Chicago Teachers Union leader Karen Lewis pushed back — and won

[garbon]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/chicago-teachers-union-leader-karen-lewis-pushed-back-won-article-1.1161008

Karen Lewis, who last week led 29,000 Chicago teachers on a school strike heard across the nation, has suddenly emerged as the new champion for millions of frustrated public school teachers.

Many of those teachers are sick and tired of being made into scapegoats by politicians and corporate honchos who never spent a single day in front of a classroom.

They are fed up with overcrowded classrooms in rundown buildings, with bureaucrats who keep hiring high-paid consultants despite huge budget deficits, with new state laws that tie teacher evaluation to their students' test scores, with the constant closing of neighborhood schools and the stampede to charter schools.

But most of all, they are furious at the lack of respect for them and their profession.

Until this week, no one — not even American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten — had found a way to turn back the tide of teacher bashing.
Then the feisty firebrand Lewis burst on the scene.

For a week, she went toe-to-toe against Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former Obama White House chief-of-staff known for his short fuse, foul mouth and take-no-prisoners style.

And by any measure, Lewis came come out a winner.

The preliminary deal that emerged over the weekend — once it's approved by the rank and file this week — will restore respect for teachers nationwide.

Lewis came out of nowhere in 2010, after two decades as a top high school teacher, to lead an insurgent group that swept out the old Chicago Teachers Union leaders.

That old leadership had meekly gone along for nearly a decade with the agenda of Chicago's former public schools chief, Arne Duncan.

And once Duncan went to Washington as President Obama's Secretary of Education, his Chicago agenda became Obama's Race to the Top. Duncan used federal aid to states for more closures of low-performing schools, teacher layoffs, merit pay raises, charter schools, and more standardized tests.

It's the same agenda our own Mayor Bloomberg, a handful of billionaire philanthropists and many Republican leaders across America have been pursuing.

Lewis and her insurgent group vowed to challenge these so-called reforms head on. Once in command, she forged a close alliance with several Chicago parent groups whose members were equally furious at being excluded from educational decision-making.

Meanwhile, Mayor Emanuel showed Lewis' members complete disdain. He rescinded a 4% pay raise in the existing union contract. He sought to have 40% of teacher evaluations based on their students' test scores. And he vowed to close more schools without offering laid-off teachers a chance to be rehired.

Little wonder that Lewis won a huge mandate from her members for their first strike in 25 years.

Once the walkout began, Emanuel was forced to back down on some major items. He gave up his demand for merit pay. He agreed that least 50% of laid off teachers would be rehired when new positions became available, and to allow teachers to "follow their students" when schools closed.

Pupil test scores will still count for 30% of a teacher's evaluations, but teachers will have the right to appeal those evaluations.

Lewis even won new "anti-bullying" provisions against principals and supervisors, and new faculty diversity commitments to stem Chicago's disproportionate firings of black teachers in recent years.

The contract, moreover, calls for the school district to immediately hire more than 500 art, music, foreign language and gym teachers — welcome news to parents.

Which is why wherever public school teachers gathered last week, the strike in Chicago was the subject of conversation.

Finally, a group of teachers had stood up back against all that bashing.

[CountDeMoney]

If I were a teacher, I'd be pissed off about my career tied to the performance of the snot-nosed little shits that may or may not show up for class, or bother to do the work or read a book, too. 

Teachers are the facilitators in these scenarios, not the performers.  That resides with the students and their parents.

[mongers]

If I were a teacher, I'd be pissed off about my career tied to the performance of the snot-nosed little shits that may or may not show up for class, or bother to do the work or read a book, too. 

Teachers are the facilitators in these scenarios, not the performers.  That resides with the students and their parents.

[CountDeMoney]

Of course, it's an American tradition to always blame somebody else who happens to have a pension for your precious little angels' underperformance when you can't be bothered to spend time with the little fucker yourself and make sure the little shit did his homework.

[grumbler]

An amusing article that kind of reminds me of the old B5 episode "The Illusion of Truth."

There are elements of truth to the story:  most "student progress" testing tests what is easy to test, not what would tell us real things about student progress.  Tying teacher salaries into these kinds of tests just forces the "teach to the test" style of teaching that further blights progress, because it makes education even more artificial.

However, it is clear to me that the Chicago teachers' union, like most teachers unions nation-wide, is only paying lip service to the interests of the students, and instead is focused on  making sure that marginal teachers don't lose their jobs when it is discovered how marginal they are.  School boards, to be sure, are seldom if ever better;  I'd guess many if not most school board members ran for school board as a springboard for higher elected office, not because they care about students.

[garbon]

However, it is clear to me that the Chicago teachers' union, like most teachers unions nation-wide, is only paying lip service to the interests of the students, and instead is focused on  making sure that marginal teachers don't lose their jobs when it is discovered how marginal they are.

Yeah, I think that's the tough bit. Unfortunately the teaching to the test bit doesn't really help matters as far as actually helping students.

I do wonder find it curious though that they appear to use a formula to judge teachers evidenced by them arbitrarily changing the weight of student scores to 30%.

[CountDeMoney]

and instead is focused on  making sure that marginal teachers don't lose their jobs when it is discovered how marginal they are.

I always find it interesting how teachers are labelled "marginal" when they're stuck dealing with marginal students in the marginal schools with the worst absenteeism rates in the shittiest neighborhoods in Chicago. 

If more than 1 out of 3 students weren't in your class on any given day, I think you'd be "marginal" too, professor.

[sbr]

Yi is gonna be PISSED.

[garbon]

and instead is focused on  making sure that marginal teachers don't lose their jobs when it is discovered how marginal they are.

I always find it interesting how teachers are labelled "marginal" when they're stuck dealing with marginal students in the marginal schools with the worst absenteeism rates in the shittiest neighborhoods in Chicago. 

If more than 1 out of 3 students weren't in your class on any given day, I think you'd be "marginal" too, professor.

Perhaps but there is also a fair number of teachers out there that just suck. I had plenty of them. Going on a cig/beer break several times a period is pretty marginal.

[Martinus]

If I were a teacher, I'd be pissed off about my career tied to the performance of the snot-nosed little shits that may or may not show up for class, or bother to do the work or read a book, too. 

Teachers are the facilitators in these scenarios, not the performers.  That resides with the students and their parents.

The little shits wouldn't be such a problem if on top of that one did not have to deal with a horde of retarded helicopter parents who think that every time their little shit gets a grade below B, it must be the teacher's fault.

[Darth Wagtaros]

grumbler and Seeds are right.  Teachers complain about just about everything, and to some extent they are right.  Parents routinely blame them for their kids being disrespectful illterate tools while not enforcing any discipline or respect for education at home.  But the teachers' unions often seem to be concerned about keeping jobs rather than keeping and promoting good performers.

[garbon]

If I were a teacher, I'd be pissed off about my career tied to the performance of the snot-nosed little shits that may or may not show up for class, or bother to do the work or read a book, too. 

Teachers are the facilitators in these scenarios, not the performers.  That resides with the students and their parents.

The little shits wouldn't be such a problem if on top of that one did not have to deal with a horde of retarded helicopter parents who think that every time their little shit gets a grade below B, it must be the teacher's fault.

That's pretty unlikely in the type of cases Seedy is talking about.

[CountDeMoney]

Perhaps but there is also a fair number of teachers out there that just suck. I had plenty of them. Going on a cig/beer break several times a period is pretty marginal.

There are other metrics available to address that;  student performance isn't one of them.  Classroom observation has really been tossed to the wayside since the 1970s.

[garbon]

Perhaps but there is also a fair number of teachers out there that just suck. I had plenty of them. Going on a cig/beer break several times a period is pretty marginal.

There are other metrics available to address that;  student performance isn't one of them.  Classroom observation has really been tossed to the wayside since the 1970s.

Who is going to pay the salaries for these observers?

[CountDeMoney]

If I were a teacher, I'd be pissed off about my career tied to the performance of the snot-nosed little shits that may or may not show up for class, or bother to do the work or read a book, too. 

Teachers are the facilitators in these scenarios, not the performers.  That resides with the students and their parents.

The little shits wouldn't be such a problem if on top of that one did not have to deal with a horde of retarded helicopter parents who think that every time their little shit gets a grade below B, it must be the teacher's fault.

  Aren't too many hoverparents in the 'hood, Marti.