Just received this:
Kevin Lee commented onSend a Message of Support to Chicago Teachers
I am one of the teachers in Chicago who is on strike. Education is one of those topics on which very few people actually have knowledge, and those who are least knowledgable seem to have the most say (or yell). The number of people with first-hand knowledge who are engaged in the public discourse is depressingly low.
Teaching in an urban school district is not like what most people think. (It certainly is not like the movies — even the documentaries.) Chicago in particular is the most segregated school district in the nation and we have schools in the middle of deeply impoverished neighborhoods. I teach at a high school which is 100% (maybe 99.9%) African-American. Some of our students have very difficult lives.
As teachers, we notice signs when a student is homeless — and we buy clothes for the student. We see students who are pregnant from rape (typically a mother’s boyfriend). For many students, the school lunch is the only meal of the day. And we have a lot of students who aren’t officially homeless, but are bouncing between the couches of relatives and friends and during the school day are worrying about where they are going to sleep that night. I have had the student who is distraught one day in class because a friend was in the hospital from a shooting or killed.
I can’t even remember all the names of students in the school where I teach who have been murdered. The awful thing is that I don’t even consider the school that I work at one of the most impoverished in Chicago. At a school I worked at previously, we would often write down in our records for some of our students the name of the students’ parole officer (parole officers are easier to contact — numbers for parents are frequently disconnected).
But we teach. We teach our subjects and we teach so much more. We use expertise from our educations and our experiences and pour our blood and sweat into the classroom each day. Unlike most jobs, we don’t really get breaks. Unlike most jobs, we take work home, even after a full day of work where we have come early and stayed past quitting time. Unlike most jobs, we buy many of our own supplies. (This past weekend, I bought $50 or classroom supplies so that my students could work on a project. This is on the low end of what many teachers spend.) And unlike most jobs, the most important things of the job are not even part of the job description. We are not rewarded for the true value that we add to our students’ lives.
There are two main issues in our strike. The school district wants to eradicate the lane and step system. They want education and experience to count for nothing. Companies base pay on education and experience, and traditionally schools districts have as well — and for good reason. When you don’t teach, you don’t really see all of the things that an experienced teacher brings to the classroom. Everything looks easy. You don’t see the fight that didn’t occur at all because the experience teacher could see it before it happened and preempt it. You don’t see the student who didn’t misbehave due to subtle nonverbal cues from the teacher. You don’t see how the lesson completely changed from the lesson plan due to a student’s question and the “teachable moment” that arose (the outside observer would hardly be able to tell that the lesson was actually being extemporaneously created — it would look completely planned). Teachers with experience are the pillars of our school community and our neighborhoods. The board of Chicago Public Schools wants to throw away that experience. And somehow, they think educational achievement and degrees are worth nothing in education. I think that this is crazy.
The school board also wants to institute “merit” pay and use “merit” in our evaluations based on test scores. But how do you really measure “merit”? Do rising student test scores measure “merit”? Does this even work for the music teacher of the foreign language teachers whose subject does not even appear on standardized tests? Perhaps. But teachers receive different students every year. How do you account for differences in the students taught from year to year? How do account for students’ home life? The district has some complicated statistical model which supposedly measures the “value added” by a teacher.
But is this valid? In New York, they are trying to do this. But under this model, there have been teachers receiving wildly different numbers in the same year and wildly different numbers from year to year. If the masters of the universe cannot even properly mathematically model the value of a credit default swap on Wall Street, how can they measure the infinitely more complicated contribution that a teacher makes for her/his students in a year? This is not “merit” pay. This is random pay.
I do not want my career based on random numbers and made-up statistical models, and neither do my colleagues. If I wanted a career based on random chance, I would have never entered teaching and have instead played the lottery every day. We have seen too many times numerically illiterate administrators drive education off the rails with “data.”
Ultimately, we teachers want to be treated with dignity and respect. Chicago Public Schools is paying us for our knowledge, our skills, and our expertise. And yet they will hire outside consultants at great cost — consultants who do not know the subjects we teach and who have never set foot in a classroom. These consultants ignore what we teachers say and give great pronouncements and edicts which are expected to follow. I have a doctorate in my subject and almost two decades of teaching experience.
Why is someone who does not know my subject and who has never set foot in a classroom being allowed to dictate what I should or should not teach? The consultants and busybodies on the school board (there is not a single educator in Chicago Public School’s board — most of the members are rich multimillionaire hobbyists and dilettantes and cronies) seem to think that we teachers are the problem and if only we did exactly what they order, then the world would be right. We teachers, with our hard-won educations and our hard-won experiences, we don’t think so.
We teachers are not a monolithic bunch. Our politics don’t agree. We come from a diversity of backgrounds and hold a diversity of viewpoints. But we are united by our classroom experiences and our everyday engagement with the community. The fact that 90% of the teachers in Chicago (98% of those who voted) authorized the current strike should tell you something. We are not motivated by ideology or theory. Sometimes we are motivated by pay. But really, it is the students with whom we share our lives that really motivate us.
Thank you for standing up for the American education system. I admire and respect you.
As a teacher, I am disturbed by how a poor a teacher you must be to write an entire article without ANY ideas of what you think should be used to evaluate teachers in a failing district that are failing the majority of your students. You make a long list of excuses but zero fixes. YOU claim to have experience then state what should be done in Chicago. How should teachers in Chicago be evaluated? How would you go about firing the worthless, incompetent senior teachers that no longer teach?
Here, here, and thank you and the countless number of other teachers in our country who do it FOR THE CHILDREN every day!!
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear
Thank you for being such a wonderful example of what a teacher is. I’ll be passing your post on to others who need tobe supported instead of maligned.
Thanks to you and your cohorts for standing up for teachers and children in the public schools. I admire your courage and sacrifice.
Your post makes me proud to have been a teacher for 40 years.
Beautifully said! Know there are thousands of other teachers standing with you.
Sometimes the only meal of the day is the school lunch… so we strike… and now those kids don’t eat at all… well done…
If children aren’t eating at home, doesn’t this support the position of the teachers striking for more social workers and support staff?
Wow, Tony. Way to completely not understand what this guy is saying.
Just to let you know, Chicago Public Schools has kept open 144 schools (there are more than 600 schools) so that students can eat meals. These buildings are open in the morning. My school is one of them. We don’t begrudge the people who aren’t part of our union and have to work in the schools and we certainly don’t begrudge the students who come. (There has not been any incidents of teachers crossing the picket line as far as I know.) We are oddly suspicious of the $25 million price tag for this contingency plan. Also, I am not sure why the parking lot at my school is fuller than it is on a regular non-strike school day and why it takes so many adults to feed the less than 10 students who show up breakfast and lunch.
ignorant.
Idiot!
touche… I see you mastered in debate skills…
Every teacher in our nation should be thanking Chicago teachers for leading the way in the fight towards gaining the respect and dignity every teacher deserves
Oh no! Texas teachers do not strike, are not paid nealy as much, take the salary and benefits offered by the district..or don’t! Chicago teachers want yountomthink they are not fighting for more money and benefits but they are.
Thank you so much for telling your story. America needs to hear the reality of teaching in Chicago’s public schools from those deep in the trenches.
Thank you Kevin and all the Chicago teachers! I admire your courage and fight. You are fighting an important fight, that I thought was already lost and over – thank you.
How can we get these letters out to the general public?
Parents thank you too. This is a very powerful read – I would love to see it distributed far and wide.
Until someone has taught for CPS, there isn’t much they can say that is relevant to the conversation. Thank you for giving people a glimpse. I was pooped after teaching 10 years for CPS.
I don’t think very many people get how incredibly important the CTU strike is. I’ve been watching the deformers unravel our educational system since the very first days of NCLB and I truly feel that this strike is the last gasp of our great, equalizing, opportunity creating, informed citizen producing public education system. When this is over, either those teachers and parents who stand for our great public educational ideal will have begun to stem the corporate tide, or else the for-profit vultures will swoop in with a vengeance to despoil the public and line their pockets, as they have been planning for decades.
Dave Eckstrom. You could not be more accurate. Koch Brothers, Gates Foundation, Bain etc. have teachers and their unions in their crosshair for destruction since education jobs can not be outsourced. I pray America wakes up before the election to understand the devious action of the super pacts against the American Middle Class and Poor in addition to our quality of life. Our children will suffer.
Pretty powerful.
I tried to post a link on another entry, but it wouldn’t post. Go to Google or wherever and search for “Director of Private School Where Rahm Sends His Kids Opposes Using Testing for Teacher Evaluations.”
Awesome story.
I found the article by Googling the University of Chicago Lab Schools. I tried to post the link, but it disappeared each time I tried to copy and paste. I have never had that happen.
I just sent that story to Diane. Perhaps she’ll post it.
Thank you for your inspiring letter. Those of us who teach/taught under quite different circumstances and feel the pain of reform for our students who get three meals a day, live in safe environments, and have caring parents understand your sacrifice to bring a real education to all. Our children are not allowed to be children anymore because of testing mania and crib to college mentality. Let’s win this battle for the kids and to maintain our Profession!
Yes let’s do that WITHOUT striking. In Texas, we do not unionize which may be why we are still solvent. unions were needed in the 20’s, not anymore. They are crippling the country. If you don’t like your pay, etc., quit and do something else. And yes, I am a teacher who does Not get paid 70,,000 a year and I have a master’s degree. And yes, I too deal with test mentality. I do not agree with salary based on test scores, but that is Not the main issue to this strike.
Maybe that’s one reason why Texas has such a negative effect on all of our textbooks. Get organized, maybe you’ll be able to use a real textbook and get paid a decent salary as well.
Your views of unions are archaic. I could guess you probably don’t teach Social Studies or perhaps Texas textbooks leave out the importance of the formation of unions.
You really need to read Zinn. You would be shocked at what you’ll learn
Thank you Kevin and please thank all the teachers in Chicago. I am wearing red everyday this week. I support and admire you and you inspire me to keep going. Thank you so much.
This is amazing. Thank you Kevin for giving us all hope!! Keep strong! Will be praying for all you teachers and everyone in the CTU. You will win this!!
Bravo Dr. Lee! One of your points stands out for me: “There is not a single educator on the Chicagfo Public School’s Board.” It’s time for professional educators across this country to insist that school boards be comprised of educators just as other professions’ boards are represented by members of their professions. If education fails, it is because of the incompetency of non-professional attempting to superimpose deviant operational constructs onto education-i.e., merit pay, standardized testing, corporate muck, etc.
Beautifully said Kevin. You captured in words the struggles we all face on a daily basis to provide an education for students who were not “born on third base” and the teachers who choose to make a difference in their lives.
Teaching in an urban inner city school in Kalamazoo Michigan, yes we too are at risk, I share many of the same experiences. I salute Chicago teachers for your courage. Today our local EA voted to send you all a letter in solidarity to your action. Stand firm teachers of Chicago as you are setting the example for the rest of the nation.
Can I get an Amen???!!! This is spot on. I could not have said it any better myself.
AMEN!
Amen!
Well written and well said. However, I do believe that experience should count for something to a certain extent. But school unions have been protecting teachers who are only there for their paychecks for decades. I think that there should be a fair system set up for teachers to protect their grievance process if something should happen. I think failing schools should be open to help from financial advisors to help them budget their monies. I’m not saying that these people should be able to dictate the education end. But there’s a problem when we are shoving 30 kids in a classroom and teachers have to buy their own materials for their classrooms and students. The whole merit pay / basing ineffective and effective teachers according to test scores is ridiculous. Like this Chicago teacher says kids are coming from diverse backgrounds everyday they enter our classrooms. The education system certainly needs to be reevaluated.
You would think a Board of wealthy, corporate business people could figure out how to finance the school system. Apparently not. I’m sure they have access to the best of financial advice. Unfortunately, neoliberalism does not support quality public education for all. In the market, there are winners and losers.
They don’t want to. They would rather have the schools be declared failures, then turn them over to their other wealthy, corporate friends
who are in the education business. Ka-ching!!
I wish I only had 30 students in my classroom. Try 40.
“I think failing schools should be open to help from financial advisors to help them budget their monies.”
Y’know, maybe if they actually *got* the money they’re supposed to get (not to mention the money that wealthy school districts routinely get), they wouldn’t actually have a problem budgeting it.
And, please, ditch the “failing schools” nonsense. Schools aren’t the ones taking tests – the children in them are. You might pause to wonder why so many children in “failing schools” are failing, and why these “failing schools” are found so often in poor minority areas.
The money is going to Pearson–millions of $$, billions of $$ nationwide–spent on test prep materials and tests. Plus–$76 million in Chicago was earmarked for charter schools.
Milwaukee teacher in solidarity!
Be strong, we will send all the help we can. I’m sending money, your fight is my fight.
A retired New York teacher stands with you. Thank you Kevin and all the Chicago teachers for standing up for teachers everywhere. Sometimes in life, one has to be willing to risk it all for a greater good. The Chicago teachers are true leaders. I hope teachers throughout the world grow stronger in their convictions by your brave and noble actions.
This week I usually spend teaching kids about 9/11.I’ve put together a PowerPoint presentation with 20 embedded video clips that traces not just what happened on that horrible day, but how that day shapes so much of our lives today.Would I have much rather been doing this all week long– than marching — yes, yes, a thousand times yes!I also understand your frustration — because I share it.This strike is about so much more than Rahm bullies us so we bully him and therefore the kids are collateral damage. I really believe that people become teachers so we can dedicate our lives to inspiring, engaging and educating children because we believe in them and in the better future they will create. And I do not make the following claim lightly: this fight we are forced to undertake is for the heart and soul of public education.Somehow, this issue is never fully explained. We have seemingly become a nation with a “Jersey Shore” public attention span.How can I explain the movement to “reform” education in 500 words or less?A movement that is billed as being about the kids, yet has resulted in a narrowing of the curriculum so science, social studies, P.E., art, music, foreign language classes have all been reduced to bare bones if they exist at all? A movement that is supposed to put “Children First” but that in reality charges fines for minor infractions such as not tracking the teacher with your eyes, or leaving your seat without permission so you can “bankrupt” the “bad” child out of that charter school Rahm said had the “secret sauce.” Where does that child go? To the neighborhood schools that have been starved of funds and resources, because after-all 25% of kids just aren’t going to make it (a quote Ms. Lewis claims Rahm made during their first meeting)?How can I describe to you what it is like to work in a neighborhood school with traumatized students who only have access to a school nurse 2, half-days a week and a social worker who must handle special education hearings and therefore has no time to meet with them? How do I explain a movement that is billed as being about shifting the costs from the public to the private sector (how is the parking meter deal going for the consumer?) but in reality is corporate welfare (charter schools are funded by the public, private corporations are paid huge sums of public money to sell school test prep curriculum, etc.)?Can I possibly explain it all?I can’t.I can only begin a dialog to try and explain why 98% of every teacher who voted, voted to strike.Surely, it wasn’t because they wanted to bully Rahm.There are real issues at stake for children.And there are real issues at stake for teachers who want to remain a part of the middle class. I can’t apologize for believing that I should be able to keep my job after years of teaching my heart out bolstered by National Board Certification, a statewide award, and only superior ratings to support me. Yet, as a 50-something-year-old, I could be clicked off for no good reason AND also not hired back — again for no reason. I know this has happened to others in the private sector – but it doesn’t make it right.Why have unions if you can’t collectively bargain?And I refuse to believe that collective bargaining is socialism. The GI Bill created a middle class of educated workers and unions served to set the prevailing wage. They are as American as apple pie.
S. M., NBCT
As good a teacher as you may be, I do not support a crippling strike that creates such a hardship on the families of the children and frankly the whole city of Chicago who’s workforce has been affected. I’ve seen about all the arguments on both sides to make an informed choice. I also do not support the union system of supporting mediocrity. I remember horrid teachers in my own education… the union protects teachers like those, too. You teach, you grade students. Why should you not be graded as well? Everyone in corporate america is graded via evaluations, statistics, and other data depending on your position and profession. One could argue students are graded subjectively between teachers. If a young, bright and gifted teacher gets let go because they were the newest teacher, then something is wrong when the teacher with 20 years experience and a master’s who can’t teach at all gets to stay. The best should stay, not the one who’s been there the longest. I do not support this strike. Yes I have a teacher in my family – with 19 years of teaching experience. She was a good teacher.
You make too much sense. You will be reprimanded, shunned and grenades will be thrown in your path until your att-i-tude changes.
Seriously, in the REAL world people don’t have guaranteed jobs and are critiqued on there job performance and compensated accordingly.
In Chicago, educators are paid for a full years work for 9 months of work, plus benefits. You compare that to the private sector, you are NOT under-paid. You’ve been coddled and spoiled.
Granted, Chicago educators deal with trying to educate students with an absolutely horrible home life. The fact is, the educational system is not there to baby sit and feed children. But, this is what liberal Democrat policies have turned it in to.
Nowhere is anybody talking about the destruction of the black family structure by virtue of the epidemic of black males fathering children and then being MIA.
It is true, White and Latino’s are guilty of same but not to the same magnitude. This MUST be addressed. All should be held accountable.
The whole system must be revamped.
Striking as you have now, bullying taxpayers and parents is not for the greater good of the schools or children.
For decades, more and more money has been thrown at the CTU & CPS with less and less results. Daley gave you more and more for labor peace. Taxpayers got less and less.
Now we’re broke.
As far as you’re pension contributions go? Contributions weren’t made and yet you and your union keep voting for the same kleptocrats who neglected to fund your pensions for decades.
Why did you not strike earlier over that? Why did not you union not raise Cain over that years ago.
Because you thought you had clout and — you — would be taken care of.
We’ll now the city is broke and you’re landing in the real world and getting screwed by the realization it’s a corrupt and dysfunctional system.
Walking off the job is the height of stupidity.
There was once a huge Catipillar plant in York, PA that was hundreds of thousands of square feet in operations size and employed thousands of people in high-wage jobs.
In the 1990’s the union declared a strike that went on for years, long after strike pay ended. Ultimately, the plant closed and thousands were out of work and those high-wage jobs never returned.
Educators may feel they are immune to such consequences because they provide a more “essential” services: education/babysitting/nutrition.
Don’t kid yourselves. This is not you Grandparents economy anymore.
Get back to work.
Well stated! I could not agree more.
Obviously teachers need to be evaluated. I don’t think most teachers are opposed to the concept of evaluation. Evaluation is part of life, They are opposed to unfair, illogical evaluation. This is the type of evaluation of teachers in public education that seems to be popular right now. I am not a teacher (my knowledge of the profession comes from relatives who are teachers), and I cannot propose an alternative form of evaluation, but I think if we are going to fire teachers or determine pay based on evaluation results, we need to be sure that our assessment tool is fair. Sometimes realism can be mistaken for “making excuses.”
And while many teachers are not working 12 months a year, they do work long hours after school during the months they do work, grading papers and tests and planning.
Perhaps teachers were coddled in the past, but now they are approaching the point of being persecuted. This is not a good way to attract bright, talented teachers to the profession. It seems fairly understandable to be reluctant to enter a scapegoated profession that seems to be heading in the direction of developing so much regulation that the joy is being sucked out it. For those potential teachers who are able to look past all of that….the more power to them. They are truly courageous, selfless individuals.
My main concern with the strike is that it has perpetuated the perception among the masses that most teachers are greedy, lazy, incompetent losers who don’t really care about educating students. There are certainly teachers out there who fit this profile, but there are a lot who don’t, and stereotyping teachers in this manner is utterly disrespectful.
Nonsense Kat. Teachers have evaluations systems just like “professionals” in the real world. They can also be fired, just like the real world. Want to talk about all the duds in the real world? I’m more than happy to discuss how many incompetent indivuduals go to their corporate jobs every single day.
My late husband was a teacher in St. Louis Public Schools and I know every word you’ve written is true.
Bravo.
Dr Kevin, congratulations to you and your colleagues on taking a stand. The teachers are generally totally undervalued by society, despite the incredibly important work you all do. The problem is that once again it has needed a strike for people to realise the value of their nation’s teachers. I really feel for you, having spent 40 years in education in South Africa… far too many officials care little or nothing for the children or those who teach. Really hope a solution will be found soon which will be for the good of all involved -0children and their teachers!!
Typical teacher holier than thou rhetoric. They work so much harder than the rest of the world. So much harder that they need 2 1/2 months off each summer.
“Unlike most jobs, we don’t really get breaks. Unlike most jobs, we take work home”. Kevin is wrong in this assumption. Most professionals I know don’t get breaks and take work home. Workers paid by the hour (staff level corporate or retail / service workers) likely don’t but I don’t think Kevin is equating teacher’s work to that.
“Companies base pay on education and experience”. In my experience this is not true. I know of no company that just hands out raises because an employee reached an education level or got an advanced degree. Or that gives raises just for hanging around another year regardless of their actual performance (however hard it might be to evaluate). Companies pay employees for performance, not just length of service.
How is your performance measured?
I was a high school teacher in New York City, and I agree 100% with Kevin. Before teaching in NY I was a public school teacher in Hong Kong. What struck me the most about teaching in the US is that teachers here are expected to be “supermen” and “superwomen” who should be able to turn classrooms of kids, no matter how difficult and how little support they receive from parents and politically-driven administrators, into high-achieving academic-minded students. The worst schools in Hong Kong have their own school campus (buildings and playgrounds). In NYC, 5 schools share one building, and the students are shut in the classrooms the whole day with only one lunch break. Their gym class takes place in a parking lot. The American culture, more than any I have know, places supreme importance on glamour, fame, money, beautiful bodies; modeling and entertainment industries are highly esteemed and looked up to. Teenage sex is not eschewed upon in the name of freedom; public school teachers are mandated to hand out condoms to students who ask for them. Teachers, day-in and day-out, have to fight this up-hill battle against the overwhelming larger culture, to tell students not to take short cuts or the easy way out, that having boyfriends to show off and thinness are not as important as hard work, kindness, and discipline. “No,” the administrators say, “If you class is interesting enough, students will be engaged and they will do better in their grades.” And so if anything goes wrong with the children, if they are not learning, it is the teacher’s responsibility! There are irresponsibility and horrible, lazy teachers in the profession, just like in any other profession, but the system and the treatment of teachers–which largely comes from being ignorant of what the teaching job entails–make it extremely difficult if not impossible for the ones who have the heart to teach to do it.
Being Asian, I’m shocked and appalled at how little respect the teaching profession receives in this country, as reflected in the political dialogue, from both Republicans and Democrats, and in the salaries teachers receive compared to other professions. Get this, on the salary chart that I received when I first started teaching, the maximum salary that a teacher could ear was a little over $80,000K, that is, if the teacher possess a PhD degree and has taught 25 years.
In Chicago are the police and fire fighters paid by years of experience? If yes, is the Mayor trying to change that to a performance based system?
Also, what is the Mayor’s plan for the test score part of teacher assessment? Is it a test for the students at the beginning of the year and a test for the students at the end of the year and looking for growth for each student? Or is it just one test per year with no tracking of the scores for individual students from year to year? Or something else?
Thank you Chicago teachers!! I taught in East Orange,New Jersey for 33 years.(retired last July 2011) I loved my profession very much..It got to the point it was time to go because all of the negative comments by Governor Christie and other politicians who know nothing about the classroom. Everybody want to give advice about how we should teach,endless paperwork,evaluation due to test scores,and etc.I could not stand it anymore. By tthe way,many of my colleagues retired as well. Many urban schools are losing experienced teachers due to disrespect of senior teachers,lack of supportfrom administration,and parents. It is time that America start respecting their educators!!!
This is a nicely written article. I think some people miss the point. I truly appreciate teachers and understand your comcerns. However what plan does the CTU have to help improve education in the city of Chicago. Why do we lag behind all of the other major cities in education? The majority of teachers, and it sounds like your one of them Diane are great. There are how ever many others who arent good teachers and dont care. Do you you think you should be paid the same as someone who doesnt care and loafs all day. For the 2012-2013 school year the CTU and CSB will work together the entire year on working out the best way to measure a teacher’s effetiveness, it wont be something shoved down teachers throats. Every where else your judged on how you perform there has to be some type of measuring stick to see how good you are doing or effect you are having. I would love to have a job to where once I was hired I wasnt held accountable and would get a raise every year regardless of how I performed. Who wouldnt want a job like that?
If bad teachers are left in their job, then the administrators are not doing their job.
Who hired those bad teachers?
Who gave them positive ratings?
Teachers don’t hire themselves or rate themselves.
It doesnt matter. The CTU wants to dictate who gets hired back from laid off teachers, they dont want the prinicipal to be able and pick who they want. Also who cant bs their way through an interview to get hired and then once they are hired they are there for life..
That is so true! Administrators do need to be able to weed out bad educators. Unfortunately, they often don’t until its too late and that teacher has tenure. Or, the new administrator inherits the problems the previous person didn’t want to deal with. It is difficult, but needs to be done.
But, Mark, those same teachers may have been laid off due to the economy and deserve to be rehired…just a thought.
Well said! Good luck to you all! As a fellow educator, I fully support you!
Kevin, I recently retired after 38 years in the public school systems of California. I taught during “the good ole days” and feel fortunate that I didn’t have such dire problems. I certainly attribute NCLB as the major cause for the decline in the quality of our educational system. Many administrators simply want their schools to appear statistically sound for the safekeeping of their jobs. They’ve been backed into that corner for their own survival. Our students have become master test takers rather than critical thinkers and problem solvers. It is time for America to wake up to the fact that NCLB did not work. I support your strike and sincerely hope you can hold out until some gains are made. If I lived in Detroit, I’d be on the picket line to support all of your hard working teachers. Best of luck!
Susan, I could not agree more. NCLB has resulted in misuse and abuse of data on many fronts, and the pressure on teachers and administrators to make sure their students get passing scores on a once-a-year “snapshot” of student performance has little to do with the quality of instruction and ongoing monitoring of student progress in the classroom. Best practices are traded for “bubble-test-success” everyday in many of our nation’s classrooms and our students pay a dear price for these actions. After over 30 years in the classroom as teacher and instructional coach, many of those years in high-needs schools, I can honestly say that the data from a standardized test often did not reflect a student’s true academic performance level as measured over time by more reliable assessments, and I remain deeply concerned about the way standardized test data is used to make big decisions for and about our nation’s children and their teachers. Perhaps some of these concerns will be alleviated by the Common Core Standards and new assessments, but that remains to be seen. I advocate stronger teacher evaluation measures and would like to see all teachers who continuously harm students by their unprofessional words and actions out of classrooms today, but I also believe the evaluation process must be fair and based on ongoing classroom observation and a portfolio of the teacher’s work with students. Hats off to the administrators who persist with the painful and very time-consuming process of carefully and repeatedly documenting the deficiencies of those teachers who harm students by their highly ineffective and unprofessional practices. Hats off to the teachers at all levels of experience who are focused on continuous improvement and creative, effective forms of instruction that engage highly diverse groups of students with high-quality, differentiated assessments that are at the heart of student success. You deserve our deepest gratitude everyday for your dedication to every student (whatever it takes) and to the “whole student,” the unique individual who should not be labeled by a grade or a bubble-score. Your work is both honorable and heroic!
While your Post is well written and well articulated. I have relatives and friends who are teachers, if it’s truly how you feel for the children why would you let them suffer? I have bosses who never done a day on my job, while I try to appreciate your point of view I don’t receive a Hefty pension, Medical benefits that rival the Auto Industry, 3 months of Summer Vacation, Holidays, and Personal and Vacation days in addition to the above mentioned time. Also a tenure ship guaranteeing job security, steady pay increases, among other benefits. While the tax payers foot the bill. I also invest money into supplies for my job. I will however agree that the testing standards need to revamped. Also another point being a Loyal Democrat I’m sure you are one of the many voters who supported Obama, and the mayor of your fine city. Susan Varin to your comment about teachers in Detroit many are grateful to have jobs at this time, and also do you plan on retiring so the many college graduates may have an opportunity to have a career?
I read Kevin’s response on the blog you mentioned, Diane. I am so glad you picked up on the tone and sincerity of this teacher’s words and posted it as a separate blog. It truly is awesome. Not all teachers have ever taught in inner city schools like that that Kevin has. Not all teachers can do it either emotionally or physically. They take their skills and talents elsewhere. children need them. That, however, does not in anyway remove them from the impact of his words in his everyday teaching environment. Every teacher has their struggles and meets heartache with some of the children they teach over the years. Nowadays, teachers everywhere are being blamed for failing schools. Nowadays the teacher is treated with so much disrespect by so many. Teachers are not treated as professionals. Nowadays students are being cheated out of a well rounded curriculum because funds are being slashed. Nowadays teachers are test givers and students are test takers. Nowadays educators are being told to do what the bureaucrats and the politicians who keep drinking the kool-aid think is what should be done, and they have no background in education.
Thank-you, Kevin, for expressing and describing what nowadays is the real teaching world everywhere. The Chicago teachers are fighting for all of us everywhere. You and your colleagues stay strong. You have the support of thousands.
Thank you to the teachers of Chicago for taking this stand. It it very much appreciated.
You forgot to mention that standardized tests can be mastered without any real education. We can teach kids the tricks of the ACT, but that doesn’t mean they understand the power of rhetoric or even subject-verb agreement. Education isn’t a business, and those people who want to impose that kind of model aren’t doing it for the sake of the students, they’re doing for their bottom line. Education has just become the next frontier to mine — lob off the top of the mountain even if that top is human beings. Good luck. Stand strong for as long as you can.
Well… I would settle for teaching the kids to pass the ACT over what is being taught /learned now.
I agree whole-heartedly with your statements. I teach band in southeast Iowa and have a masters in music. To base teacher pay on students’ performance on standardized tests, ultimately short-changes the students as well as the teachers. Students lives are not “standardized.” Thank you for taking the risk to stand up united. Stay strong!
Erik Johnson, teachers are paid for 9 months of work. The pay is divided by 12 so there is income during the summer. Also, all great teachers use much their “time off” upgrading their skills, prepping materials, creating new lessons, taking or giving classes, supporting new teachers, organizing their materials and classrooms. This job can consume your life. But if it is your passion, you do whatever it takes to help your students, including spending hundreds of dollars out of your own pocket every year. And as to letting the kids suffer, many are already “suffering” because of the way we have to drag them through the curriculum, rather than teach the skills they need to mastery. Erik, if you reread my post, you’ll see that I am retired. And I am receiving my pension that I paid into for nearly 4 decades. No guilt here.
This was in my local paper on September 11, 2012: “The number of teaching credentials issued from 2004-2010 dropped by 40%, while the number of college students in teacher training programs plunged by 50% This comes from the Task Force Report on Teacher on Education Excellence (State of CA) which also stated, “The state has focused too heavily on holding teachers accountable for standardized test scores without properly equipping instructors and schools. This dangerous combination has driven many accomplished educators out of the profession.” Does this surprise anyone? I personally know of first and second year teachers who have bailed because of pressure applied by their site principals. Instead of supporting them, they have been overbearing in their expectations causing potentially wonderful teachers to second guess their choice of careers and leave. Not just move to another school, but leave the profession they worked so hard to join. We are losing a generation of students to the almighty test score. Do we want to continue to lose great teachers as well? Our children ARE our future. Invest in their future by investing in their teachers who are highly trained professionals.
I’m a teacher in West Virginia and I can tell you what this will come down to…teachers will be trying to pick students like we used to when we were little for a kickball team. We would pick the great kickballers first. The discussions centered around the children would be cruel but necessary. After all, we want great test scores, so we would all want the best students in our classrooms each year. What would be fair? I don’t want my other fourth grade teachers to have smarter kids than me, right? Teachers would fight each other and this would make a great work environment. And you all know that is exactly what we would do. This is one can of worms no one should want to open.
Vickie
Vickie, this pick-and-choose is already happening in many charter schools, particularly as it relates to children with disabilities. Those with emotional and behavioral problems are most at risk, with some schools keeping these students until they get their special education funding (after the first 100 days), then “creatively redirecting” the students and their families back to local districts or to another charter. (I speak from experience as a former special education program specialist for my state). The lack of professional commitment to supporting these and other students with disabilities is tragic, often motivated by administrative concerns regarding standardized test scores. For this practice to become routine in any school is unconscionable, yet it is happening and has been for some time.
A school principal recently discouraged a group of parents from enrolling their Advanced Placement students in AP algebra classes. So now the strategy is to hold bright kids back. Why? This would keep these gifted students in regular classes and boost the overall test scores in those groups. That would certainly help to secure the principal’s job. NCLB has created a monster.
Vicky, at my schools, teachers created the classes for the upcoming year also, taking into account many factors in order to create a well balanced class for each teacher. However, we didn’t know which teacher would be getting those classes. We made the lists, gave them to the principal who then assigned the teacher. It was a pretty fair system.
Beautifully written with the passion of a dedicated urban teacher… thank you!
Thank you for expressing your sentiments so well, in a no-nonsense calm manner. I hope we teachers who will be expereincing similar scenarios next year will remember what you said.
I thank many teachers who do put the time and effort into the kids. I don’t agree with paying automatically for experience – I’ve seen many teachers who put no effort into classwork because they don’t have to due to tenure. And contrary to your article, many other people take work home and continue their days once they leave the office. They also do not get the long breaks or summer vacation that teachers get. All professions have their pros and cons. My feeling is, if you don’t like it, find a new job like everyone else does.
This is a great reflection of how so many educators are feeling in every state. I have to say in reading some of the comments after the blog though, people are really misguided in their beliefs about teachers. I think if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard how lucky I am to have three months off and great benefits, I’d be a wealthy teacher. Well, let me set some of you straight. We don’t get three months off in the summer because most of us are taking classes to further our own education, not so we can make more money, because I haven’t had a raise in four years. We also spend the rest of that time working in our classrooms to be prepared for the next school year. As far as benefits go, they go up every year and the insurance company denies everything and the copays are high. So if that makes us spoiled, then there are some very unfortunate individuals who obviously live in a bubble where reality isn’t what they are checked into. The last thing I’d like to comment on is one individual who actually acted as if, up til now, teachers have been hired and lived this accountability free existence where we get hired in and set up housekeeping forever so we can be bad teachers and live the high life on the taxpayers dollars. So not true, my friend. We have always been held to a higher standard, evaluated, and given feedback about our performance. Not only that, but a truly decent teacher will always hold him or herself accountable for the education of the children in that classroom because those are the people we are in the classroom for, not some foolish politician, or to be watchdogged by a system that does not work.
Your.article is interesting. Just a question…are ALL teachers in the district good teachers and if not now do you get rid of them ?
This says it all.
http://educationnext.org/what-the-chicago-strike-is-really-about/
Amen, stay strong, and thank you for caring for your students-sometimes that’s all the care they will receive!
Thank you so much! This is what I have been attempting to articulate in so many ways on so many forums.
It is amazing how every time an issue comes up in the education system the rhetoric is “we do it for the children” Yet any time a suggestion comes up about improvement, or even an experiment with demonstrated results, The defense of the status-quo is all you here from the union. No one is looking to take the experienced teacher out of the class room. But ask yourself are you happy with the results? Is our school system as it is doing what is best for the children? What other industry do you get paid more simply for going to school. Shouldn’t the new knowledge obtained from the higher education produce better results? If you are paid more for a Masters or a Doctorate what is it that you are adding to the education of those children? Why is it that the people who test our students and evaluate their progress think it is so hard to do the same for them. Outside of working for the government which our teachers do everyone is evaluated. Yes some of those evaluations are not fair. Once the system is set up you can improve upon it. How about the Union and teachers get together and create an evaluation then you can have a serious debate about the merits of each instead of simply screaming NO! whenever there is a suggestion of improvement. Are our schools in better shape then when we went? As all of the school unions became more powerful. Has the product improved? To most of us the answer comes easily.and adding money has proven disastrous results.
I didn’t find the letter very Meaningful to the issues on the table.
First, teachers are not the only ones who get in early and leave late. In fact, that’s more the rule in most professions.
Second, all professions deal on a day to day basis with the unexpected, so to make it sound like teachers are exceptional in having to react to unplanned events is simply ignorance of the real workplace. Do you think an ER nurse or doctor. Has a script planned out for the Friday night activities in the ER?
Lastly, if you’re complaining about making $ 70k with summers off, you ought to see the line that would form to take over your job!
As a New York teacher I offer my support. I also don’t understand why people blame teachers for the way the school year is scheduled. Research has proven that students forget things over the summer break. I don’t know that families would support year long school but that schedule would probably help children. We didn’t make the calendar, but as with many things that impact our profession, it’s not in our control. Also, all tenure does is ensure that a teacher has a right to a hearing before they are let go. I think I speak for many in our profession that are not interested in keeping staff on who don’t do their jobs. Because of the nature of our job it is helpful to have protection from parents or administrators who have personality conflicts. We don’t have a problem on being evaluated. But using test scores is NOT a fair tool because we are not the only factor that influences how well a child does.
Nothing is being stated about the school year though it would be something worth looking into. Gail you say you have no problem being evaluated yet your Union and every other Teachers union has a problem with it. If using Test scores is not a good way what is? Others complain how Charter schools take money out of the system for the public schools. They take the money out because they took the children out. Remember the money was suppose to be to teach those children. You would be hard pressed to find a teacher or a Principal explain where all of that money goes. Yet in the Private sector someone is always responsible to explain where the funds go. The teachers have the right to collective bargain, what they should not have the right to do is pay off the people the bargain with in the form of Political donations. What company gets a kick back from the union after negotiating the salaries of its memebers?
Very thoughtful points. Having posted it elsewhere, and now here, I suggest taking a moment to proofread it. You would expect the same from your students for something this important.
Thank you for that. I am aware of the typos and various slips. Alas, this “post” or “essay” in reality began life as a random comment in a blog post. (The elsewhere that it exists is also as a random comment in someone else’s blog.) The wider distribution for this has been mostly an accident of fate.
Wow, it amazes me how people on both sides are arguing their defense and not actually hearing what they are saying. I worked in industry for 15 years before switching careers and moving into education. I can honestly say I work harder as a teacher than I did in my job in the communications industry. I do make comparable pay to my previous job now although it has taken 20 years of service to do it. There were some lean years when I started as an educator. I get paid for 9 months of work and it gets spread out over 12 months. I have yet to actually see “3 months” off. I may, if lucky, squeeze about 4-5 weeks off where I’m not responsible for something directly related to teaching or keeping my professional certification so I can keep my job. That’s what I had in my previous job after 15 years. I could take my vacations when I wanted to then. I can only take my vacations between mid June and mid August now. I had a health plan that I paid into in my previous job that was very similar to the one I have at my current school. I had a retirement account through a large investment company which I paid into and the employer matched it. I was evaluated once per year in my previous job and had the option to join a union but was not required. I signed a contract each year which I had to negotiate with my immediate superior and the corporate lawyers. That was not easy and I got eaten alive on a few occasions by their New York lawyers. I was evaluated by my superior strictly on my performance in my job and how he as a professional in the same field thought I did. If I had to base my pay and job security on one test given to a group of 7th and 8th graders who knew nothing about how I did my job, I would have left sooner. I watch my students take some of the state mandated tests and cringe when I see them drawing dot to dot puzzles on a scantron or sleeping during a timed portion of the test. That’s supposed to be a fair evaluation of my performance? No parent, no adminstrator, no other teacher will see that student’s indifference because I’m the one proctoring the test and I can’t influence them in my room while they are testing. They will only see the final numbers or the media spin on the scores. I think we as professional educators can contribute in a positive way to improving our profession and not trying to excuse away the questionable parts. Our product isn’t perfect yet but we continue to improve on it and it will happen if we don’t have to put up with profiteers and politicians trying to cut the legs out from under us. We can’t do it if we have our ability to negotiate take away or if we have to negotiate with people who know nothing about what it is like to be in front of a classroom full of adolescents everyday. We are professionals. We know our craft as well, if not better, than a politician or a boardmember who was given the position. I work in a state where the legislature seems to have a vindetta out against educators. They have their high paid superpack working to help them stay in office and keep all their perks, which I also pay for. While the union I belong to helps me keep my job and some of the benefits, which as a tax payer I also pay for. But according to the politicians I’m over paid, under worked, and don’t deserve any benefits for the sacrifices I make to do my job in a professional manner. Several politicians who fit that description too. I didn’t go into education to get rich and 70K per year is by no means rich, especially compared to some of our elected officials. The Chicago teachers deserve the terms they have asked for and the respect that should be given to them. In other countries, it is expected that students thank the teacher each day after class for taking the time to teach them. If we instill that value in our students about their teachers instead of publicly demeaning them, just maybe we could fix some of the problems and indifference that seem to be dragging our kids down and keeping us from being viewed as the best educational system in the world.