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Subscribe to RSSThe Chicago Teachers Union agreed on Tuesday to end its strike, allowing 350,000 students to return to classes on Wednesday and ending a tense standoff. However, the contract still requires ratification by the union's 26,000 members. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
NEWS ANALYSIS
CHICAGO – Now that the Chicago teachers strike has ended, it is inevitable that people will try to figure out who won and who lost. But more might be gained if we went beyond that.
What if more time were spent thinking about what students and the country gained from this strike, because it focused attention on the debate over teacher evaluations, the weight that is given to standardized tests and the growing demand for education reform?
Broken system
A lot has been said about the need to get rid of bad teachers and the union that protects them. The truth is union leaders will tell you they don’t like bad teachers, either. But the union would argue that it’s not their job to weed out bad teachers. Rather, they say, school leaders should do a better job identifying bad teachers and weeding them out.
In Chicago, according to a 2009 report by the New Teachers Project, 91 percent of teachers were rated “superior” or “excellent” by school principals. Out of the nearly 30,000 teachers in the city public school system, only a small fraction received an “unsatisfactory” rating. But with student achievement at such a low level, clearly something must be wrong with how the evaluations were being done.
So this is a good time to consider who’s responsible, in addition to teachers, for what happens in school. I spoke with several teachers on the picket line over the past few days who were concerned that they didn’t have books to start the school year. Why isn’t everyone up in arms about that?
Other teachers told me that they were assigned to classrooms outside of their area of expertise. One woman on the picket line told me she had taught English last year but she was trained to be a gym teacher. “I just tried to help out where there was a need,” she said.
Biggest losers of Chicago's teachers strike? The students, critic says
Does anyone really believe she is the best English teacher for Chicago kids?
Should those students and that teacher be judged on how well she’s able to prepare them to take a standardized test?
And don’t think this is an isolated, one-of-a-kind situation. It’s not. You will find similar stories in schools all across this nation.
In Finland, where students far out perform American kids, they don’t take standardized tests at all. Students are measured by how well they do on their classroom work and drills.
There is a collective national will in Finland to educate all students, and there’s a plan to succeed. Finland starts by hiring the best and the brightest to teach. Finnish teachers are required to have a master’s degree and teachers come from the top 10 percent of college graduates. Compare that to the U.S., where 47 percent of America’s teachers come from the bottom third of their class, according to a 2010 McKinsey report.
Chicago teachers agree to end strike, classes to resume Wednesday
Big issue: poverty
Then there’s the issue of poverty and safety and how it affects teaching and learning.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel went to court this week seeking an injunction to force an end to the strike claiming, in part, the walkout was a threat to “public health and safety.”
As many as 87 percent of the public school children come from low-income families, according to figures from Chicago Public Schools.
More than 90 percent of them qualify for the free or reduced breakfast and lunch program. For many, school is where they go, not just for an education, but for food.
It’s also where many children go to feel safe in a city stricken by far too much violence.
The teachers hit the picket line demanding money, a fair evaluation system and job security but, they also wanted more social workers in the schools to help them help children who have been traumatized living in broken homes and broken neighborhoods.
According to the Chicago Public Schools Employee Roster, there are 382 social workers in the school district that serves 350,000 students. If my math is correct, that amounts to about one social worker for every 916 students.
“That means social workers are doing paper work because they don’t have time to do much of anything else,” said Lorraine Forte of Catalyst Chicago, an independent newsmagazine dedicated to reporting on urban education.
Education Nation: Get involved in our 2012 summit, Sept. 23-25
Not unique
Chicago’s school problems are not unique. Poverty, crime and lack of resources affect schools all across the country.
Experts are quick to point out that none of these issues should be used as an excuse for failing to educate America’s children. Teachers, city leaders, policy makers and education reform advocates all agree that these factors also shouldn’t be left out of the conversation. And in fact, they aren’t – but real solutions need to be found.
Chicago has presented an opportunity for the nation to take a closer, more thoughtful look at a multitude of reasons why schools and test scores and graduation rates are lacking. It might also inspire us to look at schools that are working to see if they could be replicated.
That’s what we will be doing starting this Sunday when NBC launches its Third Annual Education Nation Summit. But what’s wrong with America’s schools won’t be fixed if too much time is spent adding up winners and losers from one strike.
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We will continue to have useless strikes and work stoppages as long as we have unions. There was a time when unions were necessary. They are no longer of any value in protecting workers and their rights. All unions are political action committees who steal money from their members and use it illegally to strenthen their political power and influences. The unions are to blame for the poor work environment is this country today, and all unions should be dissolved and done away with. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was accomplished with the strike in Chicago, and the teachers who stopped teaching should all be fired and never allowed to teach in a school system anywhere in the US.
What in the world leads you to believe there is no more need for unions? The middle class lost 13% of its wealth, overall, while the richest gained in triple digits. This one of the worst times since the Great Depression for America's middle class, made up in large percent by the very union members you denigrate. And with the huge lack in teachers, you would be foolish enough to permanently bar them from teaching. Your argument adds nothing to the debate over how best to fix our broken educational system and everything to do with bashing the very people who allowed you to be the American that you claim to be. Unions work when those that deal with them have more to offer than unfounded ridicule. You apparently didn't even bother to read the article which was about something more to be gained than winners and losers. You just saw a chance to attack one of the right wing's favorite targets. You are not even close to being part of the solution but are rather aligned with the problem.
How do we know Finland's student far outperform our own students if they don't take standardized tests?! Maybe their classroom work and drills are just really easy.
I am tired of hearing people bash teachers and unions because "everyone works longer hours now for less pay."
Did any of you wonder why that is? And why profits are all kept for the top few % of wage earners?
Perhaps the people working longer hours for less money should stand up and refuse to accept less, when profits are still being made in record amounts by the largest corporations in the US.
Paying workers a decent wage is not a crime. On the contrary, I thought it was part of the "American Dream" you anti-union people say you endorse. So I guess "don't hate people for earning a decent living UNLESS they are union in which case they didn't really earn it."
Yet it is OK for CEOs to run businesses into the ground and be "forced" to resign with a $100 million severance package.
Yeah, I'm sure that logic is sound.
piglizard, so the union demanding no accountability, more money, more benefits, less work hours, less responsibility, and using the mental health of children as there barging chip, this was a good thing. You saying these teachers are over worked and under paid even if they are baby sitters they get a D&^^ goood pay for it ;-}
Finland is not a good comparison. It's a fairly small, homogeneous country. A small Swedish minority is nowhere close to the zillions of minority groups that we have in the U.S. Still, there are probably things we can learn from them. Our problems are mostly socio-economic and the blame typically falls on the teachers rather than the families/communities.
What a crock ..... if "school leaders" were to identify bad teachers and FIRE them, guess who would be FIRST to support the BAD TEACHER ? THE DAD GUM UNION. Hypocrites.
FIRE THE UNION(S) and then FIRE the BAD TEACHER(S) !!!!!!
This strike was about the union protecting their own, even when they are incompetent. The reason that teachers are being assigned outside their areas of expertise is because of union rules. The union looks at all teachers the same. You can not lay off an unneeded gym teacher and hire a new English teacher, you have to reassign the teachers you have. If you need a new teacher, you have to rehire a laid off teacher first before you can hire someone new. It does not matter whether there are any teachers that have been laid off that have the skills needed to teach the subject you are hiring for, you still have to hire one of the laid off teachers. This is just one example of how the union cares more about protecting their own than what is best for the students. The absurd evaluation process that they insist on that results in virtually all of the teachers being rated as excellent to outstanding is another example. With a graduation rate of only around 50% there is no way you are going to convince me that there is not a problem with the quality of the teachers. The evaluation system is rigged so that teachers get rated highly, even when they are completely incompetent. The union has fought against the implementation of any kind of meaningful evaluation system so as to protect their members - tell me again how the union cares so much about the students. It is time to put an end to these public employee unions that perpetuate mediocrity at best and incompetence in many cases.
Oh, poor, innocent unions. LMAO. If principals dont inflate teacher evaluations, unions protest about creating unfair papertrails. If they try to fire bad teachers, unions protest about "tenure." If they want teachers to learn more subjects, unions protest about setting teachers up for failure.
Schools where students don't learn, bloated bureaucracy, high crime neighborhoods, dysfunctional home life. Where is this happening and why. Who has been in charge of this city for decades and allowed this situation to not only continue but flourish. How can the leaders of this city permit this type of situation to go on and on without putting forth reforms that at least make slight improvements in the system. Why would they turn their backs on the poor that they claim to love and understand? If they care about the poor and minorities why are they living in segregated communities with high crime and low expectations? Who are these leaders? Why do they still hold power? Why don't people look at results instead of rhetoric. This has been going on for decades not 20 or 30 years much, much longer and the usual suspects from the same party do whatever they want because nobody will vote them out of office, seems the more things change the more they stay the same.
"Other teachers told me that they were assigned to classrooms outside of their area of expertise. One woman on the picket line told me she had taught English last year but she was trained to be a gym teacher." "Should those students and that teacher be judged on how well she’s able to prepare them to take a standardized test?"
Here's the answer to those questions: She took the job she is unqualified for because she has union seniority and took the place of a more qualified but less tenured teacher. If she took on the job then she is responsible for the outcome. Period. Judge her accordingly.
Let the bashers begin their bashing.
Today, there are many more laws on the books that protect workers rights, so that there is absolutely no need for unions to do so. Thus, unions have evolved into useless, ineffective political action committees that seek nothing but political power and influence. They do absolutely nothing for workers. Show me one thing that the Chicago teachers union did for the teachers who went on strike, waiting for school to start to do so, instead of solving the problem before the school year began. You cannot defend these useless bastards. They do nothing but rob your lazy asses of your money as they steal from your wallets each and every month of the year. Union supporters are more stupid than the unions themselves.
With Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Karl Rove, etc. there has never been a greater need for unions. The rights of American workers are being eroded every day. The teachers are smart enough to see what is happening. Transistor, you are easily hoodwinked.
All of the issues, one way or another, come down to money. In Finland, which has a total population as a country which is about twice that of the City of Chicago, they have made it a national priority to pay their teachers well, which is why they are able to recruit from the top of the classes. I don't know how much of their college education is paid by the state, but I imagine it is more than in the US.
When teachers have no choice but to deal with children who daily confront the problems associated with poverty, including malnourishment, crime and violence instead of teaching children to pass standardized tests, expecting those same teachers to be happy with having part of their pay and even their ability to keep their jobs on the results of those standardized tests. Its like putting a dog trainer into a warehouse with foxes, wolves, bloodhounds and golden retrievers and wondering why he can't get them all to fetch and then judging the trainer on the number of balls the animals have gotten in a time test.
Once we, as a society, decide that there is no community which should be overlooked when placing a business. That everyone deserves to have the opportunity to succeed, only then can we judge those who work to hold the tide against failure. While the Mitt Romneys of the world may have written of 47% of the nation, most people think it is worth doing the right thing to make sure every American has the opportunity to succeed.
How many people do the Koch brothers, Sheldon Aldeson, ect employ???? I don't know about you but I've never been hired by a POOR guy!!!!
The fact of the matter is that we spend twice as much per student today as we did in the 70's with no improvement in results. So I am tired of listening to talks and negotiations about increase in fundings and how one party is responsible for "gutting" the programs. It is a structural problem!!!! putting more money into our education system is the exact definition of INSANITY. I dare anyone to provide me with a decent rebuttal.
Oh Linda, can't you come up with a better reason than that? You think that a 'few' people with money 'control' the education system in cities like Chicago? Give me a 'f..k..g' break? The city of Chicago has been a 'union cesspool' for generations....unions control everything in Chicago, city government has been controlled by Democratic Mayors who 'favor' unions and their power. Enough already....there are so many rules on the books ect 'Fair Labor' ect that there is absolutly no need for unions anymore. And yes, I don't approve of CEO's who destroy companies and walk away with millions either! The two are not related. The KIDS are the important thing here...not the damn unions!
It's very simple, unions may not be perfect but they offer some degree of protection and a counterweight to abuse by employers.
While no unions = you being ripped off.
Watch the laws that you think currently protect you being reversed in a heartbeat once unions are gone completely.
47% of our teachers graduate from the bottom 1/3 of their class in the US. Problem seems obvious to me, the best and brightest are clearly not educating our children but yet they demand pay increases and job security with falling test scores.
deleted
To Linda Brown--Please give me one instance where the rights of workers are being eroded. That comment is nothing but far left rhetoric used to scare people and to tell lies about unions. Obviously, you are a member of the teacher's union, and you have been given a fallacious script to follow in defending them. Unions are indefensible. They are unneccessary and they are not fighting for workers' rights anymore. They are fighting for far left politics, socialist economics, and communist governance of this country. Unions are totally destructive, and the only thing worse than unions is Obama winning a second term.
So you want to be able to get rid of bad teachers? Good. How about schools being able to getting rid of bad students?
Max agree, lets put the bad teachers with the bad students. Maybe both will stop the crying. We can give them both UNIONS and they can fight it out.
BINGO. Get rid of them both.
The bad students don't have a chance because of the partisan thinkers who don't care about them.
Excellent idea! This would reduce the number of teachers by about 10% and the number of students by about 50-60 %. Hint: Teachers have a real problem with students who aren't interested in learning and are plain disruptive!
IMO, like many others, there are very few "bad students":
Father Flanagan, "Boys Town"
so... we have the bootom of the barrel graduating C's and D's teaching students who want A's? yet they make far more than the average person, put in less hours, and do (some to most) as little as possible. whats wrong with this picture?
the union says its the schools job to weed out the bad apples... so when the schools try they fight like crazed madmen to keep that teacher working. (can you even make a picture of that?)
a majority of students come from welfare ghetto areas... so what does this have to do with teaching, and keeping a students attention in class on their work? i had issues like a majority of the other kids. my family didnt get welfare or subsidies and we sure as hell were not well off by any means. we graduated, all of us. we took a cheese sammy for lunch with butter enough times i wont eat cheddar on most foods, and never plain. but i did well in school... i can thank my teachers for this. keeping my mind focused on "task at hand", and the class orderly so they could teach. no so today by the sounds.
the students got the shaft, by greedy teachers, and those who feel entitled.
They can. They're called private schools.
All a bunch of bull sh*t. Look at Union Prep Charter Academy located in the heart of Chicago with all black students. Every single one of these poor, poverty stricken students, who were selected by lottery and graduated was accepted by a certified 4 year university. Granted that from the total number selected for the freshman class 75% graduated but the Chicago system graduates less than 50% and most of those are illiterate. Teachers are TOLD to push the students up the grade levels whether or not they can do the work.
The key is resolve on the part of the teachers and administration, 6 day a week school, uniforms, honor code and lots of homework and no teacher union. This article is bull sh*t. The exact same students are taken out of the Chicago School System enrolled in Urban Prep Charter Academy and they are made successful!
Yes!!! So true! The good teachers, have to feed, clothe, discipline, buy supplies, paper, pencils, books & this is before they teach a lesson! You damn right they need "combat" pay! Perhaps a supply allowance..for the good teachers 'cause thet do exist!!
how is the article bull? looks to me like somehow Emmanuel expected them to be the POLICE and the NUTRITION centers as well as educators! NO, get the police out there in the dangerous neighborhoods. And I tell ya what. there is NO kid who isn't educable. Proof in learning on the streets, if the classroom is organized, well supplied, then a teacher can focus on teaching. The whole COUNTRY went on a HUGE downhill slide with the No Child Left Behind crap. state after state suing to get it ABOLISHED. Standardized tests are crap, anyone can teach "answers" to a test, but does it mean you understand what The Vietnam war WAS if all you need is the dates it happened? Does it mean you have a grasp of war tactics? reasons NOT to war? cultural differences? no. All a standardized test does is make you memorize numbers and words ALL of which will disappear when no longer of use. The teachers are demanding that they NOT be put in classes where they're not trained to teach. How is that BAD? As for bad students. That is a failure on the part of the schools, the part of the parents and the part of a society that rejects anyone who thinks differently. SHAME! There's an opportunity to discover whole beings and to develop their greatest talents. Even if it be to grow up and be a plumber, or a grocery store clerk, or something far greater.
the inner city kids are PROOF of that nurturing. they show that they are NOT bad kids, who'd be left behind in a system without books without one on one teaching, without anyone who cared. The city needs to provide MORE outlets for the kids to be fed. (not the parents, for those who are going to start screaming "socialism") there are plenty of places the kids go that this can be made to happen. Boys and Girls' Town, community centers.
why do I even bother. Just yell at the people who didn't create the problem. America has become great at this. Blame the poor for being poor, blame the kids for losing their educations, blame the victims not the assaulters. It's truly disenheartening to NOT see a community of people on here decide to start a program of tutoring, after school groups.. get up and DO something to HELP for a change instead of screaming at teachers who are on strike trying to FIGHT for that help.
The Chicago Prep comment is true to a point. I often use that as an example for success in schools; however, the very fact that the students are in Chicago Prep shows a desire to learn on both the student's and parent's part. This is extremely important. The student with the "go ahead, try and teach me something" attitude makes it extremely difficult to learn not only for them but also for others in the class. I grew up poor, my mother never finished high school, but I was the first in my family to get a college degree because education was revered as the road to success in my family. Look at the Asian population who have done so well because education is valued. It is very difficult for a teacher to instill that in a student; it comes from the home.
Bubba - We've already got the bad teachers in with the bad kids. That's the problem.
The thing is that the issue goes beyond "good teachers" and "bad teachers". How can a gym teacher teach English effectively and what shot are her students going to have at a decent future? I agree that it is the system that is out of whack more than this being a problem simply with certain people in the system.
Not for nothing but if you have earned an education degree, and become a certified and tenured teacher, shouldn't you be able to teach at least a basic English course?
Or put another way, why are you hiring a teacher who can't teach an English course at all?
allenbt - go back to school
go-obama
he did so good in school you cannot even look at his grades
READ THESE numbers AGAIN !!!
" As many as 87 percent of the public school children come from low-income families, according to figures from Chicago Public Schools.
More than 90 percent of them qualify for the free or reduced breakfast and lunch program. For many, school is where they go, not just for an education, but for food. "
The Republicans are destroying our country !
It all starts with LOW-INCOMES !!!!!!!!
The reason a gym teacher is teaching English is because of union seniority rules that insist on keeping teachers by how long they've been there regardless of what subject they teach. If schools were allowed to lay off the extra gym teacher and hire another English teacher, then maybe this wouldn't happen.
No, it's because the district is too cheap to hire a REAL English teacher.
sundisk, you know this how? If we assume this gym/English teacher is paid close to the Chicago average of $76,000/year, and a new (trained) English teacher were to be hired at a lower starting salary, how is that making the school district "too cheap".
IMO, the others have it more correct, the gym teacher, who was apparently redundant, was pushed into teaching English because she was a union member in good standing and couldn't be 'down-sized' without reams of paperwork justifying her dismissal.
I live in Chicago. It needs both: the gym teacher and the English teacher. The truth is students, especially young students, learn best when they are also allowed to let off steam. You can't expect for them not to have physical activity for hours on end, and some of Chicago's neighborhoods are so dangerous that the kids can't play outside.
amen
It is refreshing to see that Ms. Ellis is talking to teachers, rather than believing the one-sided view of Michelle Rhree, which painted all educators ( except those at private schools, of course) as villians. There is, in truth, a whole other side to the education dilemma in the US. The push to privatize education is real, and anyone in denial need only to do the research. ( ALEC). Education is the last bastian of money-making to be tapped by private industries. If you think privatization is the answer, then fast forward 10 years, and know that the public schools will be left with the poor, disenfranchised, and disabled. Neither the Charters, nor the private schools will have them.
And parents are supposed to wreck their child's future while the govt gets their $hit together. Typical socialist mindset-- drag 'em all down so everybody is equal.
@sundisk, you're just wrong. I'm quite liberal but to say the charter schools won't have the poor is just naive. Mandated by law, they CANNOT cherry pick their students. They accept them on a lottery system. As an educated person coming from parents who were both teachers, principals and superintendents, the public education system is broken. The teachers' union has rendered administrators powerless. They cannot fire someone for sleeping with a students mom during WORK HOURS. There are teachers with several DUIs who are not allowed to be around children, that cannot get fired so they are rubber roomed. I'm all for throwing facts back at Right Wing nut jobs, but your facts, just aren't correct. Please education yourself on the real problem before you make us liberals look bad.
In EDNYLaw, in theory, you are correct. However, the reality comes out once the students get into the classrooms. Anyone other than exceptionally well motivated students with committed parents soon get asked to leave the schools. The one thing which all Charter schools require is parental involvement, which any educator will tell you is essential for students success.
Why were so many parents upset at the week long strike, because their baby sitter was not available. THAT is the reality for many parents. Their involvement in their child's education ends at the classroom door.
I would be willing to bet a considerable amount of money that the students in Finnish classrooms are a much different social lot than those in CPS classrooms.......
Why is there no mention of parents in the poor education equation? It doesn't matter how qualified and dedicated the teacher is if the kids aren't instilled with the desire to learn by their parents. Kids aren't going to school to learn, they're going because they have to go. Parents aren't sending their kids to school to get an education and build a better future for themselves, they send them away to a free day care service. There is virtually no discipline in the public school system, and any attempt to provide discipline is met with law suits. Even teaching values in school is prohibited because values are supposed to be taught by the parents. The only values many of those parents have is the value of sucking the teat of the government welfare system.
91 percent were judged excellent or superior... how friggin bad did the 9% have to be to get less? Non-performing schools, unrated teachers by any common sense measure. I say scrap the board of education altogether, I know its hard for you big government liberals to get your hands around. Allow the states to begin to put rules in place that remove bad students from the classes, have penalties and suspensions for lateness or noise and start acting and teaching like adults - accountability is what is needed and it should be required of the teachers AND the students. Under the program they have now the kids that want to learn are silenced. You would be amazed how kids fall in line when they have structured no nonsense classes and have accountability where they will be thrown out or placed in a 'special' class if they don't behave. BTW... how the heck are there not more teachers fired or put on probation pending better results? Big government and union bullcrap at its worst.
It's hard to measure a teacher because it really is an art. It's like rating a chef at a fancy restaurant. At a certain point, anyone who cooks at a swanky place can't be that bad, and these chefs will receive awards and accolades. Teachers are rarely the best of the best. They're decent and good people but not the top performers of their colleges. This is where the solution might lie: i.e., attracting people into the lovely profession of teaching with its strikes and politics and crap that the public doesn't want to pay for.
No its not. Test at the beginning and end of the year and any gain/loss is attributed to the teachers' skills. Their home factors dont change radically that fast.
peanut - I guess you've never worked with a child who's parents just split up, or who was just raped, or who was just beat, or who's too-kind uncle just moved in, etc... Children's buy-in to school and test scores can, and often do, change on a dime when traumatic things happen in their lives. And those are not the teachers' fault.
Signed, a former burned-out school counselor and special needs teacher
lavrn - There will NEVER be a perfect method. I doubt the majority of people commenting here have evaluations that are iron clad perfect measures of their work. But you just named off a bunch of instances that COULD happen, but would never happen on a day to day basis to every school child.
We can either keep making excuses why no system is perfect or implement something that gets us moving in the right direction and make tweaks over time. The status quo ain't working.
Value-added measures are crap. When children are missing these milestones before they arrive to school, learning rates as substantially slower than those that have achieved basic developmental milestones. Think about those who try to learn a foreign language in school compared to those who grow up with it being spoken everyday around them. While it is possible, it takes a much longer time to "rewire" the brain. What does help is a challenging and nurturing environment that allows the child to develop at his/her own rate.
I am sure that parents in Chicago are thrilled that their children will now have "the future they deserve."
That's what this was all about, right?
WOW!!! This report has some glaring issues. Primarily, the anti-city/school district slant. For example, it quotes the union as saying they want bad teachers kicked out too, but it is the districts job to do it. What the union rep and the reporter failed to tell you, is how much red tape the union has put in place to help protect ANY teacher from getting canned. Even the bad ones.
Also, this article pretends to tell us the story of the problems of America's schools through the Chicago example by listing violent neighborhoods, lack of supplies, poverty and bad teachers, but fails to list the number 1 issue. Bad PARENTS. The best teacher your child will EVER have is YOU.
I ask my kid what he did that day and he says "nuttin" or "I dunno". After correct the poor grammar, I push harder for details. I teach him in day to day activities. I ask him to estimate what our shopping cart is. I have him help cook and have him expand/contract a recipe. I make him read at least 30 minutes a day, EVERY day. My wife and I BOTH make it to every teacher conference and then seek out the specialty teachers for the optional meetings (Music, PE, Art, etc.).
Now my kid as an average student. When he gets a 2 (1-4 scale with 4 being best), we take action and get him to improve it by next report card. Now do I sound like I am bragging at what a good parent I am? This is not what a GREAT parent does. This is what a competent parent does. And if you're not doing these kinds of things, you are a $h!tty parent who will get a kid with a crappie education. Your kid, will at best, be one of the 47% of teachers that were in the bottom third of the college classes.
You hear about how we need better schools. They think new, state of the art schools will make our kids smarter. We throw Billions into beutiful schools with Smart Boards and a Mac for every kid. Where kids are getting issued iPads. All the while, thinking that throwing billions into technology will make our kids smarter. Stop whining at your school board and volunteer at a school. Go to the PTO and ask "How can I help?".
I agree with some of what you said. However, the "red tape" is a myth in most places.
(to anyone) Go request a copy of your local school district's master contract. The discipline and dismissal procedures are in there. Post them. THEN we can discuss them.
That unions make it "nearly impossible" to fire a bad teacher is a Hannity talking point and nothing more.
Ever heard of the "rubber room" in NYC? They're not the only one's who do that. Sure, you get the bad teachers out of the classroom-- but not off the payroll. That's the pinch. UAW was doing the same thing and gmc, et al. Its a union thing.
McCain.
I admit that my comments about the red tape are not facts I dug up, but a general belief based on various tidbits from here or there. But the reporter never even delved into the question of how easy or difficult it is for Chicago to remove bad teachers. This article was a blame fest and highly slanted toward the union in my opinion.
Hmmm Finland has a population of about 5.5 million people. Ethnicity of Finland is Finn 93.4%, Swede 5.6%, Russian 0.5%, Estonian 0.3%, Roma (Gypsy) 0.1%, Sami 0.1% GDP per Person is $50k per person.
It's a bit of a stretch to compare Finland and the USA ......
...you think?...unions should be a thing of past...they have lost there usefulness...its why government is so wasteful and inefficient...bust all the unions...so we can prosper...if we fired all the crappy teachers...then we could pay the good ones more...the only thing the government can better than private companies...is our military...and there not union...
Only one group looses in this all the time the children. They don't have a better education.
The taxpayer also lose, big time.
...I think a prerequisite for all government jobs is you must have served in the military...no one deserves these jobs more...
Perhaps it really wouldn't be realistic to require EVERYONE to serve in the military; handicapped people, pacifists, a few other varieties I'm too lazy to think of at the moment.
However, your idea could be expanded to require some sort of meaningful national service, including the military, civilians maybe organized along military concepts of duty, responsibility and accountability. I could support this as a prerequisite for a government job, especially a federal one.
Did you read "Starship Troopers" by chance? The movies sucked, but the book was pretty good.
How can anyone defend pensions for any government employee? Do they work harder than their public sector counterparts? Of course not. Do they make less $ than their public sector counterparts? Of course not. Are they evaluated differently at their jobs? Well, there the answer is yes, because public union employees DO NOT GET EVALUATED AT ALL!!!
So they don't work harder, make more $, and don't have to worry about doing their job well. They just have to show up on time and not leave early to ensure their job security. Pretty good deal they have. Then they will retire at say age 60 (being generous here) to lifelong pensions when they can easily live for another 25 years. WHY THE FUDGE SHOULD THE TAXPAYERS HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS?! It's is truly a disgrace, and this country will be Greece in another 20 years. Financially it must, because the numbers simply do not make any sense. The pension system is just a huge ponzi scam.
AMEN!!!
Maybe you private sector workers who have lost your pensions should form a union. That (lack of unions) IS why the private sector has lost their pensions, BTW. It certainly isn't lack of profits in the private sector.
Example - The public sector watched in the 90s while the private sector boomed and people had record profits, bonuses, etc. The public workers were jealous but they kept their job stability and low pay. Then the bubble burst, and a select few private sector CEOs walked away with millions apiece, leaving the rest of you to fight over the scraps that were left, so you lost your benefits.
Now the private sector workers want the public sector workers to suffer like they have. Your anger should be with those who took your money - and that is not the public sector workers. It is the greedy few who bled your industries dry.
Maybe if you had a union in place you'd be better off. Don't hate those who planned better than you did.
The only problem with public sector pensions is the politicians who raid the funds. Period. The pension plans would be solvent were it not for greedy pols who can't keep their Mitts off the cash.
Pun, intended.
...the only reason you work for the government is because nobody else will hire you..
...if you could get a better job...you would...most government workers hate their jobs...but that government union experience isn't worth dick in the real world...see how far that goes on a resume...
...if there were no unions...democrats would rarely get elected...its really just a legal way to buy votes...
Wow, Walt. Really?
You get to speak for all public workers? Next time you are pulled over by a police officer, be sure to tell him or her that they only work there because they are incapable of being hired elsewhere.
Better yet, tell them you are their boss because YOU PAY THEIR TAXES!!!!!!
Please have a video camera running and post the video.
Brian, you don't know Jack! Pensions are just investments, just like 401k's, that accrue over time, if managed correctly. Pensions have one thing that Republicans hate...a guarantee behind the investment, as long as the company exists! Why should we hate a guaranteed retirement, if the worker was willing to give up wage increases and work for twenty or more years for it?
You see, Republicans never seem to have a clue what they are talking about! They just strike out with the key words they heard from Rush, while Rush twists those words into a parody of their actual meaning.
Union workers, in addition to having to attend certification classes or college, must agree to the union rules while they work for them. In return, union workers get represented, like all of us in the private sector have to do on our own by kissing a lot of ass, which Republicans seem to prefer!
Unions offer benefit plans, in exchange for years of service, in agreements negotiated with the company or the State, or the Nation. In the private sector, 401k plans are offered to employees, with no guarantee, that can win or lose, based on what Republicans did to our economy each time they leave office, so they can blame it on the Democrat, who must clean up their messes, while Republicans go golfing and throw trash.
Pensions are what private sector corporations used to provide, until the Romney "Bains" figured out they could raid the pension funds of good companies with unscrupulous takeovers, borrow against the equity of the pension funds, and bankrupt the corporation, selling the land and the equipment to themselves overseas, while by law, able to pay themselves millions and billions for doing it. And then, after transporting the entire factory to slave labor countries, rename it, and open back up again to make the exact same products, while the American workers are out of a job, their pension for retirements gone, and there hopes for a better future destroyed!
This is RomneyWorld! This is who Republicans want to vote into office to represent to the world what our American values are! And we are beginning to learn that Romney is even more insidious than we can even imagine.
SHOW US MORE THAN 6 MONTHS OF TAXES, ROMNEY! WE CAN"T TRUST YOU IF DON'T SHOW US IF YOU ARE NOT LYING TO AMERICA!
Every other president has always shown an average of 8 to 12 years. Romney's dad showed 12! What's wrong with Romney? I think he has something big to hide! His wife openly said if we saw the taxes, it would just raise more questions! What the hell?!!!
After all the years of putting up with Birthers, the Romneys dare to think they can get away with not showing us the tax reports?
Or will the Republican Tea Party let him get away with it, because he is white?
That's why even FDR was against public employee unions. No balance of interests.
Jack.
Wow. Pensions are investments?!!! You are a fool. 401(k)'s are investments you idiot. Pensions are lottery tickets. Please tell me what government union you are in. Please tell me because you are either unwilling or uneducated enough to understand how the financial system works, which is why you so desperately need your Union. People like you disgust me. Are you going to be happy when your kids won't be able to buy a house because the prohibitive property taxes? WHERE DO YOU THINK THE BULK OF YOUR PENSION COMES FROM GENIUS?! Your ignorance is the perfect example why Unions are detrimental to an educated society.
You babbled about the Republicans and Romney. I am nonpartisan so it fell upon deaf ears. However, if you would like to know what FDR said (to save you time on googling him I'll tell you who he is. He was the President who was the patron saint of the labor movements. This is a direct quote "All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining as usually understood cannot be transplanted into the public service" He was a democrat, so you should feel particularly foolish right now, but unfortunately you probably do not recognize the irony.
Jack
Do you believe that garbage spewing from your mouth?
The title of the article itself revels the system is broken. Since it was in Chicago the only happy ending would have been a few union legs broken.
A decaying school system is expected when your Nation is in decay.
Books! Who needs books when there are unions to fry! This is the mentality of the un-educated today! Surely, the principals are at fault for not having the books ready to go. Surely, the principals, just like in business, are the ones responsible for how the business runs, not the workers or the teachers, who the principal is supposed to oversee, and remove, if necessary. Perhaps, we should put the blame where it truly lies, in lazy bosses who think they have earned the right to loaf once they are on top.
Read up on the highlights the CTU put out in regards with what they accomplished. One of the biggest 'wins' - getting rid of any kind of merit pay system. Another one? Automatic step/lane raises remained (outside of those % increases they won). Two personal favorites: additional layers before a teacher can be dismissed (arbitration/mediation) and no more suspension without pay regardless of the offense (will always now be WITH pay). First dibs on getting your job back if they lay you off. It is INSANE.
The CTU talking points all centered around "For the children" and getting a "fair contract". Read through the new one (or the old one for that matter) and try to find where they were getting a raw deal - especially in this economy. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE good teachers and think they should be paid accordingly. But this idea that they are all equally fantastic is a joke. And those evaluations? HUGE issue for them, beyond just the standardized testing. Reading what they proposed to be 'fair' was a complete joke. They might has well just insisted the teacher write their own evaluation.
The argument was that there is no way to fairly evaluate their performance because they don't get to pick the students in their class. Every other profession finds a way to give an evaulation, we can fly people to outer space, and land a rover on Mars, but no way no how can we figure out if a teacher is Bad, Average, Good, Great? What a crock.
So we'll keep having students graduate with a HS degree that can't write a proper 5 page essay or do basic math functions. Teachers are supposed to not just instruct but INSPIRE. When everyone gets the same grade/pay, why do the extra work or go the extra mile? Just read from the teacher's edition, re-use last year's plan, and pass those kids on to the next grade <--- Not all CPS teachers by any means, but way too many.
Jay - many industries use experience as a basis for job position and pay grade. This is not unique to education. We hear SINGULAR stories of the young "teacher of the year" being laid off, but those are the exception. Experience in teaching is the #1 way to become a better teacher. It isn't just content knowledge.
And teaching by test scores is producing the exact model you deride in your last paragraph.
The private sector uses GOOD experience, not just how long you've showed up.
Jay, you are an ignoramus. The unions negotitate a contract with the companies. The agreements are the result. You seem to be forgetting the companies forged the agreements, or signed on to the union requirements for access to the best workers in the business.
Now! If there are under-performing union workers, whether they are teachers or other craftsmen, they can be punished, or sent back to the union or rewarded by the company or school by using the agreements and the policies as stated in those agreements!
Every stinking anti-union person on these blogs seems to think there is no way to disipline a union worker who requires punishment or even dismissal. It is all hogwash!
I ran union shops. I was forced to bring in union workers and if they didn't make the grade, I sent them back to sit on the union bench! Once I had gone through the workers on the bench, I was able to go outside and hire people in, and get them into the union. In that way, my company was able to have the best workers, I was responsible for the personnel, and I managed to bring in my jobs on time and under budget!
I hear lots of whines because workers, not in unions, do not get the same great benefits! What did you expect? Did you expect the non-union companies to have better long term benefit plans for you, while the profit motive is the key to their success?
Yes, Unions do support the Democrats! It is because Democrats support the Middle Class.
Republicans, who represent the ultra-rich, are naturally disposed to be against worker's rights. It's logic!
How many times do we have to see the top down economic theory not work, generation after generation?
Here they go again! Romney's trailing by a quarter, Romney applies some whip, the horse turns around and bites him in the ass, where his brains reside!
Jack - I was trying to follow you and then you went off the road with a political rant. I'm a democrat, living in Chicago which you should know is chuck full of fellow democrats. That said, this deal was BS and if you have spent as much time as me following, reading the contract terms from CTUNET website, and have union teachers as your friend, you might be inclined to change your mind.
I'm not a union hater, supported the Caterpillar guys. But this is not workers vs a company trying to low ball them. This is corrupt system where there are a ton of teachers who aren't the best and brightest failing miserably every year and strong arming us into a deal using kids as chips. And what really gets me is they repeatedly hide behind the "we're doing this for the kids" bs when if you look at what they demanded and got, had NOTHING to do with the kids other than a few token items thrown in so it wasn't completely 100% about themelves. Just 95%
I don't doubt your personal experiences with unions, but let me tell you how it works at CTU. Three friends are union members there and what you won't hear is the minority of standup good teachers who are not happy with the bums that keep passing kids off to them. Laugh out loud is the answer they give with why aren't the bad teachers replaced. Act of God has been cited repeatedly. Statistically, .1% were dismissed 2005-2009. That would be 1 in 1000 and if you look at these kids after they graduate, you would be appalled at how anyone thought it was fine to graduate someone who can't do basic math.
Not putting it all on the teachers because Lord knows there are lots of other factors. But I don't have to pay for bad parents or bad living conditions. I am however paying out the nose for probably 30% of the entire teacher staff who wouldn't cut it as bus drivers. No offense to bus drivers.
Jayinflorida, respectfully I believe Chicago and most other school districts have multiple core issues that impede even the most qualified educator. If you were to spend a month in any school classroom in any part of Chicago the differences would be measurable. Once you have spend an equal amount of time in other state school districts. Your assessment may be very different from the one you put forth. I am sure you will agree incompetence is not exclusive of educators or the CTU. You most likely would agree that despite credentials eg. degrees there will always be those who for whatever reason do not measure up. Your comparison of city schools should factor the stark differences between inner city neighborhoods, resources the family structure that in some instances is nonexistant. How can educators succeed when children bring adult experiences and problems to school as their priority? I also know educators and friends who live in various areas of the inner city. No one can justifiably lay blanket blame without really delving into the glaring differences that directly impact the learning environment. I might be presumptive but ask your friends if they would work in any inner city school. My guess is they would dismiss your question responding with "absoluely not." When they do then ask them specifically why they wouldn't. You will have your first clue as to why so many members and the CTU are so protective. Sadly, I know of one elementary level educator who was shot by a student apparently a growing trend. I agree this risk is not exclusive to the work invironment but the profound difference is these are kids doing the shooting not adults. Do you honestly believe this is a non-factor to the learning environment? Try again as my daughter faced a student with a gun in a suburban elementary school.
I'm not smart enough to judge the Chicago School system, but I've read enough to be able to judge good journalism and bad, this was not good. I've no grudge with unions, teachers.
The biggest problem with education is that it is public. While most of you will gasp to think that education should be anything other than public, our model continues to show that schools constricted by governmental red tape at the federal, state, and local levels (not to mention collective bargaining agreements) become horribly inefficient at actually teaching our students.
Let's give a person a set amount per child (equalling what governmental entities currently spend on education), sell all of the schools, and let the private sector educate our students and hire the most competent teachers, determine their pay, etc. Bad schools would close down because they would eventually go unattended (something that does not happen currently) and parents could choose to send their child to any school they saw fit and be more active in choosing where their students went to school.
In short--government has created a horribly inefficient system that, if properly legislated to do so, could exist in the hands of private nonprofit and for-profit schools.
The amount that most people would end up with would not allow them to attend any school that was outside the geographic range they are already in.
The voucher system doesn't pay for transportation and the school bus ain't coming for just you if you live 25 miles away.
A voucher system is simply a method whereby religious schools take money away from public schools. Since there is not supposed to be a government supported religion in the US, the voucher system many people espouse is transparent in its obvious attempt to mandate an eventual theocracy.
to be fair there are pros and cons of teacher unions... on the one hand the union makes it harder to eliminate poor performers (major con). However, to be fair, many districts have frozen salaries for teachers and the teachers have no recourse. Where are good teachers to go? they are at the mercy of the school boards. if the school board says "no tax increases" year after year, the teachers get screwed. Bottom line: if you don't like teacher strikes, set up a better system in which teachers (police, fire, etc.) can bring in mediators to help work out the issues.
Books! Who needs books when there are unions to fry! This is the mentality of the un-educated today!
Jack, you do realize that the their biggest complaint was that the books weren't ALWAYS there at 7am Day one. Sometimes it was the second day due to whatever issue arose. Should they be there on time? Of course, but even the union admitted they were always available within the 1st week.
And the bosses do get performance graded and evaluated, that's why the principles pushed so hard to be in charge of staffing their own school. But again, they lost out because the union insisted it knows the 'best' teachers to staff when there is an opening.
I was never a union hater, but this whole situation ticked me off because this was NEVER about the students and the DID lose out because the 40 year death spiral continues.
and do you know why supv's are reluctant to give 'unsatisfactory ratings', because of the union and the pressure they put on the supv. the system is obviously broken if you have that many students and schools performing at low levels and the majority of your teacher have high marks. Obviously the teachers are not reaching the students. Granted in a city as large as Chicago with a lot of inner city students from high crime areas you are going to have a challenge in reaching students. That is why the emphasis has to be put on reaching 'young children' and get them into the learning and not left behind because of home issues or other circumstances that may cause them to become drop outs later on. the only way to 'fix' the system is to reach children and show them how they can over come their obstacles and make a difference in their life. Otherwise, they give up and stop trying.
What a crock. The teachers union states they don't like bad teachers but it isn't their job to police the teacher ranks. What a COPOUT. If you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem.
The union not only doesn't police its crappier members, it will provide legal protection whenever the school admistration attempts to terminate a bad teacher.
Unions serve only one real purpose, and that is to provide jobs and salary to union leaders
It's the union's job to police the bad teachers? So what are principles and school boards there for? They all should be rated and held accountable too, along with the parents.
"In Finland, where students far out perform American kids, they don’t take standardized tests at all. Students are measured by how well they do on their classroom work and drills."
In Finland they don't have a large segment of society thats just breeding more and more kids to be raised by the system. They have responsible parents that start teaching kids first at home...not in the streets..
In Finland they the dads are involved with the kids they have and don't have 5-10 kids from 6-8 different women.....and glorify it with there trash music....
If we could get rid of this problem we could spend our limited resourses on kids that actually want to learn something useful, and not babysitting kids that are never going to be anything but on the Government dole for all of their needs (housing, food, education, phone, medical, and so on....)
Same old... same old... people on the site saying "kids lose".... let me tell you how it works... when "their" kids are in school NOTHING is too good for the kids.... as soon as they are out "... I'm not paying for these schools"... same old... same old....