also literally seen films of the lottery system for entry into the charter schools in Newark, NJ. You have dirt poor parents with their kids huddled into a room with their tickets, praying that their number is picked so they can get their child OUT of the public school system and give them a chance to succeed. These same parents break down in tears during the lottery. Some due to happiness because they 'won' and their child gets a chance to be enrolled in the charter school. Others due to abject sadness and desperation because they did not win and their child has to suffer for another year within failed inner city schools.

Americans are not stupid, and the Parents are not stupid. The unions and the teachers of those unions are doing a horrible job with limited accountability. It's time that changes.

The problem with tying teacher compensation to student evaluations is that NO ONE will want to teach in the low-income, "troubled" districts.

In this case, couldn't good teachers in "troubled districts" that now have these evaluations, use the information to help get a better job in another district? They now have facts they could give as evidence to their teaching capabilities. The numbers for the teacher may not be good, but if its better then the other candidates I have to assume it would greatly increase their chances. Wouldn't this create more competition from districts to find good teachers, causing them to pay more for good teachers and increasing the teacher's salary?

So these union "teachers" don't want to be held accountable for their lack of performance.

So Vern is your middle name "Simplistic"?

So if we're not being treated fair in the "real world" then teachers shouldn't be treated fair? That's what a lot of you are saying. That's a stupid argument. Typical, but stupid.

Wouldn't this create more competition from districts to find good teachers, causing them to pay more for good teachers and increasing the teacher's salary?

Only if they didn't have a GOP county council who refused to raise property taxes.

Since that's how most districts are funded.

Instead, what you would get would be teacher flight from poor districts - which is the LAST thing they need.

The teachers are correct. The top two factors in student performance are

1. Student Family Income

2. Class Size

The current pay-for-performance methodologies DO NOT CORRECT FOR THESE FACTORS. To use this methodology would be MATHEMATICALLY WRONG.

That is a fact. Arguing it is like arguing against gravity. You can say things fall up all you want but it doesn't make it so.

I agree poor does not mean stupid and if you let the children beleive this then they will grow up to be poor and under educated and produce poor and under educated children and the cycle will continue over and over and thats whats wrong with the u.s. today. So yes the teachers need to make a differance so you do not have the same problem in 2040.

"When someone doesn't do their JOB, we have to let them GO". - Clint

Well, without measures, you end up with USELESS/DESTRUCTIVE teachers, and a PRESIDENT who holds no Jobs Council Meetings or Cabinet Meetings, just campaign fundraisers and golf games.

FIRE THEIR WORTHLESS - and replace them with those willing to work for an HONEST WAGE.

My biggest beef with the Republicans that their first reaction to every complicated problem seems to be to simplify it down to a slogan that will fit on a bumper sticker.

It's NOT that simple, folks.

The teachers I know are some of the hardest-working people in the workforce. I guarantee you most of you complaining about their pay would NOT be willing to do their job for the same price.

piegan - These teachers make enough money, it's pure greed on their part. You wonder why our children are held hostage do to these teachers that put their own needs ahead of the children. PITIFUL!!! I say fire all of these teachers and put new ones IN THEIR PLACE who would love to make over $70,000 a year. These teachers should be lucky to have a job, there are those who are less fortunate. PURE GREED.!!!!

Do you rant the same way about Mitt Romney getting $21.6 million for not working at all?

Hmm?

It comes out of your pocket just as surely as those teachers' salaries.

Only if they didn't have a GOP county council who refused to raise property taxes.

Political sentiment aside, if the the district is replacing a teacher with another one, wouldn't that salary already be accounted for? Why would there need to be a tax increase?

Turning politics back on. Why does everything have to be paid for with a tax increase? Couldn't it be paid for with a spending cut? Yes republicans, that includes cuts in defense, and Dems, that includes entitlements. Or even better, since the government is essentially choosing which citizens it will support, why not just directly choose which group is more deserving of the little money we have? Instead of the current format, which is to approve funding for both and have a third party (the other taxpayers) pay for both. The third party that had nothing to do with it, but is told to pay up anyway.

SRS-798254

The teachers are correct. The top two factors in student performance are

1. Student Family Income

2. Class Size

Based on most interviews and discussion panels I've seen the last few years, the top 2 issues I hear are; (1) lack of discipline in classrooms, and (2) lack of parental involvement.

I live in a poor rural county and I know a superintendent at a school with the highest low income student ratio in the state - yet his students consistently score in the top 5 percentile on standardized tests. He's had to cut budgets just like everyone else, but he focuses on the basics like ensuring kids have food to eat, clothes to wear, and getting as much parent involvement as possible. He also focuses on getting bad teachers to do better - or firing them if they don't improve.

@Vern-1642229: I went to a real good teecher college. I majered in childhud develupment, I like kids! I had me a 4.0 GPA I went back to get my PhD. I deserve to be paid just like them other PhDs. Sorry for the spelling errers I don't know how to backspace on this computer!.

This is pretty easy. Have all the teachers write down all the reasons that children do poorly at learning, i.e. poverty, not eating breakfast on test day, bad parenting, etc. There will be hundreds of reasons. Next thing is to group these ideas, and even though there will be overlap such as one kid didn't eat breakfast because he was out committing a crime, and another didn't eat breakfast because of poverty, and another didn't eat breakfast because his alarm didn't go off, we can simplify one category, "Didn't eat breakfast". So how much does breakfast have to do with the failing education rate in Chicago?

Then you go to the next item, let's say " Member of a Gang ". How much does gang membership have to do with the failing education rate in Chicago? Then you go to the next heading, lets say, Lack of Parental Supervision. How much does lack of parental supervision have to do with the failing education rate in Chicago? Got the idea.

Teacher evaluation is based on the number of students you teach with this "handicap number". Let's say your class size is 30, and only 3 students eat breakfast more than three days a week. Your class is rated for it's starvation index of Poor. If your class has 30 students and 27 of them eat breakfast more than three days a week, you would be evaluated as excellent. Same goes for crime. You have 30 students, 27 are gang members, your index is poor. You have 30 students, but only one gang member, your index is excellent.

Now you get to the standardized test scores. Teachers who have lots of " Poor Index " students wouldn't be expected to produce the same level of quality students as a teacher who has a lot of " Excellent Index " students. What this allows is a mechanism to reward excellent teachers in the areas where poverty, crime, poor nutrition, etc., are rampant, but also a mechanism for ridding the system of teachers who perform poorly even where the students are damn near teaching themselves due to the incompetence of their instructor. The school district can then move in resources, or move out resources, as is appropriate. If the kids in one district eat breakfast at home, move those breakfast resources into areas where lack of breakfast is a problem. Provide no more than 3 breakfasts per student per week. Hunger is a natural incentive to perform. They'll have to earn the other two breakfasts with their scholastic performance. " No C, no eat."

This provides a standardized evaluation of the class the teacher is to teach. If they can't teach the standardized evaluated class, fire them. Fire their union rep. Get someone in there that can do the job. Don't transfer them, don't upgrade them to administrative assistant, teacher's aid, cafeteria worker... get them the hell out of the building and out of the district. They are the problem, the very reason the children haven't been learning. Cut meetings down to 2 a week, one Monday morning, one Wednesday afternoon. There's no need to discuss students, they've all ready been evaluated for the class as to their breakfast habits, gang membership, parental incompetence, etc. The unions all ready treat these children as if they are expendables in the quest for more union money, so just formalize it, no need for teachers to talk about students with other teachers. If you can't teach what you're supposed to be teaching in your class, you're fired.

You fire teachers until the revenues match the expenditures. Then you continue to fire teachers until the competency of the students increases, to meet a graduation rate of 85% with proven, testable literacy in core subjects. Then you start negotiating teacher pensions, health care, salaries, etc.

@Cniht: Not only is did he close the voucher program, he is on record in a debate strongly opposing expanding the program to other areas "because it would cost too much money." Of course we all know that all the wellfare programs don't cost too much money and need to be maintained at all costs.

@RealAmericansFirst I'm not paying property taxes for financial sector workers to teach my kids.

To wherescongress who says "And, strong leader Obama ... of course ... has no comment. NO, maybe he said 'Present'. Romney took a strong stance against the Chicago teachers strike."

Romney and his followers have been preaching that they want the Federal government out of the state's business but now you say Obama should be there getting involved? What is it that Republicans want?

As far as the teachers go, I can see both sides. The educations budgets have been cut so much that class sizes are increasing and the teachers don't have as much individual time to give the kids and are being punished for that as well.

Yes real , like - Hope , change and forward ...

For those who believe that all children in America already have everything they need:

Last night my daughter told me that one of her good friends has just lost her free lunch status because her mom remarried. With 4 children in the house, they can't afford the cost of lunch, and this friend is worried about what they're going to do.

My daughter went on to say that last year another of her friends lost her lunch coverage when her dad got disability payments. That put her family $2 a month over the limit. So for the rest of the year, the child did not eat lunch.

For those who don't understand how this could happen, the guidelines for free lunch require that a family of 4 have income of less than $29,965 a year (gross) to qualify. Think about it - could you feed, clothe, house, provide medical care for and transport four people off less that $2500 a month?

Is this the best the richest country in the world can do? It sickens me that people like Mitt Romney take home $21.6 million a year without even working, and these children go hungry. If we can't at least feed and educate our kids, something is wrong.

@RealAmericansFirst I'm not paying property taxes for financial sector workers to teach my kids.

Where do you think companies get the money to pay people like Mr. Romney?

Eh?

From American consumers.

Just like your crowd claims "corporations don't pay taxes" because they pass the cost along to consumers.

If they "don't pay taxes", they "don't pay their CEO's", either.

You can't have it both ways.

YOU pay Mr. Romney's income. As do we all.

So if we're not being treated fair in the "real world" then teachers shouldn't be treated fair? That's what a lot of you are saying. That's a stupid argument. Typical, but stupid.

There's a bit of that going around for sure looks like.

BUT there are also those who actually don't understand that some teachers are drug down by where they teach. What can, and probably will happen with these blanket performance systems is it'll drive any good teachers completely out of schools tied to under-performing.

I wish people weren't so easily lied to.

Teaching is certainly a difficult profession in today's environment. When you cannot discipline children, teachers lose a lot of leverage. Fear can be a great motivator and that has largely been taken away by - guess who - politically correct bleeding hearts. Nonetheless, every teacher out there knows the score when they go into that profession. I think teachers' strikes diminish their credibility as "professionals". However, it is a unique situation where their salaries are paid by tax dollars. Teachers have to be accountable in some way. It's interesting to see Rahm, of all people, playing the role of an evil executive holding workers accountable. There's a lot of irony in all this.

@ Cynic212

You should get a refund from your college as you didn't get your money's worth! You appear to be what education is all about these days, a college degree and can't spell or use a computer. Who are you kidding?

Education in this country is a joke! Over paid teachers producing, on average, 3rd world level students.

I fault not only teachers but administrators and our "can't/won't do nothing" politicians.

Lots of numbers flyng around bout chicago students nad teachers...if they graduate only 50% then they must have only 50% of the teachers that actually good teachers...logical? I have no ideas as to actual numbers but not to be help responsible and accoutable is typical union GARBAGE people...geez...what's next give eveyone a raise and let do what they want at work...kinda the union motto. I know plenty of unions workers that great employees but..............................

Well, I thought I heard that it was all about the children and even learning conditions in the classrooms such as no a/c or heat, etc. Turns out it's all about the teachers being judged and they don't like it. Unions aren't always evil but they certainly aren't always good either. This seems like a union taking advantage of the time of year as well as the political season.

Vern students are not products. They are not "Charmin" toilet paper. They are live and are able to resist any efforts to market them. The product is the education, the learning. The teachers are right. We, as a society, need to be more clear about what we want students to know. I think we should be teaching them how to learn, since it is impossible to teach them everything in the universe. But that takes time and patience and generative thinking, a type of thinking that is not germane to all cultures. Students from poverty stricken, violent cultures tend to be situational thinkers, today; how do I get what I need today? Invention requires a longer-term, bigger picture, discriminatory type of thinking. And respect for evidence. Many cultures are so anamored with the exceptions to every rule that they fail to see the bigger picture. Teachers need to spend time exploring with those children why looking at every exception is a waste of time and why many exceptions are just noise, and when it really makes a difference. (Many people don't make good jurors, because they cannot evaluate evidence.) That is why cramming 30 poor, and or minority, children into a classroom is self-defeating. Yes, they do it in some countries, but those countries are usually homogeneous and they generally do not turn out inventive students, either, just people who can follow directions.

So what is it that we really want? How can we get it? We need a new system; the banking model of education does not work. The corporate model does not, since students are not products. And as a former corporate instructional designer who has a PhD (I steered clear of k-12 for the reasons we're going over here), I know that kids cannot be "trained" in the same way that we train employees, because they are not being trained to do anything in particular. They are to be educated. So we don't need a liberal nor conservative think tank; we need a bipartisan, highly creative team of educators, not politicians, who will give us something new, something that is specific to k-12 education.

Those who keeps whining about their pay. THEY DON'T MAKE $70,000. It is calculation with the benefits then you could say $70,000. They really make between $30,000 to $45,000 depending on where they are. And you have to consider that most of them have at least B.S degree. Most have masters and some have PH Degrees. Stop putting price tag on education. you want $20,000 year teacher teaching your child? School might not be open for 365 days but they work close to it. Grade papers after school, buy supplies and other stuff that that most of you uneducated or ignorant people don't see. If you want to improve grades in school why offer incentives like bonuses or awards to teachers to motivate to be best. But punishing them on things they can't control, because you could be best at what you do, but you not home with them, values taught at home, subjects taught in school. If child don't want to learn, sometimes you can't force them. Please get facts have some reasoning before you point fingers at somebody. Some of you don't have kids and don't know or care, so don't talk about something, you don't know about.

@realamericafirst: "Fine - you want to pay teachers based on performance? Just as soon as you pay financial sector workers the same way."

They are paid the same way. If a CEO, manager, and etc... down the line don't perform they are fired.

Just my opinion, but one of the biggest things that I see here is the idea the the kids don't care. Why should they??? They have nothing, NOTHING, to lose. They cannot be held back, there is no chance of failure. Where does that happen in real life. When I went to grade school if you couldn't read you didn't go to 2nd grade. Period... That was the way of the world.

Take away the kids friends and social status and you will see marked improvement.

If any one of you can undo, in 45 minutes a day, the baggage that students accrue in their 17 hours a day out of school, then you are a Miracle Worker.

The biggest problem in education right now stems from three things:

1. In many districts it is too hard to fire poor teachers (though fewer of them are poor than the so-called enlightened on this topic would have you believe)

2. Parental and community involvement in children in close to nil. Even the well-to-do families are often completely ignorant about their "perfect child". George Carlin warned us of child worship, and now it has overrun our nation.

3. Most people have absolutely no clue what it is actually like to teach in the classroom, and they need to stop arguing as if they do. Teaching is nothing like it was when you were in school, and teacher expectations are nothing like the expectations your teacher had.

Go volunteer to teach, or enroll as a sub for a few weeks and then report back with your limited insight. Until then, please continue to provide your opinions, but recognize that they are not informed simply because the pundit darling of your favorite party said they were.

I'm glad to see some Democrats get into the real world , and see the consequences of unionized government workers. Those teachers not all but most of them, abuse from the benefits to be in the union, where performance do not matter. Unions where good in the past , but not anymore , we have laws that protects us against abuse and discrimination in the workforce. Unions remain an stronghold in the public sector sucking the taxpayer money , getting better payed and with more benefits than the employers ( us ). We must end the abuse of union leaders who are now a political force, who are colluded with corrupts Democrats, who want continue in power ,and only care about their contribution to their campaign and not the people that are serving.

This is Obama hometown , and like he is involve in immigration issues whenever he see is necessary, , he should be involve in this serious treat , against the children's from a city with the lowest level of education, wich is more important. If Obama is worry about education is time to take sides and not lead from behind, our childrens are first , not the contribution of union leaders.

This is the prime example of why the federal department of education should be abolished, and states to allow for a voucher system to let their kids go to schools that are working and educating the kids and not just passing them along without any real accountability.

Whatthetruth - I completely agree, but it will never happen. As I mentioned, George Carlin warned us about becoming a nation of child worshippers, and we now send fourth graders who can't read to fifth grade because holding them back might hurt their feelings. Right. Better to hurt their feelings when they drop out of high school and realize they have nowhere to go in life then when they are young and can still be guided and provided supports.

"Do you rant the same way about Mitt Romney getting $21.6 million for not working at all?

Hmm?

It comes out of your pocket just as surely as those teachers' salaries." - RealAmericansFirst

If it does come out of my pocket, it comes out at my discretion. However, Public employees pay comes out of my pocket at the barrel of a gun whether I like it or not.

Wow, mafia-unions wanting their rank and file to evaluated based on performance? Love to see that happen. These public unions are the biggest joke...with the Majority (meaning not everyone) being lazy people who could not hold a job in the real world. Sorry, 9 months of work for full-time pay, golden benefits, a pension, etc etc is NOT the real world. Teachers, if you don't like the idea of being evaluated, get a NEW job. Oh wait, you are not qualified to do anything else and most are barely qualified to hold a job if they had to be evaluated.

"Oh wait, you are not qualified to do anything else and most are barely qualified to hold a job if they had to be evaluated."

Data or you're making it up.

Formula

For

More

Failed

Unemployed

Uneducated

Students.

Really...is this what Chicago needs?

.

.

Without an evaluation program...what WOULD IMPROVE the situation?

Dear Teachers,

Tell me...How will YOU fix the problems?

The problem with standardized tests is if you can't factor in the fact 20% of the students in one class barely speak English while another is comprised of all native born English speakers if you merely go by a test the far better teacher might be fired while a lesser one be given a raise. A single class may have a disproportionate number of mentally handicapped or children of immigrants that have trouble with English that to rate them according to the school system as a whole instead of comparing them to children from similar economic area's over multiple years isn't an accurate assessment. And inner city students always fair poorly compared to those in affluent neighborhoods doing yearly firings or denying raises won't solve anything.

I think there are much better ways of evaluating teachers. I taught at a charter school in AZ for 5 years. We had a once a month surprise evaluation day where the principal or the dean would come into our classroom and sit in on the class for 20 minutes. We had to be able to hand them a lesson plan for that class at that day and we never knew when they would be coming. We also were evaluated on our lesson plans that we turned in weekly. We would meet with the principal or the dean and go over them once a month. They were also posted online for parents to see and the students to have daily access to. This included homework assignments. Then once a semester, we would have a full day evaluation where the administration as well as our department head would sit in on a full day of classes and evaluate us. The students and the parents evaluated us as well. We were also required to fill out goals once a semester that showed progress as a teacher. We were required to turn in a portfolio of work from the students. Three students in each class were chosen at random by the administration. We had to collect work samples from those students and turn them in at the end of each semester to be reviewed. This included all papers, quizzes, tests, projects, etc. We were also required to attend a certain amount of teacher seminars throughout the semester and turn those into the administration. I agree that teachers should be evaluated, but as I have just shown, there are a ton of ways to evaluate a teacher besides a standardized test. I taught a subject that did not have a standardized test attached to it, so there was no way for me to be evaluated by it. I showed my worth as a teacher in a district that was cutting up to 400 jobs a year and kept my job until my husband received a job transfer. In my 5 years of teaching, only one teacher lost their job due to this evaluation system, and I would say that the educators I worked with were amazing. I think it boils down to laziness on the part of the administration. It was a huge job for ours to administer these evaluations, but they could say with full confidence that every single teacher deserved to be there. Perhaps because we were a smaller school this was possible. At a larger school I don't know that they would have the means to perform all the evaluations that were put on us.

The good thing for all you people that say FIRE THEM LAZY TEACHERS is that in most urban school districts, there are plenty of jobs. You all that are saying how great teachers have it please apply ASAP. I worked for two of the worst years of my life in a city school in St. Louis. They always have jobs available because most people quit...during the year, or after one/two years tops. You all should come on down to any urban school, there are plenty to go around, and teach in them. Nothing better than starting the day asking for kids to take out their books and having the response be fuc@ off bitc@. I know you will enjoy teaching kids that just don't give a shi@ about their education and working with parents who never show up to any meeting. Ahhh and the daily fights that go on. It's a swell place to work. And the best part is you want an urban kid, who can't read because his mom can't and didn't teach them, to be the person in change of a teachers raise. Just too funny. Again, there are plenty of jobs in cities just like Chicago, so go on down since it is so easy and replace all the teachers there that are "not doing a good job" ENJOY!

Also...just so you all understand...you need a BAdegree + pass state certification + masters to teach in most schools.

In Chicago, Lewis has warned that as many as 6,000 teachers could lose their jobs under the new evaluation system. The union represents about 25,000 teachers and staff, who walked off the job Monday.

School officials say they do not know how union leaders determined that number, and telephone calls by NBC News to union headquarters went unanswered Tuesday

More typical Union BS. Unless they KNOW they have that many poor teachers. Then they are those responsible for "dumbing down" our children. There is nothing wrong with using test scores for a part of the evaluation. The Teachers are the problem, they don't want to do their job to the best of their ability. It is easier to suck up a fat check and bennies and slide by on minimum output.

There's an easy way to get Mom involved in her child's education attached her welfare check to her children's performance at school. If the child doesn't pass she forfeits her welfare check. You would see how involve Mom would be instead of sitting on her backside watching TV.

A few quick points...

Cynic, I love the facetiousness. Hilarious.

To those who say that teachers should not be held accountable for what they produce I have to ask how, then, you think we should identify those teachers unable to measure up, and either remediate them or fire them. If teachers truly wanted to improve the education of children then teachers THEMSELVES would come up with some measurement criteria, implement it, and then deal with the consequences. One of which should be firing bad teachers. And yes, there are MANY bad teachers.

How do I know? Well, teachers have for decades claimed that all children can be taught. And the question here isn't if the lowest performing student remains a low performing student or not. He may. The question here is whether his teacher was able to have a positive influence on his education, and if this can be observed with a quantifiable measurement, like standardized test scores. So does little Daquan need to go from the lowest quintile to the highest for his teacher to remain employed? No, but little Daquan SHOULD improve year over year. How hard is this for teachers to grasp?

Lastly, Mr. Romney is wrong. The problem is not teacher unions. The problem is teachers. Teachers elect their own union leaders, and if this is what they elected then this is their fault too. What we have are teachers that generally want no possible measurement which could be used for employment or wage purposes, but who want more money for what they do, who claim kids can be taught except when they can't be taught because it is someone else's fault. Like the impoverished and likely funtionally illiterate single mother at home.

Our social fabric is torn, maybe beyond repair. The left wants no consequences and prefers instead to level the field through the welfare state. We are in major trouble.

So don't count the poor, don't care about themselves students ?

words you never hear together...teacher and big fat check. Unless you are a republican of course.

For those who believe that all children in America already have everything they need:

Why do you assume that the rest of us don't understand the problem? It's not that we don't know, the argument is how to fix the problem.

Last night my daughter told me that one of her good friends has just lost her free lunch status because her mom remarried. With 4 children in the house, they can't afford the cost of lunch, and this friend is worried about what they're going to do.

My daughter went on to say that last year another of her friends lost her lunch coverage when her dad got disability payments. That put her family $2 a month over the limit. So for the rest of the year, the child did not eat lunch.

You are free to provide as many lunches as you want for as many students as you want. But that's not the easiest solution for you is it? That would be to demand that others pay for it.

For those who don't understand how this could happen, the guidelines for free lunch require that a family of 4 have income of less than $29,965 a year (gross) to qualify. Think about it - could you feed, clothe, house, provide medical care for and transport four people off less that $2500 a month?

Is this the best the richest country in the world can do? It sickens me that people like Mitt Romney take home $21.6 million a year without even working, and these children go hungry. If we can't at least feed and educate our kids, something is wrong.

Billionaire leftists Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and George Soros are worth about 125 billion. They could provide a free lunch for every student in America for the next 5 years. Which would be truly fair for ALL the school kids. Just not for fair for Gates, Buffet and Soros. Where is your outrage towards them?

I'm not a teacher, my job depends on outside influences, if I can't get my job done, I get fired period the end. My boss isn't going to test anybody and isn't going to take an excuse. I haven't had a raise in 5 years.

Here's a perspective you won't read on Fox New OR MSNBC:

Democrats and Republicans line up against Chicago teachers

By Joseph Kishore

11 September 2012

More than 25,000 teachers went on strike Monday morning in Chicago, Illinois, shutting down the nation’s third largest school district.

The strike—the first by Chicago teachers in 25 years—is a powerful expression of mass opposition to the attack on teachers and public education by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat. It is part of a growing spirit of resistance in the working class nationally and internationally. On Monday, thousands of teachers participated in picketing, followed by a mass rally in the evening.

Only one day into the strike, the political issues have emerged with exceptional clarity. In their effort to defend their jobs and the public school system, the Chicago teachers have come into conflict not only with the mayor, but with the Obama administration and both big business parties. (See: “Striking teachers speak out in Chicago”)

Emanuel responded to the strike by denouncing the teachers with typical arrogance, declaring that they are engaged in a “strike of choice” that is “unnecessary.” For Emanuel and the Chicago political establishment, the strike is “unnecessary” because it challenges their demand that teachers accept merit pay and procedures to give school authorities a pretext to fire them, elements of a broader strategy to dismantle public education.

The national political implications of the struggle were made clear by the extraordinary intervention of the Republican Party. In the midst of an election season, in which hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on mutual mudslinging between the two parties, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney moved quickly to line up behind the Chicago school board and Mayor Emanuel.

Romney denounced the teachers for exercising their right to strike, saying that the strike “was one of the clearest examples” of the way in which “teachers unions have too often made plain that their interests conflict with those of our children.”

Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, was even more explicit in his support for Emanuel. “Rahm and I have not agreed on every issue or on a lot of issues,” he declared, “but Mayor Emanuel is right today in saying that this teachers’ union strike is unnecessary and wrong.” He added that “education reform is a bipartisan issue.”

Whatever their differences, when it comes to their hatred for the working class, the two parties are entirely united. The Republicans are no less aware than the Democrats that a defeat of the Chicago teachers’ struggle is essential for carrying out the bipartisan policy of dismantling public education. And after decades in which the class struggle has been artificially suppressed with the help of the trade unions, the ruling elite views any working class resistance as intolerable, if not criminal…

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/sep2012/chic-s11.shtml

I really get tired of the ill-informed and poorly disguised anti-science attacks of the semi-literate right wing.

The issue is this: George W Bush gave us his poorly conceived and poorly executed "No Child Left Behind" that essentially boiled down to "All Children Left Behind." Inthis "plan" the right wing came up with one of the dumbest ideas ever conceived --- that you could measure student and teacher ability by comparing them to standardized national tests. It sounds great until you tryt to put it into practice.

1) NCLB was not an attempt to improve public education. Period. It was a way to placate public schools and especially private schools in predominantly white, predominantly above average financially school districts a "free ride" in an attempt to squash any resistance to a voucher system that would end public education as we know it. Cheney was a primary advocate of vouchers, but a number of Republican governors were probably the most influential in adopting it.

2) The way they private schools and lily-white high-income school districts got that free ride was by the use of national standardized testing. By allowing these schools which were already doiung well versus national standards the ability to compare themselves to a C- standard (the national averages), these schools were allowed to always get an A while having to show no improvement to do so.

2) The drafters of NCLB had no illusions as to what controls educational success: a) money spent per pupil, b) income level of the students' families, and c) race. The relation between these three factors and educational "success" is well-established to a gold standard. Teacher "quality" (as measured by NCLB) is actually number 12 on the list of influences.

3) This was a golden opportunity for the right wing corporate interests to engage in some advanced union-busting by demonizing treachers using invalid premises and irrelevant "data". The idea is to put enough pressure on teacher's unions that they would object, allowing the GOP to claim that unions were evil just as Reagan did with his demonization of air traffic controllers. They did this by putting bizarre "standards" for teachers into NCLB.

4) Let me explain briefly the structure that NCLB foisted on the public: Say you have two good teachers --- University of Georgia graduates with a lifelong desire to teach and solid teaching skills --- solid "B" teachers. If you put one of these teachers in an urban public school in a mixed-race working poor neighborhood and the other in an all-white private prep school. Both should be expected to have similar NCLB teacher evaluations since they are teachers with identical skills. But that doesn't happen --- the teacher in the urban school will get a D or an F and the one in the white school will get an A. And this would well be despite the teacher in the urban school is doing the better job. On a slightly larger scale the same thing applies to the schools in which they teach. It actually potentially punishes outstanding teachers in a bad neighborhood while rewarding very poor teachers in very wealthy neighborhoods.

The problem is in the use of an arbitrary and irrelevant outside standard for comparison. It gives the illusion that schools and teachers can be assessed in this way. It is simply and completely false! The only way that teachers can be accurately assessed is by peer observation over long periods of time. Schools can only be accurately evaluated by their local school boards who would perform the same kind of observational criteria to schools.

To sum, if you evaluate teachers or schools by comparing them to national averages, you are always wrong 3 of 4 times. Do the math. You can't even go by achievement scores for individual teachers. When a teacher does a really good job with a kid, the kid's future teachers get the most credit. And that is nearly impossible to measure. You can make some judgements by comparing a school (but not a teacher) to themselves in past years in terms of standardized tests, but even then only after controlling for money spent per student, student family income, and race. NCLB has no provisions for such adjustments.

5) What state legislators have forces the Chicago Area Schools is to make student scores on standardized tests one-fourth of the teachers evaluation. By doing this, they have set up a process that will eventually penalize all inner city teachers while allowing suburban teachers a free ride. If thgis is included in their contract, a teacher in a low-performing mixed-race inner city school in a poor area will simply be fired after 3 or so years regardless of how good a teacher they are. But teachers in white suburban schools with high student spending and well-to-do families will be able to put forth a minimal effort and still be praised for being like Lake Woebegone "where all the kids are above average."

The number of people who cannot grasp this situation and would rather go with the demonizations of teachers is full proof of the failure of our educational system. Lunatics running the asylum. And lunatics running their mouths.

These LIBERAL DEMOCRATS ( and thats what most teachers are ) are still going to get the 20% or so pay raise while still only working 9 months !!!! Wake up you LIBERALS this is what AMERICA see's !!!!

Julkie -- try working for a living and not live off those that worh hard to support themselves!!!

THE UNION BOSSES MAKE MONEY AND THE KIDS LOOSE!!! Teachers should be accountable for maintaining their "expertise" or lack of "expertise". In Chicago they should lock the Kids, teachers and Union Bosses in the schools for 72 hours. I'm sure the Teacher's would be more than willing to Kick Out the Unions and work for the kids. The Priority should be the Kids and not the Union & their Organizers. The schools in Chicago are a joke and the teachers need to either produce results or look for another job. Kids that commit violent or criminal acts should be taken out of the schools and placed in Prison where they belong.

I have been participating with school children from K-12 since 1975 in various projects, lectures and formats, primarily in art and science. The difference between myself and a teacher is I don't hold a Masters Degree in taking attendance, so some teacher has always been around to fulfill that function. I don't, and never did care if the kids chewed gum, wore their under ware on backwards, or other rules. and I made that clear. If once they walked out that door and the hall monitor put them in leg irons and put them in an empty swimming pool in the basement to starve to death, that was their problem with the rules, not mine. You know how I got evaluated, we did our lessons, completed our projects and 20-30 years later an adult comes up who I don't recognize and calls me Mr. Herbert and introduces me to his kids. This crap about an unannounced visit by a school administrator needing to see a daily lesson plan is bogus from the git go. The administrator evaluates the instructor by the students response to learning from the instructor. An administrator that needs a pop quiz on a lesson plan is fabricating his own importance for a paycheck. When you are a fisheries scientist like I am, and the air pump goes out on the fish tank and the fish die, the lesson for the day is about electricity and electric switches, not what's on the lesson plan, and it doesn't make a damn bit of difference if you are chewing gum or your under ware is showing. If you don't get wet you're not going to learn fisheries science, so the lesson you'll learn is not wearing a tuxedo. The fish don't care, the plants don't care, the atmosphere nor geology doesn't care about your important status. Your important personal status is not on the lesson plan. Kids learn to read, so once they leave school they can read anything they want to related to their own goals and interests. They learn math so when they leave school they can use math to solve their own problems, etc. Education is about the future of America and about the future of this world, not some union goal(s) of benefit packages. These kids in Chicago are getting shot at an alarming rate, and you teacher clowns want to make romantic literature of centuries ago appear to be significant... because it's on the lesson plan. Why don't you make it appear relevant to the kids daily struggle for survival, for the near term and the long term. I've seen interviews with the striking teachers on the news about the picket lines, and it doesn't look to me like there are that many bright ones in the crowd... and I've been around enough teachers to recognize the bright ones,

dotsheriff: Your Comment:

"Romney and his followers have been preaching that they want the Federal government out of the state's business but now you say Obama should be there getting involved? What is it that Republicans want?

As far as the teachers go, I can see both sides. The educations budgets have been cut so much that class sizes are increasing and the teachers don't have as much individual time to give the kids and are being punished for that as well."

Both counts are correct. The Feds should be out of the classroom. For now, the Feds ARE in control and for Obama to have no comment on the Chicago teacher's stike with 400,000 kids on the street is inexcusable. And, I agree with Romney that parents should have a choice of which school their child(ren) go. This is, after all, THEIR life.

A video you may find interesting: You-Tube: Save The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program .

The kids speak for themselves. Although, again, Obama let them down. Although, being the wise man that Obama is, Obama handled the situation so that Obama keeps union dues and all those votes from the teacher's union. Maybe, one day, school will be for the kids. Not yet, though. Unfortunately.

There has always been ways to measure teacher performance. If Chicago can't figure it out from our own history of public education, then why not check out how other countries evaluate their teachers. Chicago's kids aren't the only kids who live with poverty and uncaring parents. And if you're in a system in which everything is out of your control, change the system. Stop taking $75k for babysitting.

“If you want the best teachers in the system, then teachers should be paid and promoted based on their performance. It’s important that we improve the system, which has become a failed system.”

Teacher's Union reaction - "Nope, we don't want no valuations".

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) facts;

"The legislation was proposed by President George W. Bush on January 23, 2001. It was coauthored by Representatives John Boehner (R-OH), George Miller (D-CA), and SenatorsEdward Kennedy (D-MA) and Judd Gregg (R-NH). The United States House of Representativespassed the bill on May 23, 2001 (voting 384–45),^[7] and the United States Senate passed it on June 14, 2001 (voting 91–8)"

The reason that it was opposed by teachers unions, and is still criticized by them, is because it actually established some national STANDARDS for evaluating the effectiveness of schools and teachers.

But Obama has come to the rescue of the unions by granting waivers on a wholesale basis, so the performance standards that were built into the act have been effectively eliminated, and we're back to the lack of standards that the unions like - NO STANDARDS AT ALL so there is no way to measure success or failure, and the teachers don't have to answer to anyone.

Bart...I could do it and my parents did it for 40+ years each.

You are an idiot.

Some teachers are good and some are not. Why pay both the same?

Bart, you can't even SPELL "union".

Fine...then you pay their enormous wages for the poor performance

Every job in the private sector is based on performance and the company changes our work materials all the time. I worked a full time job and taught soccer in the school district had 90% winning record. Then a teacher decided they wanted the job. That school hasn't had a winning record since and you can't get rid of the teacher.

Oh, poor NEA bosses.... They draw $500,000 a year salary and of course they need a raise!