Archives for category: Chicago
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Chicago Teacher: I Need Your Help

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
58

A reader writes and asks for our support:

Chicago has the Broad virus http://goo.gl/GKM2m I am a Chicago Teacher and not a fighter by nature at all. I am completely out of my comfort zone with this strike. I look with longing at my classroom window each day on the picket line.

However, I am angry that my students and dedicated colleagues are being used (and abused) as pawns in political and corporate games. When I read articles like the one I posted and read the information from these blogs, I shake my head in disbelief. If I don’t stay strong and help my union stand up to this really awful attack–who will?

What really hurts are the lies and slander. How can the media spin it so well where people truly believe that children mean nothing to the people who have chosen as their life’s work to help them succeed. They believe money is what drives teachers and why we aren’t working.

But corporate billionaires (or millionaires) and politicians–oh, yes, of course, they are the ones who truly work for the children of our public schools. What bizarro world do we live in? We teachers have done nothing wrong and should not be shamed. I don’t think politicians and the corporate elite who are deforming public education can say the same.

However, I and other Chicago teachers need help in staying strong. This striking is hard (mentally), It is not fun. It is not an extra vacation. We are not always supported on the picket lines (mostly yes–but there have been a few aggressive misinformed people). Any kind word or comments on any message board that is about the strike is much appreciated. I read them daily before I go to bed to remind myself that giving up would be greedy not digging in for the fight. Thanks for reading. Teacher

Categories Broad Foundation, Chicago, Education Reform, Unions

The Chicago Teachers’ Strike: Two Visions

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
4

This is my analysis of the strike, posted on the website of the New York Review of Books.

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Democrats, Duncan, Arne, Emanuel, Rahm, Merit pay, Obama, Privatization, Race to the Top

Debating the Teachers Strike

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
7

I was on an NPR show called “To the Point” today, where a panel debated the teachers’ strike. The discussion of the strike begins 24 minutes into the show.

Other panelists included Juan Jose Gonzalez, the Chicago director of Stand for Children, who opposed the union; Timothy Knowles of the University of Chicago, who advised Mayor Rahm Emanuel; Rick Perlstein, author; and me.

It was a spirited discussion, to say the least.

Categories Chicago, Education Reform

What Does Equal Educational Opportunity Mean in Chicago?

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
10

An article that appeared in “In These Times” describes the school where Mayor Rahm Emanuel sends his children. It is the University of Chicago Lab School. President Obama chose it for his girls when he lived in Chicago. Arne Duncan is a graduate.

It is a wonderful progressive school, originally founded by John Dewey. It has small classes, a broad and rich curriculum, wonderful facilities, a beautiful library, seven full-time arts teachers for a student body of 1,700 students, and a lovely campus.

This is from the article:


The conditions at the University of Chicago Lab Schools are dramatically different than those at Chicago Public Schools, which are currently closed with teachers engaged in a high-profile strike. The Lab School has seven full-time art teachers to serve a student population of 1,700. By contrast, only 25% of Chicago’s “neighborhood elementary schools” have both a full-time art and music instructor. The Lab School has three different libraries, while 160 Chicago public elementary schools do not have a library.

“Physical education, world languages, libraries and the arts are not frills. They are an essential piece of a well-rounded education,” wrote University of Chicago Lab School Director David Magill on the school’s website in February 2009.

Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis agrees with Magill, and believes what works for Mayor Emanuel’s kids should be a prescription for the rest of the city.

“I’m actually glad that he did [send his kids to Lab School] because it gave me an opportunity to look at how the Lab school functions,” Lewis told Chicago magazine in November 2011. “I thought he gave us a wonderful pathway to seeing what a good education looks like, and I think he’s absolutely right, and so we love that model. We would love to see that model throughout.”

One of the key sticking points in union negotiations is that Emanuel wants to use standardized tests scores to count for 40 percent of the basis of teacher evaluations. Earlier this year, more than 80 researchers from 16 Chicago-area universities signed an open letter to Emanuel, criticizing the use of standardized test scores for this purpose. “The new evaluation system for teachers and principals centers on misconceptions about student growth, with potentially negative impact on the education of Chicago’s children,” they wrote.

CTU claims that nearly 30% of its members could be dismissed within one to two years if the proposed evaluation process is put into effect and has opposed using tests scores as the basis of evaluation. They’re joined in their opposition to using testing in evaulations by Magill.

Writing on the University of Chicago’s Lab School website two years ago, Magill noted, “Measuring outcomes through standardized testing and referring to those results as the evidence of learning and the bottom line is, in my opinion, misguided and, unfortunately, continues to be advocated under a new name and supported by the current [Obama] administration.”

Categories Chicago, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm

This Mainstream Writer Respects Teachers

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
12

This is a column written for U.S. News and World Report by an experienced journalist.

Yes, she understands what teachers are dealing with.

Thank you, Susan Milligan!

We can’t improve education if we don’t improve the conditions of teaching and learning.

It is hard to read the comments that follow this post or any other.

There are many people who seem to think that teachers are vastly overpaid, greedy, lazy, selfish, and incompetent. You have to wonder, who is going to enter this profession that commands so little respect? Who are these people who think that all teachers who want a decent middle-class standard of living should be fired?

I was on a radio show this morning and one of the eminent panelists said that Mayor Rahm Emanuel should relish the opportunity to fire 6,000 teachers. I don’t understand people who harbor such enmity in their hearts. Do they think it helps kids to fire their teachers? Do they have any evidence for their meanness of spirit as public policy?

Categories Chicago

The Diane Rehm Show: Me Vs. Three

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
35

Diane Rehm is one of the best interviewers on national radio (WAMU in DC).

I always enjoy being on her show.

This morning, I was invited to discuss the Chicago teacher strike, and discovered to my chagrin, that the lineup was three against one.

I defended the teachers and discussed their aims and the conditions in the Chicago public schools.

On the other side was Rick Hess of the conservative American Enterprise Institute; Andrew Rotherham of Bellwether Partners; and former Mayor Adrian Fenty of D.C.

The three of them versus me. Mayor Fenty would like to see tenure abolished. He blames the unions for all the ills of the schools. He
loves standardized testing. Andy Rotherham says that unions are too powerful even in right to work states. Hess warned that the CTU would make the union movement as irrelevant as the referendum in Wisconsin. All three are rooting for Mayor Rahm to beat back the CTU.

I hope you find time to listen.

Categories Chicago, Education Reform, Testing, Unions

You Will Not See This in Any National News

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
8

This is what the Chicago Teachers Union wants.

The strike is not about pay.

It is about the conditions of teaching and learning.

It is about class size.

It is about curriculum.

It is about evaluating teachers by test scores despite any evidence that it improves education.

It is about social workers for children who need them.

It is about resources and commitment.

It is about making a commitment to give the children of Chicago the kind of education that children in the suburbs routinely get.

The children of Chicago need the same things.

Categories Chicago

New York Times’ Editorial on Chicago: Still Clueless

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
19

A few weeks ago, the New York Times published an editorial saying that teachers needed more carrots and sticks to make them work harder and produce higher test scores. The assumption is that they are not working hard now (a Gates-Scholastic survey in the spring said the typical teacher works an 11-hour day now); and that waving a bonus in front of them would raise student test scores (even though merit pay has never worked, even with a bonus of $15,000 for doing so); and that the threat of firing might move the needle (even though it is the kids who need to “produce,” and threats don’t produce better education).

Today the Times blames the Chicago teachers’ strike on the teachers and suggests it is all the fault of their leader, Karen Lewis, who is enjoying a power play. He thinks the teachers should accept evaluation based on student scores because everyone else is doing it.

But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe he didn’t have time to read the research that shows this method is junk science.

Maybe the Times missed the story about the strike having been authorized by more than 90% of the union’s membership.

Maybe the editorialist didn’t hear about classes of more than 40 children.

Maybe he didn’t know about the schools with no art teachers, no library, no social worker.

Maybe he was absent that day.

Categories Chicago, Merit pay, Teacher Evaluations

Conservative Pundits Pummel Chicago Students

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2012 //
12

Jersey Jazzman calls out the conservative pundits who, in an effort to embarrass Chicago teachers,try to show how awful student perormance is in that district and paint it in the worst possible light.

If they are casting stones, you kinda wonder why they don’t throw them at Arne Duncan and Mayor Daley, whose policies determined what happened in the schools.

What they do is akin to blaming the war in Iraq on the soldiers, not the policymakers.

Categories Chicago, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, NAEP

The National Context of Chicago Strike

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2012 //
4

The New York Times has a good debate about the Chicago strike.

Eva Moskowitz and Michael Petrilli take the anti-union view.

Brian Jones, Carol Burris, and Pauline Lipman explain why the teachers’ strike is important in the fight against bad education policies that hurt children and teachers and ruin education.

Categories Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Unions
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