A great report on Texas Teachers and the strike in Chicago.
Read the entire article here: McAllen, Texas Teachers Following the Chicago Teachers' Strike - Peoria, IL - pjstar.com
Can everyone please take a seat so we can get started?
Like many others in McAllen and across the country, I have been keeping a close tab on the Chicago teachers’ strike. Within the last hour, I read that in a somewhat surprising move, the teachers voted to extend the strike until at least Wednesday to give them more time to carefully study their proposed contract. While I feel for the children in Chicago, I also understand how critical this contract is for the teachers and hope it will be resolved no later than Wednesday.
As I’ve read and listened to reports on the strike, a few things in particular have stood out:
*The first reports indicated that the driving force behind the strike was the decision to base up to 40 percent of the teachers’ evaluations on standardized test results. Most good teachers welcome the idea of being evaluated on outcomes, as long as those outcomes are evaluated fairly. I have yet to see a system that takes into account student attendance, motivation (or lack thereof) and study habits. I also have never seen a system that takes into account that one English I teacher, for example, might teach the highest level students while another teacher has a class full of students who did not meet the minimum passing standards on last year’s standardized test. If such an assessment were devised, I believe most good teachers would welcome it. Contrary to what many might believe, good/great teachers don’t want students to be subjected to bad teachers...
Read the entire article here: McAllen, Texas Teachers Following the Chicago Teachers' Strike - Peoria, IL - pjstar.com
