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Chicago Teachers Union Wins This One

By dianeravitch
July 25, 2012 //
15

As you may recall, Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago has demanded that teachers teach a longer school day without additional compensation.

For that and other reasons (including rising class size), the Chicago Teachers Union took a strong stand in opposition. It took a strike vote, and 98% of those voting gave their approval, which was unexpected and unprecedented. The CTU held a rally, and 10,000 members turned out.

Mayor Emanuel accepted a deal that met the CTU’s demands. Its members will not have to work longer hours without pay. The school day will be extended, as he wants, and the teachers who provide the extra time will be selected from the pool of veteran teachers who were laid off.

This was a stunning victory for the CTU. It shows what happens when a union is resolute and united, and its demands are just.

Here is the CTU press release, which is the only information available at this time:

CPS STEPS BACK FROM LONGEST SCHOOL DAY; A VICTORY FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
INTERIM AGREEMENT MINIMIZES LONGER TEACHER WORK DAY,  STAFFS LONGER STUDENT DAY THROUGH NEW HIRES,                                 GUARANTEES NEW JOBS TO DISPLACED TEACHERS
CHICAGO – The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) bargaining committee today accepted an interim agreement that many thought impossible:  The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has finally backed off the unworkable seven-hour 40 minute teacher work day and instead will make only modest increases in the length of teacher work days.  CPS thus reverses its publicly-announced policy that the CTU has consistently criticized as bad for both students and teachers.  CPS will staff the longer student day by hiring nearly 500 new teaching positions, and it has finally agreed to recall rights for teachers.  Tenured teachers displaced in 2010, 2011 and 2012 will constitute the pool from which principals must hire the new teachers.
“This is movement in the right direction, but this does not settle the outstanding and mandatory issues in the contract,” said Lewis. “It is too bad this solution—which was actually presented months ago—was rejected out of hand.  It has taken a march of nearly 10,000 educators, a strike authorization vote and a fact-finder’s report to get CPS to move on this issue. This is yet another example of the CTU’s determination and dedication to fighting for solutions that will strengthen our schools.”
Length of the School and Work Day is a permissive subject of bargaining under the Educational Labor Relations Act, and CPS previously announced that it was increasing the length of both elementary and high school work days to seven hours and 40 minutes without bargaining with the Union.  But CTU unity and determination has cause CPS to rethink its position, and the new agreement scales these times back significantly, while restoring work opportunities to displaced teachers.
The new schedules will be implemented with the start of the Track E school year, so that no disruption will occur to students or teachers as a result of ongoing contract negotiations.  It is expected that the new hiring will include many recently-neglected areas of instruction, including art, language, library science and physical education, thus achieving a CTU goal of a better school day, not just a longer school day.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Under the agreement, teacher work days will be 420 minutes (7 hours), which will include a 45-minute duty-free lunch during the day, which is the same length of day for schools that currently have an open campus.  Instructional minutes will be capped at 296 per day, which is no more than was allowed under the expired contract.  Average daily preparation time will be increased from 62 minutes to 64 minutes.  Student days will also be 420 minutes.
Since the student day will be longer CPS has also agreed to hire about 750 new teachers to cover the extra periods, including 477.5 new positions that will be filled under the Interim Agreement.  CPS has finally agreed that any tenured teacher displaced in 2010 or after can apply for an open position, and as long as at least 3 qualified applicants apply for a position the principal must hire a displaced teacher and cannot hire off the street.  Similar to the current process under Appendix H, the principal may elect not to retain the teacher after the semester is completed, but if so, the principal must hire the replacement out of the same pool of displaced teachers.  Any teacher retained beyond the semester becomes a permanent appointment.
A summary of the old school day (open campus), CPS announced Full School Day, and the settled day are shown below:
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Components of Teacher Day
Current Default
(open campus)
Announced
Full School Day
Interim
Agreement
Instructional Minutes
296
315
296
Morning Preparation
30
25
0
Midday Preparation
32
60
64
Duty-Free Lunch
45
45
45
Supervision
17
15
15
Total On Site
Work Time
420
460
420
 
HIGH SCHOOLS
Under the Interim Agreement, high school teacher work days will be increased 14 minutes, from 421 minutes to 435, but instructional minutes will be increased by no more than 7 minutes, from 244 to a maximum of 251.  Average daily preparation time will be increased up to 10 minutes, to a maximum of 102 minutes, depending on class length.  Critically, CPS has also agreed that no teacher will be required to teach a sixth class, as many teachers would have been compelled to do under the original CPS plan, unless that teacher receives additional compensation as required under the expired contract.  Student days will be 435 minutes on average per week.
A summary of the old school day, CPS announced Full School Day, and the settled day are shown below:
HIGH SCHOOLS
Components of Teacher Day
Current Schedule
 
Announced
Full School Day
(regular day)
Interim
Agreement
Instructional Minutes
244
Up to 276
248 to 251
 
Morning Preparation
0
10
0
Midday Preparation
92
92
92 to 102
Duty-Free Lunch
46
46
46 to 51
Passing Periods
38
36
up to 36
Total On Site
Work Time
421
460
435
 
CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE
Though this Interim Agreement is significant, it does not settle many important issues that remain the subject of ongoing negotiations and discussions.  
For example, the Agreement does not settle the length of the school year, and it does not settle teacher compensation.  The Chicago Teachers Union and the Board of Education remain far apart on compensation issues, and this agreement does not change the timeline for CTU to exercise its full rights in contract negotiations.
“This Interim Agreement would not have been possible had we not shown our discipline and determination to be treated with respect,” said Lewis. “We are making real progress but we must keep up the pressure for a fair contract.”
###
 
The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve.  The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois.  For more information please visit CTU’s website at www.ctunet.com
 
Categories Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Teachers and Teaching, Unions

Why Is Chicago Our National Model?

By dianeravitch
July 21, 2012 //
15

A reader writes about the injustice of closing schools in Chicago instead of helping them.

It s odd to think that Chicago is now our national model of school reform, as Chicago continues to rank in the bottom tier on NAEP in reading and math, in fourth grade and eighth grade.

In Chicago, 10 more schools lost ALL their staff and administration to turnarounds this year . They will be opening in the fall with a much younger, less-diverse staff but the same students (Black and Hispanic).

One school, Pablo Casals, posted an 8% gain in its ISAT scores , in a year when the system average gain was only 0.9%. It is at par with all its neighborhood schools, and outscored over 100 elementary schools in Chicago ( even in 2011). Still, it was put on the list and acted upon by CPS , and now its teachers ( the ones who helped achieve that 8% gain) are spread out across the city. Weary from this process, many moved on to much “better” schools, not wanting to land in another school that might be on next year’s list for turnaround.
Sadly, this story is no doubt repeated across all 10 turnaround schools, all of them in high-poverty neighborhoods with mostly African-Am students , some like Casals, with a sizable Hispanic population too.

The toxic policies of Arne Duncan have to stop . They didn’t work in Chicago, they still don’t work in Chicago, and he has exported them to the other states. This ill-motivated man , who has never taught a day in his life, has to stop being the puppet of the billionaire’s club that is trying to steal education away from educators. He has to stop being our Secretary of Education.
Categories Accountability, Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

By dianeravitch
July 21, 2012 //
7

You may recall that I wrote about a “brilliant and hilarious” article that compared Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Mitt Romney and found them to be strange bedfellows.

The cartoon that illustrated the article showed them joined at the hip.

Well, if you don’t remember, please read it again. It’s funny scary.

I neglected to mention the name of the writer of the article in The Chicago Reader. His name is Ben Joravsky. (If you read the link I just inserted, you will understand the reason for this post.)

I often copy letters from readers and I am careful not to use their names because so many teachers are justly concerned about reprisals from stupid bosses.

But this writer had his name on his article and I should have mentioned it.

He is a really talented writer, and I hope he keeps writing about education.

Here’s a tip for Ben Joravsky. Follow the money. Follow the money that is promoting charter schools and for-profit virtual schools.

You remember (or maybe you don’t) the Groucho TV show. In every show, when he was interviewing people, the secret word would suddenly descend (I can’t recall why), and the studio audience loved it. The secret word when you are investigating education these days starts with a P (privatization).

You write it. I’ll read it. And I’ll never forget to give credit where credit is due!

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Education Reform, Romney, Mitt

What Do Romney and Rahm Have in Common?

By dianeravitch
July 18, 2012 //
15

What are the similarities between Mitt Romney and Rahm Emanuel? True, they have different party labels but their education policies are eerily alike. A writer in Chicago showed the contradictions in this brilliant and hilarious article.

Historians in the future (the future meaning maybe later this year or next, now that we live at warp speed and last week seems like 50 years ago) will puzzle out why President Obama decided to build his education program (Race to the Top) on the crumbling foundation of No Child Left Behind. They will also have to figure out why he decided to throw teachers and their unions (arguably his most ardent supporters in 2008) under the bus. And they will probably trace the trail to campaign contributions to Wall Street, which is likely to abandon him in 2012.

It’s not too late for him to change course. He could re-renergize his base. He could rekindle the love of teachers in a millisecond if he could stop the flawed ideas embedded in Race to the Top: that teachers should be judged by the test scores of their students, that federal programs created to help the poor should be turned into competitions, that public dollars should be handed over to private management as often as possible, that the federal government needs to create a data base for every student from cradle to grave, and that the best way to help students is to test them at the earliest possible age.

I get emails every day from teachers who say they are puzzled, they are angry, they are outraged by the Obama policies. They can’t vote for Romney, because he openly hates them and their unions.

Mr. President, if you or your staff read this, please take heed: Drop the Republican education policies. They haven’t worked for the past decade. They are ruining education and demoralizing teachers.

Categories Chicago, Education Reform, Romney, Mitt

About Those Superintendents on Broad Board

By dianeravitch
July 8, 2012 //
15

At the suggestion of a reader, I posted a list of the board of directors of a Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, dating from 2009. It included several school superintendents.

Readers have commented on the track record of the superintendents on that board.

Let’s see:

Joel Klein: Resigned in 2010, after NY State Education Department revealed  statewide score inflation and New York City’s celebrated test scores collapsed

Michelle Rhee: Resigned in 2010 after D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty defeated, largely because of her divisive reputation

Arlene Ackerman: Resigned in 2011 in Philadelphia after tempestuous reign

Maria Goodloe-Johnson: Fired in 2010 in Seattle

Arne Duncan: His plan called Renaissance 2010 failed to lift Chicago public schools, now U.S. Secretary of Education

Margaret Spellings: Not a superintendent, but architect of disastrous NCLB

And to think that this is the organization that is training superintendents to “reform” urban education!

Categories Broad Foundation, Chicago, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Klein, Joel, NYC, Philadelphia, Rhee, Michelle

George Will’s Surprising Take on the Chicago Battle

By dianeravitch
July 6, 2012 //
9

George Will is confused about who is right and who is wrong in the battle between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Teachers Union.

And that’s a good thing, because one would expect this doughty conservative to stand firmly, loudly, and uncompromisingly in opposition to the union.

But he didn’t.

Granted, he doesn’t know that CTU is part of the American Federation of Teachers, not the National Education Association. And he doesn’t know that the name of the NEA was settled in 1857, not just recently to deceive people and “blur the fact that it is a teachers’ union.”

Granted, he thinks the auto industry was fatally wounded by its unions, not by its shortsighted managers, who never figured out that American consumers wanted fuel-efficient cars, not gas-guzzlers.

And then too, he makes the common error of claiming that spending on education in the nation is up while “educational attainments have fallen.” One of his researchers should have looked at the latest reports of the National Assessment of Educational Progress and told him that test scores are at their highest point for every group in history.

But he then does something startling. George Will rejects the central premise of the reformers’ argument. He abandons the “no excuses” philosophy of Michelle Rhee and Arne Duncan. He says that poverty and family collapse affect students’ ability to succeed in school. He says that social order in Chicago is in disarray, even though Arne Duncan and former Mayor Richard Daley proclaimed their plan to be “Renaissance 2010.” Reminder: 2010 is past and gone. There was no Renaissance. What remains of those “reforms”? Little progress, if any, and a legacy of crumbling families and weakened communities.

Says Will:

The city is experiencing an epidemic of youth violence — a 38 percent surge in the homicide rate, 53 people shot on a recent weekend, random attacks by roving youth mobs. Social regression, driven by family disintegration, means schools where teaching is necessarily subordinated to the arduous task of maintaining minimal order.

Emanuel got state law changed to require unions to get 75 percent of the entire membership rather than a simple majority to authorize a strike. Some people thought this would make strikes impossible. The CTU got 90 percent to authorize. Lewis’s members are annoyed, and are not all wrong.

If you count only those members who cast a vote, Karen Lewis won authorization to strike by 98 percent of the members.

George Will is right. Karen Lewis’s members are “not all wrong.”

Quite an admission from the nation’s most eminent conservative columnist.

Categories Accountability, Chicago, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle

CTU Strike Humor: What About Those Greedy Teachers?

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2012 //
2

Last Stand for Children First is a very funny Twitter site. The person who created it does a great job of impersonating trust-fund babies who know everything about how to fix public schools without ever setting foot into one.

Follow the outrageous, sophomoric, enjoyable humor of Last Stand for Children First on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/LS4C1

Categories Chicago, Humor, Unions

Chicago Democrats and Wall Street at War with CTU

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2012 //
24

More evidence, this time in the Chicago Tribune, that Wall Street hedge fund managers and Obama Democrats are pouring money into the fight against the public school teachers of Chicago.

I know that Republicans get a hearty laugh when they see Democratic mayors like Rahm Emanuel and Cory Booker and Antonio Villaraigosa at war with the teachers’ unions in their cities. I am on several conservative mailing lists and I can practically hear they snickering and cheering every time a Democcratic mayor praises school choice, privatization, and charters while warring with the teachers.

I wonder if any of the people at the White House pause to wonder how these district-level battles will affect the election in 2012? Remember, the Presidential election?

Will teachers who have been pounded into submission by Rahm Emanuel and Obama operative and Wall Street titans vote for Obama? Maybe they will hold their noses and vote, but will they knock on doors, will they call their friends and relatives, will they volunteer on election day to help the same people that are now bullying them?

Just asking.

Diane

Categories Chicago, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm

Wall Street Money Backs Rahm

By dianeravitch
June 23, 2012 //
5

It’s no surprise to discover that the organization representing Wall Street hedge fund managers is putting big money into Rahm Emanuel’s war against the Chicago Teachers Union. The group, which calls itself Democrats for Education Reform, is a major contributor to political advocacy for charter schools. It raises money for influential candidates in local, state and national political races. Money talks.

DFER, as it is known, does not like public schools. It loves privatization. Privatization works for Wall Street. So does deregulation.

DFER and Stand for Children are working together against the interests of public school teachers in Chicago, 90% of whom voted to authorize a strike (actually 98% of all those who cast a vote).

You can bet that DFER and Stand will flood the airwaves with slick commercials to promote Mayor Emanuel’s vision of education for OPC (other people’s children): crowded classrooms; schools with no teachers of the arts; schools with no libraries; endless testing and test-prepping; big contracts for consultants and experts; longer school days with no compensation for teachers; and lots more privatization.

Here’s a thought for DFER, Stand and Mayor Emanuel: Why not support the same quality of education for the children of Chicago public schools that you want for your own?

Diane

Categories Arts Education, Chicago, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, Stand for Children

A Parent’s Advice to the CTU

By dianeravitch
June 16, 2012 //
9

During these stressful times, teachers sometimes think they are alone in their struggle to maintain the dignity of their profession. They may get the impression by listening to politicians and the media that no one cares about them or about public education. This is wrong. The American public does not want to turn its schools over to inept amateurs or Wall Street financiers. And the overwhelming majority remembers its teachers warmly and respects their work.

I recently wrote a blog about the Chicago Teachers Union’s overwhelming decision to authorize a strike. This decision received the affirmative vote of 90% of the members (actually it was 98%, because non-votes were counted as negative). Less than 2% opposed the strike resolution. This is quite a stunning rebuke to the bully tactics of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. And it is a stunning rebuke as well to Jonah Edelman, the civil-rights-activist turned corporate-reformer, who predicted (and boasted) that the teachers would never get 75% of its members to agree to strike and spent millions of dollars lobbying to change the law to make sure that CTU had to meet what he thought was an impossible threshold. Edelman, head of Stand for Children, went to the Aspen Ideas Festival to advise the nation’s elites how to cripple their teachers’ unions by adopting his hardball tactics.

In response to my blog, I received the following comment from a parent. I post it here to let teachers know that they are not alone. Count on your parents. Enlist them as allies. I would go even farther and say appeal to your local business and civic leaders. They are not pawns of the financial elites. They are your potential allies. They do not want to see your community torn apart. They will stand with you as you fight to defend your students, your school, your profession, and your community.

This is what the parent wrote:

I’m not a teacher. Neither is anyone in my family. The way in which you beat bullies and well-funded propaganda campaigns is to ENLIST THE PARENTS. Get us on your side. It’s not an “easy” thing to do. But it’s not nearly as difficult as it might first appear.

For every irate, blustering, nasty parent you’ve encountered, I guarantee you there are 2 or 3 or even 9 who feel differently. And a lot of them will have your back, stand with you, speak out for you, support you fully: but you have to approach them, one on one. You have to make the first move, reach out, and ASK their help.

Most parents know it’s all about a partnership with your child’s teacher and school. We WANT to work with you. Please don’t be afraid to, quite literally, ring our doorbell and initiate the conversation.

Stand strong, teachers. And don’t let a handful of elitists—whose own children are always in fancy private schools—intimidate you and destroy our American system of free public education for all.

Diane

Categories Chicago, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, Stand for Children, Unions
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