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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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Another Hack writing crap he thinks folks want to hear. Teachers are bad.....bad because they dared to question the yearly dirve and schemes upwardly mobile superintendents have to get attention to themselves. Ever notice after a short time screwing over teachers they move into more profitable government jobs....with more benefits....We have had them in San Diego one after another....School to real political profiteering on their parts. What is really screwed up is these "experts" never taught for any real time in real challenging situations. Some diploma mill gave them a PhD....and annointed them gods. They start out ten times the wages of a teacher at the top of the scale....think about it! The Universities are not cranking out real leaders in education....they are turning our CEO's and future politicians! Show me a leader in any industry who makes the industry grow and I will show you an inspiring leader the workers will listen to and follow. Mitt Romney and George his dad....did not lead....they raped and pillaged the companies they ran....AMC...Harley Davidson....Jeep....Gateway...and the list goes on. They made big bucks for the short term investors but destroyed the companies....These are not leaders...They are two bit hustlers who dupe the ignorant and pick their pockets. KInd of like the shylock ministers of past times.
A Teacher is only one part of the reason a student is learning other factors play into the success the student has when is the last time the student had a meal ? How involved is the student with the gangs ? ( most time students are involved with gangs just to stay alive) Are the Parents involved ? Do they care or are they so busy just trying to survive they don't even know the Teachers name ? Does the student have clean clothes ? Is the student being bullied ? What about domestic violence ? Is the student living with a violent person ? Or are the students Parents in jail ? Does the student have a child of her own ? Is the baby's dad involved ? And make no mistake about it when students live in the inner city and make it to school alive it's a WIN! The problem with most Americans is they have no idea about the poverty in their own neighborhoods or the next neighborhood over you know the area you never go to, the one you would not be caught dead in because you would be. So if you want to evaluate Teachers feel free but at least be fair and look at the whole picture.
So how does Finland get their top college students to become teachers? Their pay must be superior to other jobs or it wouldn't happen. Compare that to teachers pay in the USA. It is one of the lowest paying jobs for the college educated. Not only that, at every turn the teaching profession is slammed by politicians and others who think they know better, even though they were never educated in the field. Do politicians tell physicists how to do their jobs better? Does poor parenting make a physicists job more difficult? Only on the Big Band Theory...
One of the lowest pay for collage graduates? Are you crazy? $75,000 for 9 months work, great benefits, 2 wks off for Christmas, impossible to fire for low performance. I see collage graduates working at McDonald's, now thats one of the lowests paying jobs, and much harder work.
So a McDonald's employee is gonna tell me their job is harder than mine? Guess what, they wouldn't last 5 minutes in a high school classroom. They wouldn't know what to say or do. However, I could start there as a manager and hit the ground running from the start.
Has anyone bothered to ask this person if it represents a lynching or just trying to draw attention to an empty chair as a political statement? I find it disturbing how liberals will give Muslims the benefit of the doubt but not Americans with a differing point of view then theirs.
1 Give all the teachers a simple multiple choice test. If they fail then they get fired. 2 Buy a real set of parents for each of the students who want to be in school. 3 start a trade school for anyone who does not want to attend traditional school. 4 cut loose anyone who does not want to be in school. We are all guaranteed an education if we want one . We are all guaranteed a right to choose. Choose a gang or drugs as opposed to school and its OK. The US should not in the business of micromanaging individuals. Giving options is the answer. Education while incarcerated might help a few too.
Why does our education cost more per student than anyone else in the world with some of the worst results? Why do our teachers not have the resources to do their jobs? I do know our local teachers make 1/2 of what these Chicago teachers, yet we also have budget problems. Just a few disabled students take a big share of the budget we have. Just a few students can disrupt an entire class. Why is it that we know the solution to all of these problems yet refuse to solve them?
the whole system is crap. College entrance exam (SAT, ACT) are lower than the 1960's average, yet the average GPA has increased from a "C" to a "B".
FACT: Students studying to be "teachers" are the poorest performing college level student by a significant margin.
Ignorant Parents and teachers are cooking the books to maintain a system that sees 1/3 of its funding reach the classroom. Essentially sabotaging the future of America.
Chicago teachers are the most incompetent in the nation, probably the world.
I agree with your statement 100 percent. The teachers look at there job as a entitlement. They are totally incapable of the job.
How very "scientific" of you. If you were to give standardized tests to every person in America, teachers as a group would have far higher scores than other groups of workers in America. Therefore, are all those people incompetent at their jobs too?
By the looks and sounds of that bunch of "teachers", I would not want my child taught by them.
This is such a well-written and thoughtful piece. If education is your area of expertise and you write again on this subject, there is one other issue the teachers were striking over that has gotten little press and was not even mentioned in the tentative contract. Teachers also want equal resources for all students. When the rich kids get more money for their education, and the poor children outnumber them by 87 percent, it becomes a glaring issue. And next time let's talk about the role -- or lack thereof -- of the parents in education. My parents stood over me with a whip and made me do my homework and when I didn't understand something they helped me understand it. I don't think there's much of that going on today.
Thank you for this story. It really is great.
The problem in America is that you have uneducated very young people having children. They cannot help their children with their homework because they do not know how. Most rely on government assistance and live in substandard housing units. Crime is rampant in these places. Education/graduation/college is not a topic of conversation in these homes. It is a proven fact that most children who grow up with a parent, or parents, relying on government assistance will be on it themselves. Welfare is a generational habit. Poor children are bound in chains by ignorance, for them to escape from such they must have validation from home that education is the most important thing in this world and poverty can be escaped when you have an education.
In Chicago the biggest losers are the taxpayers. The 2nd biggest losers are the students who have the same lousy teachers. And on and on it goes.
let's see if we all have this straight. Average salary of $ 69 k - $ 76 K - they are worried about the laid off teachers and their pay - but it's ALL ABOUT THE KIDS !!! Government employees should NOT be allowed to unionize! Notice how 'ol Obama stayed clear of the issue ? Yeah - he wants those Union votes! The kids lose (as always) with overpaid and under-achieving teachers...
Let me remind you people that teachers in this nation generally were some of the best students when they were in K-12, they graduated from college, had to complete credential courses to become "highly qualified". At what point does society say, you know kids need to take advantage of a free public education with parents who wont undermine the system.
Everyone wants to blame the teachers but when did it get so difficult for kids to learn to read? When I was in 1st grade I could read better than half the students I have. My girlfriend's 2nd grade daughter can write more creative stories than my high schoolers who want to be spoonfed everything, or just copy off someone else. When I was in High school back in the 80's I never heard other students say: "if I don't do this assignment will my grade go down?" NOBODY EVER SAID THAT. Now, it's an everyday question that I have to roll my eyes. Teachers didn't cause that. I would say reading scores started to decline in proportion to the video gaming industry's rise in the marketplace. In other words, too many distractions, not enough self control, personal discipline, & lack of parental guidance, etc.
There are definitely underperforming teachers but the issue has been grossly exaggerated, and issues like student and parental accountability have been totally ignored.
Chicago sounds kinda like Lake Woebegon, where all the children are above average.
So because many students have no ambition, no self control, refuse to do what's necessary to improve their grades/test scores the teachers should be fired?
Then, by the same rationale Microsoft should fire every single employee because their stock price hasn't grown in over 10 years, and it's ALL ABOUT THE SHAREHOLDERS, right?
Why are we performance rating only the teachers? Why is a teacher held accountable for the poor performance of a kid that misses 80 days of school a year? Seems performance ratings should be extended to the principles, school board and yes, even the parents. They all have a hand in student performance, and teachers can't counteract the performance of bad principles or parents. Just rating the teachers is nothing more than finger pointing.