CHICAGO — Educators in Los Angeles just signed a new deal with the city’s school district. So, too, did teachers in Boston. Both require performance evaluations based in part on how well students succeed, a system that’s making its debut in Cleveland.
So what’s the problem in Chicago, where 25,000 teachers in the nation’s third-largest district have responded to an impatient mayor’s demand that teacher evaluations be tied to student performance by walking off the job for the first time in 25 years?
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To start, contract agreements in other cities have hardly come quickly or with ease. They were often signed grudgingly, at the direction of a court or following negotiations that took years. And mayors and school officials have also won over reluctant teachers by promising to first launch pilot projects aimed at proving a concept many believe is inherently unfair.
“It has been a very tough issue across the country,” said Rob Weil, a director at the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions. “Teachers in many places believe that they see administrations and state legislatures creating language and policies that’s nothing more than a mousetrap.”
Chicago’s teachers have drawn the hardest line in recent memory against using student test scores to rate teacher performance. And Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing hard to implement the new evaluations. That clash is one of the main points of contention in a nasty contract dispute between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, which President Karen Lewis has called “a fight for the very soul of public education.”
The strike, which has left approximately 350,000 students out of class as the city and the union also fight over pay and job security, entered its fourth day Thursday. After late-night talks Wednesday, both sides expressed optimism that students could be back in class as soon as Friday.
The push to judge teachers in part by their student’s work stems from the reform efforts of the Obama administration, which has used its $4 billion Race to the Top competition and waivers to the federal No Child Left Behind law to encourage states to change how teachers are assessed.
Teachers unions argue that doing so ignores too many things that can affect a student’s performance, such as poverty, the ability to speak English or even a school’s lack of air conditioning. Or as said by an incredulous Dean Refakes, a physical education teacher in Chicago, “You are going to judge me on the results of the tests where there could be some extenuating circumstances that are beyond my control?”
Yet, tempted by the money offered by the federal government, lawmakers have made that directive in several states. In Florida, 50 percent of teacher appraisals must be based on student scores on standardized tests. In California, after the state legislature mandated the use of student progress benchmarks to rate teachers, an education reform group sued the Los Angeles Unified School District to force the issue.
So what’s the problem in Chicago, where 25,000 teachers in the nation’s third-largest district have responded to an impatient mayor’s demand that teacher evaluations be tied to student performance by walking off the job for the first time in 25 years?
Gallery
It seems as if a new phone hits the market everyday. Here’s a look at some of the latest smartphones.
More business news
Hayley Tsukayama New phone isn’t revolutionary, but analysts say the enhancements should keep it competitive.
Sarah Kliff New research on milk pricing suggests a small fat tax, increasing the relative cost of fattier foods by a quarter or two, could go a long way.
Danielle Douglas Roughly 17 million adults are without a checking or savings account. Another 51 million adults have a bank account, but use pawnshops, payday lenders or rent-to-own services.
To start, contract agreements in other cities have hardly come quickly or with ease. They were often signed grudgingly, at the direction of a court or following negotiations that took years. And mayors and school officials have also won over reluctant teachers by promising to first launch pilot projects aimed at proving a concept many believe is inherently unfair.
“It has been a very tough issue across the country,” said Rob Weil, a director at the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions. “Teachers in many places believe that they see administrations and state legislatures creating language and policies that’s nothing more than a mousetrap.”
Chicago’s teachers have drawn the hardest line in recent memory against using student test scores to rate teacher performance. And Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing hard to implement the new evaluations. That clash is one of the main points of contention in a nasty contract dispute between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, which President Karen Lewis has called “a fight for the very soul of public education.”
The strike, which has left approximately 350,000 students out of class as the city and the union also fight over pay and job security, entered its fourth day Thursday. After late-night talks Wednesday, both sides expressed optimism that students could be back in class as soon as Friday.
The push to judge teachers in part by their student’s work stems from the reform efforts of the Obama administration, which has used its $4 billion Race to the Top competition and waivers to the federal No Child Left Behind law to encourage states to change how teachers are assessed.
Teachers unions argue that doing so ignores too many things that can affect a student’s performance, such as poverty, the ability to speak English or even a school’s lack of air conditioning. Or as said by an incredulous Dean Refakes, a physical education teacher in Chicago, “You are going to judge me on the results of the tests where there could be some extenuating circumstances that are beyond my control?”
Yet, tempted by the money offered by the federal government, lawmakers have made that directive in several states. In Florida, 50 percent of teacher appraisals must be based on student scores on standardized tests. In California, after the state legislature mandated the use of student progress benchmarks to rate teachers, an education reform group sued the Los Angeles Unified School District to force the issue.