BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporters September 12, 2012 9:52AM
Student rally in support of the Chicago Teachers Union strike at Wells High School Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012. | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times
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Editorial: Teachers risk losing a lot if strike drags onBrown: GOP candidates side with Emanuel on strikeMarin: Emanuel picked fight with teachersSteinberg: Teachers walk out, so I step in ...
Updated: September 12, 2012 10:38AM
Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey, before entering Wednesday’s negotiations, said there was “no way’’ talks would wrap up Wednesday and that if the school board doesn’t move more in its position, “this could be a long strike.’’
“There’s still a ton of work to do at the table,” Sharkey said.
“There are many issues that I think, in terms of the critical areas, the board is hardening up their position on.”
The written proposal from Chicago Public School officials on Tuesday included some new items, but “it was just not any kind of breakthrough.”
Mostly, Sharkey said, “we got a summary of the board’s position with a few things moved around.”
Asked if talks could wrap up Wednesday, Sharkey said, “No way...The board has to compromise or this could be a long strike.”
Sharkey called it “weird” that School Board President David Vitale late Tuesday publicly demanded a written proposal back from the CTU.
“The more interesting question is, `Why is he asking that?’” Sharkey said. He called the demand a “weird line in the sand because the two sides are doing nothing but giving proposals back and forth.”
Sharkey said the union has heard for months that CPS plans to close 100 schools–something one CPS spokeswoman denied Tuesday. He said the union suspects the effort will “undercut neighborhood schools and steer more business to charters,’’ which do not employ CTU members.
Over the years, CPS been closing schools for both under-performance and under-use, and converting some of them to charter schools, which are publicly funded but enjoy many private-school freedoms. No schools were closed for solely for under-use this past school year as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new school team wrestled with the criteria to do so.
However, a CPS application for funding from the Gates Foundation laid out plans to open 60 charter schools over five years.
School closures is just one reason the issue of what to do with laid-off teachers is critical to the union. Closures and other forms of shakeups also tie into the importance, for the CTU, of teacher evaluations, because teacher ratings on those evaluations can sink or buoy a laid-off teacher looking for a job.
Sharkey noted that a new state law requires that CPS tie a minimum of 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation to student growth, but CPS has chosen to eventually link 45 percent to 55 percent of a teacher’s rating to growth, as measured by standardized tests, systemwide “performance tasks” or assignments, and student surveys about their teachers.
At Wells High School on Wednesday morning, about 50 students and parents rallying in support of teachers addressed the testing issue.
Carrying signs that read “Don’t test me Bro!” and “Testing does not equal learning,” and chanting “1,2,3,4, more than just a test score,” the protesters argued that their teachers should not be judged by student test scores.
Roosevelt High School junior Victor Alquicira, 16 – one of the leaders of the demonstration – said “It’s not fair to judge teachers on student test scores when there so many factors beyond their control.”
Alquicira said an increased focus on testing meant he had “lost count” of the number of tests he’d taken in the last year, adding, “testing isn’t learning - that’s time we could have been engaging with our teachers and actually learning something.”
Protestors said the typical Wells student will take 19 hours of tests this year, an increase of eight hours over last year.
While they were vague about how teachers should be evaluated, most of the protesting students said they’d prefer teachers to be graded by certified monitors sitting in on lessons.
They said evaluation should emphasize feedback and training for teachers.
The union’s objection to the board’s teacher evaluation procedure “is about whether high-stakes tests are going to be used to drive everything that goes on in a school building,’’ Sharkey said. It amounts to making, eventually, a minimum 45 percent of a teacher’s rating based on “factors we don’t control” – such as a heat wave during testing day, or “a student who gets shot a week before the test and there’s no social worker in my school,” Sharkey said.
Recent graduate Dwayne Hoye, 19, said his experience of testing at Orr Academy during a stressful period in his family showed why teachers shouldn’t be judged by test scores.
“When I took the test, I tried but I ran out of time,” he said. “At the end I just put anything I could down. If CPS had its way, (my teacher) Mr. Bellamy would have been judged a bad teacher just because I couldn’t concentrate that day.”
storyidforme: 36838381
tmspicid: 13452504
fileheaderid: 6210341
Editorial: Teachers risk losing a lot if strike drags onBrown: GOP candidates side with Emanuel on strikeMarin: Emanuel picked fight with teachersSteinberg: Teachers walk out, so I step in ...
Updated: September 12, 2012 10:38AM
Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey, before entering Wednesday’s negotiations, said there was “no way’’ talks would wrap up Wednesday and that if the school board doesn’t move more in its position, “this could be a long strike.’’
“There’s still a ton of work to do at the table,” Sharkey said.
“There are many issues that I think, in terms of the critical areas, the board is hardening up their position on.”
The written proposal from Chicago Public School officials on Tuesday included some new items, but “it was just not any kind of breakthrough.”
Mostly, Sharkey said, “we got a summary of the board’s position with a few things moved around.”
Asked if talks could wrap up Wednesday, Sharkey said, “No way...The board has to compromise or this could be a long strike.”
Sharkey called it “weird” that School Board President David Vitale late Tuesday publicly demanded a written proposal back from the CTU.
“The more interesting question is, `Why is he asking that?’” Sharkey said. He called the demand a “weird line in the sand because the two sides are doing nothing but giving proposals back and forth.”
Sharkey said the union has heard for months that CPS plans to close 100 schools–something one CPS spokeswoman denied Tuesday. He said the union suspects the effort will “undercut neighborhood schools and steer more business to charters,’’ which do not employ CTU members.
Over the years, CPS been closing schools for both under-performance and under-use, and converting some of them to charter schools, which are publicly funded but enjoy many private-school freedoms. No schools were closed for solely for under-use this past school year as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new school team wrestled with the criteria to do so.
However, a CPS application for funding from the Gates Foundation laid out plans to open 60 charter schools over five years.
School closures is just one reason the issue of what to do with laid-off teachers is critical to the union. Closures and other forms of shakeups also tie into the importance, for the CTU, of teacher evaluations, because teacher ratings on those evaluations can sink or buoy a laid-off teacher looking for a job.
Sharkey noted that a new state law requires that CPS tie a minimum of 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation to student growth, but CPS has chosen to eventually link 45 percent to 55 percent of a teacher’s rating to growth, as measured by standardized tests, systemwide “performance tasks” or assignments, and student surveys about their teachers.
At Wells High School on Wednesday morning, about 50 students and parents rallying in support of teachers addressed the testing issue.
Carrying signs that read “Don’t test me Bro!” and “Testing does not equal learning,” and chanting “1,2,3,4, more than just a test score,” the protesters argued that their teachers should not be judged by student test scores.
Roosevelt High School junior Victor Alquicira, 16 – one of the leaders of the demonstration – said “It’s not fair to judge teachers on student test scores when there so many factors beyond their control.”
Alquicira said an increased focus on testing meant he had “lost count” of the number of tests he’d taken in the last year, adding, “testing isn’t learning - that’s time we could have been engaging with our teachers and actually learning something.”
Protestors said the typical Wells student will take 19 hours of tests this year, an increase of eight hours over last year.
While they were vague about how teachers should be evaluated, most of the protesting students said they’d prefer teachers to be graded by certified monitors sitting in on lessons.
They said evaluation should emphasize feedback and training for teachers.
The union’s objection to the board’s teacher evaluation procedure “is about whether high-stakes tests are going to be used to drive everything that goes on in a school building,’’ Sharkey said. It amounts to making, eventually, a minimum 45 percent of a teacher’s rating based on “factors we don’t control” – such as a heat wave during testing day, or “a student who gets shot a week before the test and there’s no social worker in my school,” Sharkey said.
Recent graduate Dwayne Hoye, 19, said his experience of testing at Orr Academy during a stressful period in his family showed why teachers shouldn’t be judged by test scores.
“When I took the test, I tried but I ran out of time,” he said. “At the end I just put anything I could down. If CPS had its way, (my teacher) Mr. Bellamy would have been judged a bad teacher just because I couldn’t concentrate that day.”