Pay is not the reason these teachers are on strike; they have already come to terms on that issue. One of the reasons that they are on strike is because of the districts requirement for a new teacher evaluation system whereby 40% of their evaluation will be linked to their students standardized test scores.
The following link show that 79% of Chicago public school 8th graders are not proficient in reading while 80% of them are not proficient in math. in addition, more than half of CPS students don't graduate. Seems to me a better evaluation system is called for with these stats.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-depar...ficient-readingThis data combined with the fact that these teachers are some of the highest paid teachers in the country, avg $76,000 annual salary. Obviously there is not link between teacher pay and teacher competence.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/06/12/how-much-do-chicago-public-school-teachers-make/ Zealot, at least you grasp what the issue is about (eval, not money) and can demonstrate that you can compose a sentence. It's difficult to watch people rail against teachers in incoherent English.
I'm not necessarily against teacher evaluations, but I asked my mom--a retired speech therapist--why evaluations are unpopular among teachers. We talked at length about the issue, and one point I had to concede to her was her statement that, "Not all teachers start with the same raw material." For example, one year she had three students with Down's Syndrome; how can a system tie a special ed teacher's performance to evaluations/student progress in that situation? Not that kids with developmental disabilities can't learn, but it throws a wrench into a standardized evaluation system. It seemed a fair point to me, especially when you consider the opposite end of the spectrum, i.e. AP or gifted classes, where teachers have classes full of students who are already higher performers.
I think the issue isn't as simple as "no evaluations" as it is about how to make the evaluation system equitable for the teachers and who they teach. (Never mind urban vs. rural, socioeconomic differences, etc.) To control for variables, I guess, is what my mom was trying to get at.
And then there is who is doing the evaluating. Ever have a boss who just hated your guts, and wouldn't be fair to you no matter what?
It's pretty fascinating. I don't think either of the extreme positions--all teachers are greedy money-sucking lazy vacation seekers vs. teachers are perfect saints who do it all For the Kids--do much to help further the discussion. Obviously most teachers teach because they like it, and obviously there are bad apples.
I'd work in a coal mine, I think, before I worked in a room full of kids all day.
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