House of Delegates Votes to Continue Strike

Democracy in action. Whenever we tried to ask to bring issues back to our schools the UFT/Unity Caucus laughed in our faces.

How will this play? The leadership came back with a deal and the chapter leaders feel they will not say yes until the entire membership school by school gets to talk about it. The leadership didn't shove it down their throats.
Like Karen said in the video I put up from the aft convention- this is a member driven union - if I tried to order people around they'd just give me a look.

Another lesson in unionism for the rest of the world to learn from.

By the way, this is another shot at shoving Rahmbo's face in it.
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09/16/2012

Some 800 delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union duly elected from each school and workplace convened Sunday afternoon to discuss the framework established during negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Board of Education. 

Officers presented a 23-page document outlining the most important points of the agreement whose outline has been worked out between the two parties. That tentative agreement is expected to number over 180 pages.

After a civil and frank discussion, the House of Delegates voted NOT to suspend the strike, but to allow two more days for delegates to take the information back to the picket lines and hold discussions with the over 26,000 members throughout Chicago. Teachers and school staff will return to the picket lines of the schools at which they teach at 7:30 a.m. Monday and, after picketing together, will meet to share and discuss the proposal. Citywide members will picket at the Chicago Public Schools Headquarters, 125 South Clark, at 7:30 a.m. and will meet thereafter at a downtown location.

"This union is a democratic institution, which values the opportunity for all members to make decisions together. The officers of this union follow the lead of our members," President Lewis said. She continued, "the issues raised in this contract were too important, had consequences too profound for the future of our public education system and for educational fairness for our students, parents and members for us to simply take a quick vote based on a short discussion. 

Therefore, a clear majority voted to take this time and we are unified in this decision."

The delegates voted to reconvene and decide how to proceed on Tuesday afternoon.

When there's a contract, then call us maybe while NYC Parents Stand in Solidarity With CTU

Chicago teachers on strike singing a cover of "Call Me Maybe" promoting a fair contract to better our children. Special thanks to: Burr Elementary Hayt Eleme...etc.

Just take a look at how young these teachers are. Who said the yutes are not union conscious? Here we have E4E slugs. Where are they in Chicago? No matter what emerges from the contract this video is a sign of the amazing work the CTU/CORE leadership has done in a very short time. This work won't stop with the settlement.



http://youtu.be/SqXmX5caH7k

PARENT LEADERSHIP PROJECT
There's too much material coming in. Got to combine them. I'm not sure who are the folks  *** see below for background on PLP and La Union.

 but their sentiments are welcome I'm sure by the CTU.

The Parent Leadership Project and La Union in New York City stand in solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union. Like Parents 4 Teachers in Chicago, we know that teachers’ working conditions are our children’s learning conditions. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been implementing similar reforms to Rahm Emanuel's in Chicago. In both cities, structures of Mayoral Control combined with federal reforms such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have claimed to make schools more accountable to students and their parents.

But our experience has shown us that the opposite is true. Closing historically under-resourced schools in low-income communities of color and opening up charter schools have only increased segregation within city school districts.

Moreover, too many of our children have been shut out or kicked out of charter schools because they are English Language Learners, students with special needs, or because of zero tolerance “discipline” polices. At the end of the day, charter schools do not better serve our children, and neither does merit pay. 

We know that the single instrument of high-stakes tests does not measure our children’s capacities or learning. They also do not measure the hard work or worth of teachers. Rather, for poor communities of color particularly, tying teachers’ pay to high-stakes tests means that experienced teachers would likely be less inclined to teach in the schools and communities where they are most needed.

We need public schools that truly reflect, respect, and serve the communities that they are part of –and this requires that teachers are valued and respected as workers, that schools are well-resourced with the materials, resources, and staff that they need. Public schools can work, and do every day---but only for a small minority of the population. In these schools, classes are smaller, services are ample, and curriculum is wide and expansive. All our children deserve these conditions---and all our teachers need these conditions. This historic and brave stand by CTU is not a strike of choice as Emanuel claims. 

Rather, it’s a fight that is about our children, their futures, and dignity and fundamental rights for their teachers.

***

The Parent Leadership Project (PLP) grew out of over a decade of collaboration between the Center for Immigrant Families (a social justice community organizing center in the New York City uptown neighborhood of Manhattan Valley) and the Bloomingdale Family Program (a head start center with three sites in the same neighborhood). In 2010, the two organizations decided to combine their efforts to address the realty of segregated and unequal public schools that their constituencies have long confronted. Through combining popular education, community organizing, and advocacy with much-needed services, PLP works to build parent leadership, power, and organizing for educational justice in District 3 schools and beyond.

 

La Unión is an organization of people of the global south working to advance the social, economic, and cultural rights of the communities where we now live and the communities we left behind. The 600 members of La Unión are predominantly from the Mixteca region of Mexico and immigrants from across Latin America. La Unión is based in the neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn; one of New York City’s largest Mexican immigrant neighborhoods

Chris Hedges on Chicago

Julie Woodward, (Under Assault blog which she discontinued upon retirement) sent this suggestion.

For those who missed the powerful interview Pulitzer-prizewinning journalist Chris Hedges did with Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) last week on the Chicago teachers' strike, the video is available on www.Democracy Now. <http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/11/chris_hedges_dems_owe_chicago_public>. 

 

In his latest book, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, he speaks of "sacrifice zones," the poorest pockets of the country that have been exploited by the for-profit sector, and it is within this context that he discusses the historical importance of this strike.  

Fortunately they put the transcript up, so you don't even have the listen to it, you can read it.  I think this is a FABULOUS summation of what's happening in the school systems, including in New York.

[QUOTED BITS]

     " . . . the teachers’ strike in Chicago is arguably one of the most important labor actions in probably decades. If it does not prevail, you can be certain that the template for the attack on the union will be carried out across the country against other teachers’ unions and against the last redoubt of union activity, which is in the public sector, of course—firemen and police."

     " . . . these corporate forces that have made these sacrifice zones prostrate themselves before corporate profit, corporate greed, are turning on the rest of us, as we rapidly reconfigure this country into a neofeudalistic society, an oligarchic state. And it is, I think, emblematic that the reptilian heart of the Democratic Party is sort of represented by the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, who has, like—as far as I can tell, all major Democratic figures turn their backs on the union activity and the struggle on the part of the Chicago teachers, including, of course, Barack Obama."

And most importantly:

       "And it really boils down to the fact that we spend $600-some billion a year, the federal government, on education, and the corporations want it. That’s what’s happening. And that comes through charter schools. It comes through standardized testing. And it comes through breaking teachers’ unions and essentially hiring temp workers, people who have very little skills. This is what Teach for America is about. They teach by rote, and they earn nothing. There’s no career. I mean, there’s quite a difference between teaching people what to think and teaching people how to think. And corporate forces want to teach people what to think. It’s a kind of classism. People get slotted. It’s vocational. And so, I see what’s happening in Chicago as, you know, one of the kind of seminal uprisings of our age. And if they don’t succeed, we’re all in deep trouble."

The full transcript here. <http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/11/chris_hedges_dems_owe_chicago_public#transcript>

 

and below the break.

 

I call them the "two Julies," Woodward and Cavanagh, both of whom have had big influences on me, Julie W helped found ICE and was an important voice with her Under Assault blog until she retired over a year ago. We spent years conspiring and I miss her voice in my ear.

What's in the CTU Contract and Will There Be a Backlash?

Let's put this contract in the context of 17 years of ed deform in Chicago. Does anyone want to compare it to Cleveland, Washington and other cities? Was the CTU strike a line in the sand to send a message to the ed deformers but delivering little in substance? We will find out more today.

No deal was going to be in place until two or four layers of real democracy had examined it and held the deal — not the personalities — accountable. -- G. Schmidt

 

MORE's JULIE CAVANAGH DID A GREAT JOB ON MSNBC CHRIS HAYES THIS MORNING - HERE'S THE LINK.

I was at a meeting the other night where there were already hints of blow back when one person said "we must hold the CTU leadership feet to the fire." Listen, not everyone will be happy. Clearly there will be 30% on evals but that is state law, so that is a given. Rahm wanted to escalate each year. Sadly nothing so far on class size.

9AM UPDATE FROM MICHAEL FIORILLO:

My understanding is that Illinois state law requires some test-based teacher evaluations, so that was the benchmark upon the CTU was negotiating. The next step for the CTU is to work towards changing the law, but if by striking they have been able to lessen the damage caused by these evaluations, they have made real progress.

Not knowing the details of the tentative agreement, it's premature to judge it overall. Nevertheless, teachers (and all working people) across the country own the CTU a debt of gratitude: they took on a very broad coalition of Power, stood up the bullying of Emanuel and the lies of the media, reawakened people to the power and potential of collective action, and have started to change the terms of the debate. The CTU was also able to keep Weingarten from helicoptering in and betraying them. As Norm's report on his encounter with Mark Sternberg suggests, there is no doubt much anxiety at Tweed, TFA, StudentsFirst,  the foundations, etc. 

And at 52 Broadway and AFT headquarters in Washington.

Can't we at least take satisfaction and feel some gratitude in the CTU wiping some of the smugness and arrogance off the faces of these bastards, and showing that the destruction of the public schools will not be passively allowed to happen? 

This was an epochal strike, one that will be seen as the opening round in the battle to reclaim public education. After decades of being slandered and knocked back on our heels, the CTU has shown that we can fight back and begin to reclaim the territory that is rightfully ours. They deserve our thanks and support.

George Schmidt posted on what may be in the contract this morning: CTU press release gives some inkling of the content of the deal so far

The Bargaining Team is expected to share new details about proposed contract language which includes a number of victories for teachers, paraprofessionals, clinicians, and students.
The earliest teachers and other school personnel could return to their schools could be Monday; however, no decision has been made to do so. Delegates, the elected leaders of their schools, have the authority to suspend or lengthen the strike. They could also ask for at least 24-hours to talk to individual members in their schools before making a decision on what to do next. The 29,000-member CTU has been on strike since Sept. 10.

“We are a democratic body and therefore we want to ensure all of our members have had the chance to weigh-in on what we were able to win,” said CTU President Karen GJ Lewis. “We believe this is a good contract, however, no contract will solve all of the inequities in our District. Our fair contract fight has always been about returning dignity and respect to our members and ensuring resources and a quality school day for our students and their families.”

The new proposed CTU/CPS contract will:  *Secure Raises & Ensure Fair Compensation:* The CTU wants a three-year contract. It will secure a 3% raise in the first year, 2% raise in the second and 2% raise in the third, with the option to extend to a 4th year by mutual agreement at another 3% raise.

*Defeat Merit Pay*: The CTU successfully fought the star of national misguided school reform policies. The Board agreed to move away from “Differentiated Compensation,” which would have allowed them to pay one set of teachers (based on unknown criteria) one set of pay versus another set of pay for others.

*Preserve Steps & Lanes:* The new contract will preserve the full value of teachers and paraprofessionals career ladder (steps); and, it will increased the value of the highest steps (14,15 and 16)

*Provide A Better School Day:* The Board will hire 512 additional ‘special’ teachers in art, music, physical education, world languages and other classes to ensure students receive a better school day, a demand thousands of parents have called for since last year

*Ensures Job Security:*Creates a “CPS Hiring Pool,” which demands that one-half of all of CPS hires must be displaced (laid-off) members.
 ·*Adds An Anti-Bullying Provision: *No more bullying by principals and managerial personnel. The new language will curtail some of the abusive practices that have run rampant in many neighborhood schools.
·*Paraprofessional & Clinicians Prep Time:*The new contract will guarantee preps for clinicians.
 ·*Racial Diversity:*The CTU continues to fight the District on its
 lay-off policies that has led to a record number of African American educators being laid off and eventually terminated by the District. The new contract will ensure that CPS recruits a racially diverse teaching force.
·*New Recall Rights &

Tackling School Closings:* Acknowledging, the CTU will continue its ongoing legal and legislative fight for a moratorium on all school closings, turnarounds and phase-outs, the new contract requires teachers to “follow their students” in all school actions. This will reduce instability among students and educators. The contract will also have 10 months of “true recall” to the same school if a position opens.
 ·*Fairer Evaluation Procedures:* The new contract will limit CPS to 70% “teacher practice,” 30% “student growth” (or test scores)—which is the minimum by state law. It also secures in the first year of implementation of the new evaluation procedures there will be “no harmful consequences” for tenured teachers. It also secures a new right—the right to appeal a Neutral rating.
 ·*Reimbursement for School Supplies:*The contract will require the District to reimburse educators for the purchase of school supplies up to $250.
 ·*Additional Wrap-Around Services:* The Board agrees to commit to hire nurses, social workers and school counselors if it gets new revenue. Over the past several months, the CTU has identified several sources of new revenue, including the Tax Increment Financing program.
 ·*Books on Day One:*For the first time, the new contract will guarantee all CPS students and educators have textbooks on day one and will not have to wait up to six weeks for learning materials.
·*Unified School Calendar:* The new contract will improve language on a unified calendar. The District will have one calendar for the entire school district and get rid of Track E and Track R schools. All students and teaching personnel will begin on the same schedule.
·*Reduced Paperwork:*The new contract ensures the new paperwork requirements are balanced against reduction of previous requirements. 

I think the spin above means there were some victories but there will be critics (I saw nothing on class size -- even a minimal "no sizes over 40 would be something.) Here's a great chance to keep embarrassing Rahm this when he sends his kids to schools with 20 in a class).

I received emails this morning from people here in NYC about a "Unity style sellout." I don't agree. I imagine Unity will spin this as "We got all this without striking." My sense is the very fact the CTU went on strike is a victory. But how will that play with the membership, a crucial point, given that CORE has to run for re-election this spring. (History shows from the Debbie Lynch contract 10 years ago that bad blowback to a disappointing contract can blow you out of the water.)

An interesting article in Substance pointed in the direction critics will take this:

Capitulation in Chicago? Reading the news on a Friday night, it sounds that way by Steven Lendman

 By the time this article circulates, it may be all over but the shouting, finger-pointing, and bitterness among rank-and-file loyalists over another union sellout. As this is written, it looks that way. It won't surprise. Across America, union bosses keep prioritizing their own positions and welfare over workers they represent.
Instead of fighting for rights they deserve, they capitulate to corporate and government scoundrels. Wisconsin public workers learned the hard way. The state was ground zero to save public worker rights.

By the time this article circulates, it may be all over but the shouting, finger-pointing, and bitterness among rank-and-file loyalists over another union sellout. As this is written, it looks that way. It won't surprise. Across America, union bosses keep prioritizing their own positions and welfare over workers they represent. [They] hint darkly that the strike is 'illegal' because teachers are talking about issues the Board refuses to allow into the union contract."
They include class size, recalling laid off veteran teachers, proper year-round classroom temperatures, and others. They're major ones essential for all contracts.

I heard from one parent leader late last week that there will be great disappointment amongst Chicago parents who supported the strike if the CTU doesn't bring back something positive on class size. I'm still hoping they do but not holding my breath.

Did anyone think they would purge the contract of any evaluation based on test scores? They did seem to win a partial victory in their version of the ATR pool by requiring half the teachers hired come from the laid-off pool. (Rahm has to protect those TFAs, of course.)

There is going to be great drama played out with whatever the final deal looks like. There is some thinking out there that the CTU could have played their cards given the national scrutiny in more effective ways. Like, I thought they should have emphasized that they are not traditional union bosses (as the writer above calls them) but they are teachers who saw their kids being hurt in addition to teachers and they forced them to take action 4 years ago to move to take over their union from the real bosses.)

After all the excitement of the strike from teachers all over the nation, when the results undergo analysis, expect disappointment with what was and could have been won. To me it looks like there were some victories but watch the ultra left go wild.

My guess is there was a lot of symbolism in the strike led by people just two years out of the classroom and still feeling its way politically. Like who ever heard of Karen Lewis (other than us ed freaks) until a week ago? At the minimum, the strike has pushed many of the issues it was about into the national debate (see Julie Cavanagh on MSNBC this morning and Megan Behrent yesterday) as just one example

So even if they didn't bring back all the bacon, they have moved the ball up the field, bloodied their arch enemy Rahm Emanuel, tainted Arne Duncan and Obama on their ed policies and turned themselves into heroes to teachers all over the nation.

My sense was that there was a limit on how long they could only sustain a strike of a mostly younger team of teachers who the leadership (CORE) is trying to mobilize into a potent force -- and managed to pull them out for enormous rallies, along with parent support. But was that limit reached in one week? Could they have stayed out a month and impact on the presidential race?

And then there is the possibility the teachers actually turn down the contract in the House of Delegates today or in the follow-up referendum of all the members, which I imagine will have to take place after they go back.

See Substance on the democratic process where George Schmidt makes the point that the CTU tried to make the point time and again that they are the anti-union bosses building a democratic union movement. (See the video I put up yesterday of Karen Lewis saying that even if she tried to order people around they would laugh at her -Exclusive Video: Karen Lewis, at the AFT Peace and Justice Caucus, AFT Convention 2012)

Here are excerpts of what George wrote (click the title to read it all):

No Deal?... 'This is what democracy looks like'... House of Delegates meeting at three in the afternoon on September 16, 2012.... The same democracy that transformed the Chicago Teachers Union and transfixed the nation calls a halt to media frenzy about ending the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012.

By George N. Schmidt - September 16th, 2012 |
For weeks before the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 began, the union's leaders have been warning the union's members not to believe anything they read, heard or saw in the corporate press. "Aren't the corporate media the worst place to learn the truth during a strike?" CTU vice president Jesse Sharkey, less than three years from a history teachers' classroom at Chicago's Senn High School, repeatedly reminded the unions members and delegates at rallies and meetings which eventually became too numerous to list for the history books. And with her almost trade-marked smile, CTU president Karen Lewis had tried (and failed) to remind reporters from the corporate media that the strength of the movement she was leading was its democracy.

And yet, as the first week of the strike ended and the size of the protests and rallies continued to grow, news reports kept looking for a reality that the strike (and the movement that created it) had rendered obsolete in U.S. history: the Chicago "union boss." For all the talk about "accountability" from those in the ruling class who want accountability to only go one way, when the real accountability of democratic leaders was in front of them, those who thought they were telling Chicago what was real were completely missing the truth that was before their own eyes.

No deal was going to be in place until two or four layers of real democracy had examined it and held the deal — not the personalities — accountable.

For weeks before the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 began, the union's leaders have been warning the union's members not to believe anything they read, heard or saw in the corporate press. "Aren't the corporate media the worst place to learn the truth during a strike?" CTU vice president Jesse Sharkey, less than three years from a history teachers' classroom at Chicago's Senn High School, repeatedly reminded the unions members and delegates at rallies and meetings which eventually became too numerous to list for the history books. And with her almost trade-marked smile, CTU president Karen Lewis had tried (and failed) to remind reporters from the corporate media that the strength of the movement she was leading was its democracy.

And yet, as the first week of the strike ended and the size of the protests and rallies continued to grow, news reports kept looking for a reality that the strike (and the movement that created it) had rendered obsolete in U.S. history: the Chicago "union boss." For all the talk about "accountability" from those in the ruling class who want accountability to only go one way, when the real accountability of democratic leaders was in front of them, those who thought they were telling Chicago what was real were completely missing the truth that was before their own eyes.

No deal was going to be in place until two or four layers of real democracy had examined it and held the deal — not the personalities — accountable.

It was always a bit more than many in the media and an era of one-liners, sound bites, an "Gotcha!" could grasp. It is a form of learning disability that has its really dramatic exemplars, my favorite of which is Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Having covered more than 40 of his press conferences during his first year in office, it eventually struck me that the man's mind was not only addled, but crippled. He really believed the world could be manipulated like he sort he had been doing with the 24-hour news cycle inside the Beltway. But of course, not matter how big the ego, he is only a spare part in the machine of empire.

The plodding drama of democracy in the Chicago Teachers Union, even as it unfolded month after month, was more than most people in that ruling arena could grasp.

And now come the next steps: [READ MORE]

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

MORE Events: Chapter Organizing Sept. 19, General Meeting Sept. 22 and MORE

MORE on TV: 
Julie Cavanagh on Chris Hayes Sunday 8AM

Meghan Behrent was on the Melissa Perry show on Saturday. I will put up links to both appearances

The MORE ride continues. 
Come to the chapter organizing training by MORE and Labor Notes on Weds. Sept. 19 - see below for details.

MORE continues its efforts with a CL and Del support listserve where people post questions and get answers they won't get elsewhere. Email more@morecaucusnyc.org if interested.

Many MORE members were at the UFT Chapter Leader meeting on Sept. 12 with a possible record being set by 9 week old Jack Cavanagh.

– the first Delegate Assembly will be in October. (For those not aware, the DA is made up of chapter leaders and delegates. Each school has at least one of each and bigger schools get one additional delegate for every 60 members.)

After the meeting, MORE held a Planning Committee meeting at a local bar, and Jack wasn't even asked for ID. The Planning Committee is MORE's temporary steering committee to run the group while we figure out more lasting structures – sort of trying to build the house while living in it.

Over 20 people showed up, which created a few logistical issues – like how do I get my beer and food while trying to meet? Unlike some groups (E4E Screens People Out at Screening of WBD,) MORE is totally open and some people who had their first contact with MORE were welcome to join in. No pledges to sign before entry. MORE does have a mission statement with basic principles of agreement decided on democratically and to be a voting member (when MORE does vote) people should be in basic agreement.

Get Involved! Attend our upcoming general meeting next Saturday or our Activist Training Wednesday, and distribute our latest leaflet "Why we are running in the Election" Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Movement of Rank & File Educators Weekly Newsletter #24 - September 15, 2012

Norm: It has been an electrifying week as the Chicago Teachers' Union has led the way in fighting back.  MORE has been picketing, rallying, wearing red and educating our coworkers about how a grassroots approach has led to this successful struggle. Please check out our statement in solidarity with Chicago!  Look for our roundup of analysis of the strike coming soon to morecaucusnyc.org. Take the next step by attending our general meeting on September 22nd. CUNY Graduate Center 365 5th Ave @ 34th rm. 5414 12 - 3pm We will be organizing our work for the fall - forming committees around action, education, internal and external communication, and the upcoming elections and we need your help!  Also we will be assessing and analyzing the national and local impact of the Chicago strike. Spread the word about MORE to your coworkers by distributing our latest leaflet: "Why we are running in the elections" MORE believes that we can transform the UFT into a force that can win us a good contract, build an activist alliance with parent and community groups to stop the political assaults against our schools and our union, and stop the testing craze which threatens students’ learning conditions and teachers’ job protections.... Read more here   Please take a second to forward this to a friend or coworker, and consider joining our discussion list or our chapter leader meetup list. Other Upcoming Events:  Fundraising Party -  9/29 - 7:00pm - 132 16th st (btwn 4th and 5th Ave.) R Train to Prospect District 15 Happy Hour - 10/19  Freddy’s Bar - 627 5th Ave. - R to Prospect Evaluations petition now online!  Go to the MORE website to sign the petition to call for a vote on the new evaluation scheme.  You can also download a copy to distribute at your school. In February, the UFT agreed to a new framework that will base 25-40% of our future evaluations on standardized test scores. The union will be negotiating the final details with the city over the fall and winter, but the membership deserves a discussion and a vote on the agreement. Wednesday September 19 MORE and Labor Notes present: Secrets of a Successful Organizer A training for new chapter leaders, new delegates, and all teachers who want to organize in their schools. MORE is joining forces with Labor Notes, a publication and organizing project focused on “putting the movement back in the labor movement” for a workshop on how to engage members and build rank-and-file power in your school.  Wednesday September 19th 5pm Murphy Institute 25 w. 43rd St., 18th floor click here for flyer

Fred Klonsky Reports: 30,000 filled the park. “We are still on strike.”

Breaking: Julie Cavanagh will be on a panel on MSNBC at 8AM Sunday - Chris Hayes show.

UPDATE: Mike Klonsky has video of Karen Lewis' speech at the rally.

Or listen here: bit.ly/TYuktx

Below
Fred's pictures tells a million words. We had MORE people in the crowd -- waiting for their reports and pics. See below the pics for Mark Naison's view of the strike as a game changer. One pic I'm stealing from NYC Educator, my fave Rahm sign.

September 15, 2012

CTU President Karen Lewis told the crowd of 30,000 that the CTU was still on strike.
No rush. No Rahm tricks.
And the 30,000 roared their approval.
The House of Delegates meets tomorrow to look at what they got.

And this from Mark Maison

Why the Chicago Teachers Strike is a "Game Changer"

Sep 14

http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2012/09/why-chicago-teachers-strike-is-game.html

Why the Chicago Teachers Strike is a "Game Changer"

Every since No Child Left behind, School Reformers promoting school closings, privatization, and the use of high stakes testing in teacher and school evaluations have had no significant political opposition and no "grass roots pushback" strong enough to make them think twice. That is, until the Chicago Teachers Strike. Yes, there was the Save Our Schools March, attracting 8,000 people, and yes, there have been petitions all over the country against high stakes testing, but none of these represented something strong enough to make those promoting school reform initiatives to back off. Shutting down the school system of the nation's third largest city, however, and filling the streets of that city with 50,000 red shirted marchers is a "game changer." It will not stop the Reform Juggernaut or even slow its momentum, but it will encourage opponents to ratchet up their opposition to the Testing/ Privatization regime on all fronts, including strikes by teachers, test refusal by students and parents, and lawsuits against reform policies which are abusive and discriminatory. If the Save Our Schools March showed that there was significant opposition among teachers and educators to the Obama Administration's Education Policies, the Chicago Teachers Strike shows that the opposition has the power to challenge those policies in ways that command attention and respect because they are now mobilizing parents along with teachers. And anyone who thinks that this strike is the last gasp of of a dying movement may find the future holds quite a few surprises!

Exclusive Video: Karen Lewis, at the AFT Peace and Justice Caucus, AFT Convention 2012

Don't call them reformers or even deformers. Call them what they are: privatizers. Don't call them Stand for children. I call them Stand on children. -- Karen Lewis

Karen was a panelist discussing rank and file teacher movements in a video I taped on July 27, 2012 at an AFT P&J caucus meeting. All the panelists were excellent.

In this video, which I edited down to 12 minutes, Karen touches on organizing efforts of CORE from their beginnings in 2008 with 8 people, each of whom recruited 8 more. Two years later they were running the union.




http://youtu.be/wvn32-AXMOU

CTU Video: The TRUTH in Black & White

Parents, students and teachers speak out in a beautifully produced video.
They make every political point.

On you tube: http://youtu.be/prM0HWKrWVI or below.

Karen Lewis Slams "Chicago Cash Strapped" Bull and Phony Charter Demand

The mayor loves to tout unsubstantiated statistics about how popular charter schools are among Chicago parents. Today he used a new number: Now apparently the waiting list is whopping 19,000 students. Wow—that’s a lot of children who were “so unfortunate” to not get a seat at a coveted charter school.

Really? Then why did only a few hundred families show up at last year’s New School Expo, even though Chicago’s corporate elite spent so much money on promotional advertisements and even provided a free shuttle bus to Soldiers Field. Why did the UNO Charter School Network admit at the press conference at St. Scholastica last month that its organizers were going to go door-knocking in the neighborhood to try to recruit a couple hundred families to open the school this fall? Why did Andrew Broy of the Illinois Charter School Network say this week that there are several thousand slots still available at Chicago charter schools for parents who didn't want to wait out the strike?

Chicagoans need to understand what is happening to our school system. The mayor and his hedge fund allies are going to replace our democratically controlled public schools with privately run charter schools. This will have such disastrous results; people need to rise up and refuse to allow this to happen. --- Karen Lewis

We've been saying the same thing here. That there is artifical/phony demand pumped up by the charter lobby. Make charters show us the names of people who sign whatever it it they throw in people faces.

Don't mistake it, the strike had to do with charters and TFA in many ways -- I have to elaborate more in this --- and don't expect that the CTU won a moratorium on charters --there was no way to stop that train at this time but it will stop as the weight of crooked charters drag the charter movement down the drain --- and don't think that the charter teachers aren't supporting the strike.
 
By the way the Chicago/CORE group put up a resolutions at the AFT calling for a moratorium on charters and closing schools and a great testing accountability reso for the corporate leaches) and guess who rigorously opposed all these resos? Yes our pals in Unity Caucus with people like Jackie Bennett and Queens HS Dist Rep playing a big role -- so the next time you read or hear their bullshit just ask then what they did in Detroit.

Here is my morning post on more land grabs by Eva and Hubby Eric in Williamsburg Greenpoint (I'll report on the big enchilada, Washington Irving HS in Grammercy Park later): Parent Brooke Parker Won't Back Down as Eva and Eric Keep Glomming Up School Buildings (Condos, Here We Come)

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Letter from CTU President Karen Lewis: ‘Students Suffer in Low-Performing Charter Schools’

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13846/letter_from_ctu_president_karen_lewis/

By Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis (Chicago Teachers Union / Flickr)

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is so cash-strapped that it plans to close and consolidate under-utilized schools, with rumors that it could be upwards of 120 schools this coming year. Many people would consider this to be fiscally prudent. Mayor Emanuel is of course going to blame the soon-to-be agreed upon new union contract.

What the public does not understand, however, even though both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times have been writing about it for months, is that CPS is also simultaneously planning to open 60 new charter schools in the next few years. That decision was made last year under the “Gates Compact” in which CPS went into an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to increase charter schools in Chicago.

The CPS district has seen declining enrollment over the last decade, as have many other urban districts, because urban sprawl is sending our families to far-flung suburbs like Oswego where the housing is much larger and much cheaper than in the city. This is not because Chicago schools are “failing”—this is an urban planning phenomenon that we have seen many times in the last century. Illinois’ farmlands are being converted into towns, and just as the highways of the 1940s and 1950s allowed for suburban commuters to live comfortably outside the city and quickly get to work downtown every day, the Metra and I-355 have been expanded out to Oswego and other suburbs to help push that housing development.

Thus, the decline in enrollment in CPS District 299 is a natural phenomenon. Populations ebb and flow over the decades.
But, what is not natural is the city’s push for unprecedented charter expansion. The mayor loves to tout unsubstantiated statistics about how popular charter schools are among Chicago parents. Today he used a new number: Now apparently the waiting list is whopping 19,000 students. Wow—that’s a lot of children who were “so unfortunate” to not get a seat at a coveted charter school.

Really? Then why did only a few hundred families show up at last year’s New School Expo, even though Chicago’s corporate elite spent so much money on promotional advertisements and even provided a free shuttle bus to Soldiers Field. Why did the UNO Charter School Network admit at the press conference at St. Scholastica last month that its organizers were going to go door-knocking in the neighborhood to try to recruit a couple hundred families to open the school this fall? Why did Andrew Broy of the Illinois Charter School Network say this week that there are several thousand slots still available at Chicago charter schools for parents who didn't want to wait out the strike?

Chicagoans need to understand what is happening to our school system. The mayor and his hedge fund allies are going to replace our democratically controlled public schools with privately run charter schools. This will have such disastrous results; people need to rise up and refuse to allow this to happen. As a parent, do you really want your child wearing a three-piece polyester suit every day to school and pay a fine every time your child’s tie isn’t on straight? Do you really believe that it’s okay for a school to punish your child with a three-hour detention because he or she wanted to eat some Flaming Hot Cheetos?

And then of course, there is the dismal achievement outcome of the majority of charter schools. Urban Prep brags about its 100 percent college-bound rate when the average ACT score of its student is only 16. Where are those students going to college?

Finally, and most importantly, there is the cost. Mayor Emanuel says we will have to close and consolidate public schools to save money to pay for the new union contract. Does anyone in the public have any idea how much money it costs to open a brand new charter school and pay for the first few years while the school gets up and running? Hundreds of millions of dollars! CPS has an entire department dedicated to soliciting charter proposals, reviewing them, and then supporting the charter during its “incubation period." During this incubation period, the school is not held accountable for its test scores, because CPS understands that of course the school will not do well initially.

This is what we want for our children? Parents don’t want their kindergartner, 5th-grader or 9th-grader acting as a guinea pig for a charter school that might eventually become a good school. There is not a single charter management network that can say that all of its campuses are doing well.

Mayor Emanuel and his charter -school friends are complaining that the Chicago Teachers Union strike has kept students out of school for a few days—what about the years that students suffer in low-performing charter schools that are still trying to figure out how to manage themselves as an academic institution? Even the hedge fund billionaires that are behind this push admit that every charter school is not going to succeed—so why are we doing this? Why aren’t we simply looking at what already works, at the 30 percent of CPS’ neighborhood elementary schools that are scoring 85 percent and above—some at 100 percent—on state tests? Why aren’t we replicating that?

Parent Brooke Parker Won't Back Down as Eva and Eric Keep Glomming Up School Buildings (Condos, Here We Come)

If the Moskowitz/Grannis education reformers have their way, we will have reformed ourselves into a brand new district, with public schools brimming with students with special needs, who don’t speak English, or who come from our most impoverished families—students the charter schools have kicked out because they won’t lift the schools’ test scores. By the time the charter schools open, 46% of our district’s kindergartener’s will be enrolled in them and none will be any better than the neighborhood schools they destroy....

The fine print was left out of COW’s Powerpoint presentations: the schools are privately managed and responsible to a Board of Trustees, not parents or educators. Parents are powerless in COW school governance. Forget about all the evidence that shows that teachers are effective after several years in the classroom, COW will hire teachers fresh out of Teach for America with only five weeks training. COW also wouldn’t lease their own buildings, but would “co-locate” or take up space inside at least one of our neighborhood public schools. 

COW told parents that their charter schools will close if they don’t fulfill their promises. But they lied to them. Charter schools stay open for five years before their charter is reconsidered, regardless of whether they fulfill their promises. Charters don’t close from under-enrollment or under-performance or high teacher turnover or parent dissatisfaction. Charter schools close because of financial mismanagement, and even then, rarely.  We know how well deregulation served our economy.

--- Brooke Parker, WAGPOPS

This piece by Brooke is so good I am salivating. No I haven't stopped writing about Chicago. But in the midst of Chicago news let me go local and make the connections to the strike which does have to do with charters. We know that there will be an enormous expansion of charters in Chicago as there is here. The CTU could never stop that so don't expect a massive victory to reverse the ed deform movement. At best they will hold the line on a few things and maybe pick up a few wins. Let's hope they get something on class size even if minimal

Bloomberg will open up 50 more charter before he leaves office and you will hear peep and poop from the UFT. In my follow-up post you'll read Karen Lewis' letter to parents about charters, a letter you will never see Michael Mulgrew or Randi Weingarten write.

Here Williansburg/Greenpoint parent activist Brooke Parker of WAGPOPS! lays out the local landscape of where the privatization charter movement is going. Our taxes end up paying for 2 separate and unequal school systems.

OP/ED The Demise of Public Education: Mr. and Mrs. Moskowitz* Push for More Charters in Williamburg

http://thewgnews.com/2012/09/the-demise-of-public-education-mr-mrs-moskowitz-push-more-charters-on-williamburg/ 

Posted by The WG News + Arts on September 11, 2012 in Issue 38, Latest News · 0 Comments

By Brooke Parker

Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academy, who earns close to half a million dollars a year, is one of the highest profile figures in the charter school industry, touting charter schools as the solution to “waste in education.” There’s a lot of money to be made in charter schools when you add up the start-up financing grants, charter management fees, new market tax credits, no-bid contracts, and minimal oversight.

While charter schools receive slightly less per pupil from the city than public schools, the city’s Independent Budget Office concluded that when you factor in that they don’t pay for their use of space, utilities, janitorial services, or school safety agents, charter schools generally spend over $700 more per pupil in public funds each year, and that’s not including the substantial private money they receive. And all those public dollars are spent while charter schools, in general, don’t perform any better than public schools. So much for the idea that charter schools are less wasteful.

Success Academies have been widely criticized as punitive and militaristic, with a model that has not appealed to white middle class families in spite of the millions Moskowitz has spent marketing to them. Remember the posters splashed all over the Northside and the Bedford Avenue L train? They didn’t work. Moskowitz didn’t get the parents she was aiming for.  Success Academy Williamsburg is up and running in JHS 50, in spite of significant community opposition, but its population is largely students of color, not the wealthier Williamsburg families the ads targeted.

So Moskowitz’s husband, lawyer Eric Grannis, on the board of an equally militarist Girls Prep charter school chain, is bringing in a new chain of charter schools just for Williamsburg’s newest population. It’s called Citizens of the World Charter Schools.

If the Moskowitz/Grannis education reformers have their way, we will have reformed ourselves into a brand new district, with public schools brimming with students with special needs, who don’t speak English, or who come from our most impoverished families—students the charter schools have kicked out because they won’t lift the schools’ test scores. By the time the charter schools open, 46% of our district’s kindergartener’s will be enrolled in them and none will be any better than the neighborhood schools they destroy.

In February of 2011, through a private neighborhood listserv, Grannis invited parents to a series of meetings promoting charter schools in Williamsburg. He claimed there “seemed to be parents who are not satisfied with their options and want other ones.” Grannis, who does not live in Williamsburg and has never set foot in any of the local schools, just wanted “to help out the neighborhood.” He wanted to give us more options, more choices, more charters, and he offered parents a way to get in on the ground floor in free, new schools created for their children, where they might be guaranteed admission. About three dozen parents attended five meetings held at the new condos and high end children’s stores. Few, if any, had children that were school aged yet.

Grannis arranged for his guests to be wowed by one charter school in particular, Citizens of the World (COW), a chain out of Los Angeles with only a single year under its belt, but with plans to expand nationally. Parents left the meetings sure that COW would offer something new, more child-centered and progressive than any of our neighborhood schools. None of the attendees understood that what COW claimed as proprietary to their school model had already been implemented in all of the neighborhood schools: COW did not invent differentiated instruction, balanced literacy, or project-based learning. And contrary to what COW would have parents believe, our neighborhood schools are replete with service learning projects, even winning trips to the White House for outstanding community service.

The fine print was left out of COW’s Powerpoint presentations: the schools are privately managed and responsible to a Board of Trustees, not parents or educators. Parents are powerless in COW school governance. Forget about all the evidence that shows that teachers are effective after several years in the classroom, COW will hire teachers fresh out of Teach for America with only five weeks training. COW also wouldn’t lease their own buildings, but would “co-locate” or take up space inside at least one of our neighborhood public schools. These co-located public schools will lose vital space that the city Department of Education does not count as “classrooms,” including music and art rooms, libraries, science and computer labs, and rooms designed for kids with special needs.  All in the name of more choice. 

Finally, COW will funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public schools to their COW Management Organization, a much needed cash cow for a brand new charter school chain already facing financial problems in their flagship school in LA. No wonder COW kept their meetings secret, never met with any elected officials, and used unethical tactics, like having Spanish-speaking families sign pro-COW petitions that were written in English and, stranger still, having a real estate lawyer procure signatures for pro-COW petitions from new homeowners at their closings.

Parents were told that we need new schools to accommodate our quickly growing population. This is simply not true. While we do have more “middle-class” children now, it’s impossible for newcomers to imagine a time when all of our public schools were full, along with over a dozen (now closed) Catholic schools. In spite of the condos being built, the new baby stores, and the waiting lists for private nursery schools, our Bugaboo parents simply aren’t giving birth fast enough to replace our Latino, Polish, and Italian families. Sadly, white middle class people are only seeing white middle class babies. When funds follow children into schools, we simply can’t afford new elementary school options without deleteriously affecting our existing options.

Education reformers manufacture parent demand for charter schools by preying on overblown fears of urban schools, and then applying their enormous marketing funds to promote charter schools as a panacea. It’s a lot like the pharmaceutical industry manufacturing symptoms for an illness you didn’t know you had in order to sell you a pill that will cure it. Our neighborhood schools don’t have a defensive marketing budget. Can you imagine the public outrage if it were discovered that education dollars went to glossy mail outs and fancy dinners? And then there are schools like COW that flat out lie about our neighborhood options to increase demand for their product.

Reformers believe schools should open and close willy nilly at the whim of the market. If a group of people want to create a school based on a harebrained scheme putting five year olds in class sizes over 30, sitting in front of no-bid contract computer programs, assessing themselves with no-bid tests, then open one!  And place that school inside a neighborhood public school to squeeze it of vital resources. Competition is always good and new is always better, right? COW told parents that their charter schools will close if they don’t fulfill their promises. But they lied to them. Charter schools stay open for five years before their charter is reconsidered, regardless of whether they fulfill their promises. Charters don’t close from under-enrollment or under-performance or high teacher turnover or parent dissatisfaction. Charter schools close because of financial mismanagement, and even then, rarely.  We know how well deregulation served our economy.

 If we allow greed to precede community, we’ll create an education apocalypse, not to mention the radical resegregation that occurs when schools like COW target white, middle class families while others target lower-income parents of color. Ours is a district which houses an exceptionally high population of children who don’t speak English, and no charter schools are targeting that population.

On the other side of this divide are local public school parents who know that our educational landscape has improved with engaged parents and new leadership open to new ideas. That’s how we got our dual language programs, greenhouse roofs, school bands, winning chess teams, and a range of impressive arts partnerships. There are proven strategies that create strong schools: small class size, experienced teachers, meaningful curriculum, strong and experienced leadership, diversity in the classroom, and engaged parents. Without outside corporate interference, our neighborhood public schools have been headed in that direction. We believe that’s worth fighting for.

So, marching forward, righteous public school parents gathered across the district, including those who attended the early Grannis meetings, and became WAGPOPS! (Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents: Our Public Schools!).  WAGPOPS! discovered that there was a group of parents across the country in Silver Lake, Los Angeles (a neighborhood described as similar in spirit to Williamsburg) fighting COW schools, too. And they collected some pretty damning information about COW, including financial scandals. We became bi-coastal. WAGPOPS! flooded the mailboxes of the SUNY Charter School Institute (the organization that authorizes charter schools), asking that they reject the COW proposals. WAGPOPS! wrote a community impact letter opposing COW and gained support from all of our elected officials, even those who initially agreed with lifting the charter school cap. WAGPOPS! stood for all of our neighborhood public schools and children: We want our kids in class together! No GMOs in our food, no corporations in our classrooms! Shop local, school local! Keep public money out of private hands and put it in the classroom!

In the Dr. Seuss version of this story, everyone would be moved, as we were when the tiny Whos were finally heard, because they spoke as one. And Grannis would have packed up his suitcase and left. But there’s real money involved. And we lost. The SUNY Board of Trustees, without a single member having knowledge of our district’s schools or even a background in public education, disregarded the opposition to COW and approved the schools. The only lesson we have to learn from COW—Citizens of the World—is about the erosion of democracy.

For a copy of the letter regarding Citizens of the World, see: http://www.scribd.com/doc/94382088/WAGPOPS-Letter-to-Suny-Opposing-Citizens-of-the-World-Charter-Schools

Joint the WAGPOPS! mailing list to find out about upcoming meetings at facebook.com/WilliamsburgGreenpointParents or e-mail williamsburggreenpointschools@gmail.com.
*aka  Eva Moskowitz and Eric Grannis.

E4E Screens People Out at Screening of WBD

This group wants to select it's audience. Kinda like Charter Schools do. What are they afraid of? Questions that they can't answer? Discussions they can't control and that would mess up the E4E message? --- Teacher banned from screening by E4E

TSA screened attendees at E4E screening

E4E and the producers of Won't Back Down called in the Secret Service at tonight's screening which had tighter security that the national conventions. Phones were confiscated from every member of the audience. There was fear apparently that a gate crasher might get in and toss a pie at Evan or Sydney. Oh what fun it is to make E4E more paranoid than they are. Some infiltrators did get in by signing the pledge and leaving a pint of blood, but remained anonymous for strategic reasons.

Leonie Haimson was banned earlier by E4E (no parents allowed apparently) when her name was recognized.

A teacher who was also notified of being banned shortly before getting on the subway to head over to the film contacted us with this email:

I registered last week to see the film "Won't Back Down" without having to sign their pledge but today, at 5:30, I received a phone call uninviting me from attending the movie. The E4E rep explained that they were "overbooked" and so they were only allowing "members" to attend. He said that he had to make these uncomfortable phone calls all day. Poor baby.

I had received a confusing email yesterday telling me I had to respond to the rsvp I'd made (I did) and earlier today I got a message requesting that I call back. (I did and left a message) Finally, just as I was about to go into the subway, the guy calls me, tells me he's sorry but I can not attend. After a bit of banter, me "what you are doing is not ethical, I planned my day around attending this move, not an example I'd set for my students" and him, repeating" I'm so sorry, we had technical problems with the website, I can let you know about other previews going on, blahhh"", I finally hung up.

This group wants to select it's audience. Kinda like Charter Schools do. What are they afraid of? Questions that they can't answer? Discussions they can't control and that would mess up the E4E message?

At first I was quite angry. But I quickly realized that I was spared having to actually watch this film (for now) and I decided being kicked off the reservation list of E4E was actually an honor.

Here is the email from the slug at E4E:

Thank you for requesting an RSVP for tomorrow's screening. Given that the event is at capacity, please get in touch with me to confirm your RSVP to tomorrow's event as soon as possible. We cannot hold a space for you without discussing your RSVP, so please reach back out well before the screening so we can connect.

Here's a brief report from one of the MORE attendees (yes, we told people to sign the stupid pledge so E4E can brag that there are 10 million people who support them -- yes, even my cats are registered.)

There were open seats in the front, perhaps because everyone didn't show. It was a bunch of 18 year old teachers who had drunk the koolaid mostly. There was no QandA but they had a reception with free drinks and food at some bar nearby after. The movie, it's horribly dishonest and makes the attacks in waiting for superman look like an exchange of pleasantries.

Chi Teacher Rally and LA Times Pro Chi Union Editorial

	SOLIDARITY!
Please forward widely! Click here to download a printable flyer. Thousands will converge for education justice to… Stand Strong with Chicago Teachers Saturday 12:00 noon September 15 Union Park Lake & Ashland in Chicago Click here to RSVP The 30,000 teachers, school social workers, clerks, vision and hearing testers, school nurses, teaching assistants, counselors, and other school professionals of the Chicago Teachers Union are standing strong to defend public education from test pushers, privatizers, and a national onslaught of big money interest groups trying to push education back to the days before teachers had unions. Around the country and even the world, our fight is recognized as the front line of resistance to the corporate education agenda. Educators and our supporters have pledged to travel to Chicago in solidarity to rally. Click here to say you'll be there! NOTE: The union is not on strike over matters governed exclusively by IELRA Section 4.5 and 12(b). Vital Information Click the box to read more. Solidarity from Around the Country & World CPS commits Unfair Labor Practices Out-of-town Billionaires Attack CTU [VIDEO]
This email was sent to normsco@gmail.com by leadership@ctulocal1.com Click here to unsubscribe from ALL CTU e-mails. Chicago Teachers Union | 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza | Suite 400 | Chicago | IL | 60654

Chicago, ground zero on teachers and test scores

Striking Chicago teachers are unhappy about several issues. (Sitthixay Ditthavong / Associated Press / September 12, 2012)

By Karin Klein

September 13, 2012, 5:30 a.m.

The Times' editorial board has supported making student test scores part of a teacher's performance evaluation -- within reason. But the Chicago teachers strike shows at least one reason why teachers unions have opposed such policies so vociferously.

Part of what we ask of teachers is that they keep bringing those test scores higher; as a result, it's reasonable for their evaluations to include how well they've done that part of the job. But when the scores are closely linked to the pay raises teachers get -- or whether they even have a job -- school administrators are in untested waters, and I'm not sure they remembered to bring a life jacket with them.

Of course a teacher's evaluation should have some kind of impact, including, in the cases of the most problematic teachers, that they could lose their jobs. Some teachers should lose their jobs, and parents don't need test scores to know exactly who those teachers are. Unions have stood up for teachers whom they knew had no place in a classroom, and now they're beginning to reap the payback.

But how many teachers are we talking about? With all of the Obama administration's talk about teachers being the most important in-school factor in a child's success, does anyone know how many "bad" teachers we'd have to get rid of to achieve that success? Or just how high the test scores should rise for the others to get a raise?

Let's face it: The state standardized tests were never designed to measure an individual teacher's performance, much less decide his or her pay. The tests have some value in that regard. When one teacher's students show solid or even spectacular growth during most years, that's probably a really good teacher. When another teacher's students don't just get bad scores but actually slide back year after year, that can't be allowed to continue. And this should only be measured over a course of years; the change in test scores in a single year can be attributed to all kinds of factors.

Most teachers don't belong in either the top or bottom category. They're somewhere in between, and that's where the tests are far less effective at showing differences.

At the same time, Chicago school officials want principals to be able to hire whatever teacher they choose when they have openings rather than picking from a pool of laid-off teachers. But in that case, isn't this a double whammy? Say a teacher is great at raising test scores but a principal doesn't want to hire this teacher because she's more experienced and thus more expensive. If the test scores are so important, why shouldn't they matter when it comes to rehiring teachers?

There could well be less than pure motives on both sides, which makes it hard to judge who's right or wrong in the Chicago contract dispute. The teachers union wants things done the way they've always been done: Nothing matters but seniority when it comes to hiring, layoffs and pay. That provides little incentive for veteran teachers to try hard, though many of them do anyway. Meanwhile, the administration can talk about this being all for children, but there's a vested interest in hiring younger, less experienced and thus much less expensive teachers. That might be good for school budgets, but it's not good for the future of the teaching profession or the long-term future of schools. If teachers have no job protection over time, if in fact their very experience counts against them, the job becomes just that -- more a job, less a career. That's not how we attract bright young people to the profession. Layoffs don't necessarily happen because a teacher is bad, and yet those teachers could be permanently out of jobs while principals bring in new people. How much loyalty can teachers have to a system like that?
There's room for some consideration of test scores in evaluations. It also should be easier to fire bad teachers, and principals should not have to hire an unsuitable teacher simply because that's the person in the layoff pool who has the next-highest seniority. But how far should schools scale back on job security before they're not just hurting individual teachers but themselves?
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, along with President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have been pushing for a system that goes much further. But there's not a lot of research that says the key to better-educated students lies in holding teachers accountable for numbers that were never designed to judge their performance. A path has been chosen, but the reasons for treading that path so firmly are not as well understood as they should be.