Chicago Teacher Strike

[Horn6721]

BO has never minded taking sides before

 

[Larry T. Spider]

Since all teacher have at least a bachelors degree, it would be better to look at the median household income for people with that degree. The US average is 68K and the Chicago average is probably higher. The numbers are still off but I would expect teachers to make more than the median level because they have above median level education.

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[MojoMan]

 

[Bronco]

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[I35]

I didn't read all the post but did anybody mention that the school district is about $1 billion into the red? I know that's not the teachers problem if the school district can't pay the payraise then the teacher can either keep working or GTFO.

You notice we never have these problems in Texas as a right to work state?

 

[Larry T. Spider]

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[majorwhiteapples]

Don't forget that money they get is only for 9 months of work, pro-rate that out to what it would be if they worked 12 months.

 

[Larry T. Spider]

Bronco calculated it at 92k. I think we are all in agreement that they should not be striking over salary issues.

 

[Bronco]

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[Larry T. Spider]

What would go into determining which of the three ratings a teacher received? Obviously we know who is doing a good job but how do we prove what we know? I think it would end up becoming some type of rubric that would lead us down the path that we are on now.

Honestly, a straight up vote by selected teachers and administrators with no justification required would probably be most effective but also the least likely to happen.

I'll give a real example of a teacher that is poor and hard to get rid of. She meets all professional expectations as far as coming to work on time and taking care of all of her before and after school duties. She plans with her team so her plans meet expectations. She doesn't do a good job teaching math and science but does an average job with language. Her behavior management is average at best. Since everybody knows she doesn't teach key subjects well, she doesn't get as many of the behavior problems or really low kids. Her test scores come out about like everybody else, maybe slightly lower. We all know that she would fail given harder students.

Other than just by knowing what is going on, how do you fire her? You could obviously stop giving her easier kids but you put your school at risk of dropping in accountability rankings and no principal in their right mind would do that. Once again, what we know is easy. It's being able to prove it that is the challenge.

Also there are teachers worse than this that I have seen but they have all been fired.

 

[Bronco]

There is no formula involved. The group that makes up the comittee simply gives a grade based on their own judgement. If there are 16 folks on the comittee, whichever level gets the most votes is the score for the teacher. No subjectivity at all.

It is why the teachers on the comittee are voted onto the panel. There would always be accusations of personality conflicts but that is mitigated by having a large diverse group.

I think you would be very surprised by how tough your peers may be in grading each other. I'll bet those teachers that have to take on more problem kids to compensate for the weak ones are not to happy about it.

The teacher you decribed may or may not have trouble in this sytem. But, I would bet a lot that she might get a poor grade in the first vote that does not result in termination. This might be the kick she needs to improve.

This type os et up would not result in wholesale firings at all. But there would be some. The bigger factor is teachers would at least have some sort of knowledge that they were being evaluated. The good ones would fear nothing.

 

[Larry T. Spider]

I would be willing to work in a system like that but I doubt anything like that will happen soon. We seem to be going the opposite direction with teacher evaluations. You are right about teachers in a peer rating system. For a while, I was involved in a program that had a small piece that required teachers be evaluated by instructional leaders, administrators, and selected teachers. The teachers always gave out the lowest scores.