As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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CPS agrees to halt Longer School Day Pioneer Program
By: Sarah Karp / November 04, 2011
The Chicago Teachers Union announced Friday that CPS leaders agreed to stop asking teachers to vote for waivers to add 90 minutes to the school day.
The announcement comes after the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board decided to have the Illinois Attorney General ask a Cook County Circuit Court judge to get CPS to halt what it calls the Longer School Day Pioneer Program. Under the program, elementary schools were offered extra cash and teachers would get a bonus to extend the day this year.
“As part of our agreement, Mr. Brizard is personally notifying every CPS teacher and paraprofessional today of his decision to stop conducting the waiver votes and stop direct dealing with CPS teachers,” said CTU president Karen Lewis. “As the Union has stated numerous times on the record, it does not oppose a longer school day, but it seeks a better school day that is fairly implemented."
In asking for the injunction, the labor board signaled that they believed the teachers union could be successful in its unfair labor practice complaint, for which a December hearing is set.
As for the 13 schools that have voted to implement longer days so far, the agreement says they'll keep the extended days “subject to the outcome of (the) Unfair Labor Practice charge” which the board will hear on Dec. 14.
Lewis said at a news conference that the labor board complaint is continuing “because we need to make it clear that this was illegal.”
If the board were to rule in CTU's favor after the December hearing, it would still be able to ask Attorney General Lisa Madigan to pursue an injunction against the schools' schedules. But if that happens, it could take months for the matter to be settled in court.
“This hearing that’s supposed to take place in December, by the time it works its way through the system, we will be far past the end of the current school year,” CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said.
The agreement barring additional longer-day votes is only binding until the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board issues a final decision in the case (or until the teachers’ contract expires on June 30, whichever comes first), but CPS had set a cut-off date of Nov. 15 for schools to vote to join the Longer School Day Pioneer Program.
Both CPS and the union framed the agreement as a moment of conciliation.
“This collaboration allows all pioneer schools adopting a longer school day this year to move forward with an additional 90 minutes of instruction time for subjects like math, reading, art, and music. It also establishes a critical foundation of working together to assist every CPS school with a longer day next school year,” schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard said in a statement.
Lewis said that in advocating for the structure of next year’s longer day, “we will use these 13 (schools) in some kind of way to look at best practices.”
“I am hoping we have taken some of the poison pill out of the water, and we can approach each other and work with each other,” Lewis said.
The settlement comes after months of wrangling over Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attempt to add time to CPS’ day, despite a contract that establishes the length of day. With a new law that allows Emanuel and CPS leadership to unilaterally set the length of the school day, they have promised that, when the teachers’ contract expires in June, they will put in place a 7.5 hour day.
As contract talks begin, Lewis says, the union is now situated to talk about what next year’s longer day will look like. “We have been guaranteed that we will have ongoing meetings that will re-start,” she said.
But because CPS is not required to bargain with the union over the length of the day or its structure, it is not clear what influence CTU will be able to wield in the process.
Also, last week, CPS opened the pioneer program to charter schools, offering them the same cash incentive as traditional schools. Thirty-two of them have already signaled to leadership that they plan to apply.
A moment of sanity
I have now had a chance to read the statements by both CTU President Lewis and CPS CEO Brizard. It seems to me that this interim agreement is a very good thing for CPS students. It was good to learn that Mayor Emanuel spoke at the start of discussions that were held to reach this agreement. Hopefully the CPS and CTU can move towards contract discussions with some possibility of agreement before the end of June despite the harsh provisions of SB7.
Students with disabilities in CPS who are now nearing graduation are as a group performing the worst I ever have seen. In 2011 at the eighth grade level 36.6% are reading at standards, but by grade 11 only 5.5% were reading at the level of state standards. Possibly most distrubing is the fact that by grade 11, 61.9% of students with IEPs who took the standard test were reading at the lowest warning level. These performance levels are simply staggering.
Students with disabilities in Chicago are currently performing academically well below any reasonable expectations. This translates into numerous students with disabilities who drop out of school and many who graduate without the skills necessary to obtain gainful employment in a modern economy. The idea that no child will be left behind does not seem to apply to the vast majority of students with disabilities in Chicago. We have created a pipe line of iliterate former special education students heading to prision and we need to shut down this flow down.
Longer days or shorter days I think it is possible to teach far more students with disabilities in Chicago to be effective readers. Let us stop the blame game and simply teach more of these students to read.
Rod Estvan
Teachers are not teaching,
Teachers are not teaching, they're testing. Testing and teaching are two entirely different things. Many of the things we learned in school was due to the fact that students were being taught actual life skills and given information that could be transfered when being tested. This rote memory model is not a good way to educate children. Besides, our kids are displaying testing fatigue and it's showing up in the tests results.
Testing not teaching...
Please don't blame the teachers for the ridiculous amount of class time devoted to testing. Rather, question the motives of the Board of Ed. and our mayor. Teachers are just doing what is mandated. We don't have a say!
In addition to tests, they
In addition to tests, they are now filling out remediation forms and turning in three grades per week. Some day teachers will get to teach again.
Principals have no choice either.
The increase in testing due to common core is sad. Along with all the other tests schools are mandated to give, you would think Rahm would see this insanity and the real hurt to instruction time in our schools. Daley did, but too late for change. Many are surprised that LSCs do not rise-up and stop this nonsense. Parents have more power on all these tests and experiments on their children than they realize.
We have the highest class sizes. What can parents do about that
In my school there are 42 fourth graders in one class, 36 fifth graders (and taking some overflow from 4th), 41 seventh graders in a class and 45 KINDERGARTNERS!!! CPS policy is to wait until they have 54 KINDERGARTNERS and then they split the class into two groups. It is not about the children, its about the politics. AND thanks to Karen and CTU for stopping the intimidation for the 90 minutes!!!
Listen to our students
Teachers are working hard to follow every mandate from Common Core Standards' testing, Scantron testing, ISAT testing, dealing with behavioral issues ALL DAY, ( because parents stop being parents!), and running from due dates to due dates, all while trying to educate our future! What if someone finally listened to the children? They should have a voice that's not regulated by Chicago politics! The most corrupt city in America, thinks teachers don't deserve a raise, but yet blame us for trying to teach under the worst situations in America! Longer days won't improve our test scores! Some Teachers will just find other ways to cheat on their students' tests! Let's stop and talk to our children! They're screaming for smaller class sizes, less testing and more one-on-one instruction! Longer days won't add that.
CPS graduates could be screaming for something else
This summer CEO Brizard visited Access Living's offices and met with a group of former CPS special education students in their early 20s. The vast majority of whom are currently unemployed, failed in community college, and many are currently living on SSI at home. A few, two to be exact, now working for Access Living are college graduates and they had numerous complaints too. We formally documented what these former CPS special education students told the CEO and CPS has this information. Just for informational purposes some of these students had cognitive disabilities, others physical disabilities, and still others learning disabilities. They attended both CPS special schools and CPS traditional schools, including one student who graduated from a CPS college prep school. The vast majority of these former students were African-American or Hispanic.
These former students complained most directly about poor instruction and the pace of instruction. The key issue stated over and over again was low expectations of classroom teachers, both special education and regular education. Not one former student stated the key problem for them was a lack of one on one instruction. A few complained that school staff when they were in high school listened only to their parents and not them. One student complained that his parents had no idea what was going to happen to them once they left CPS and were so protective of him that he had very limited independent living skills.
Also very interesting in these comments to CEO Brizard was that some students felt they were pushed through school and graduated without many basic skills. Also almost none of those students wanted to be in high school for a fifth year because they began to view school as boring and the same thing over and over again.
The students who did discuss testing indicated that for the most part the tests they took were confusing to them, but the teachers tired to help them. The former special education students who did graduate from college stated they were not properly prepared for the ACT and SAT. This lack of preparation limited their college options and these college graduates clearly felt because they were relatively average students and disabled they were not seen as real college material at their high schools. The CPS high schools they attended provided them with no information on which colleges might be more disability friendly or how to deal with a supports they might need at the college level.
Every one of the students who had attended or were still attending Chicago City Colleges were stuck in remedial classes which they could not get through. In some cases these students wanted vocational training but had to pass math classes in order to get that training which they believed was unfair.
Rod Estvan
"And the dog ate my
"And the dog ate my homework." I guess doctors should be held accountable for the high number of their patients not following their orders or suggestions to stay or keep healthy and when they don't they get sick. Or firefighters when homes are burned down and the homeowners didn't have smoke detectors. Why didn't they go to every home to check to make sure everyone has one? Oh, that's right, it's OUR responsiblity to do what's right. So why is education any differently? Mr. Estvan many, not all of the students, who have a complaint about their teacher's failures for their lack of success once out of CPS schools must take a little responsibility for their own education. You or Mr. Brizard were not there in these former students' classrooms where the teacher, I'm sure were doing everything possible to help these students improve. I know from my own experiences that students AND parents have little interest of their success while in school. All they are interested in is whether or not they will pass to the next grade or graduated. Many times the parents/guardians of these students have marched to the district offices, or called excessively, almost on the borderline of harassment, to make the school pass their child onto the next grade or to allow them to graduated. Many times the district sup. or CAOs or network managers (whatever their lastest title is called), cave in and tell the school to let little Johnny or Jane pass or graduate.
I arrived to work at 6:30 in the morning. I tutor students in grades 6,7 & 8th grade. I ask the parents to sign a permission slip letting them know that this is availiable to their child or children. Several students come faithfully. Some come once in awhile. Some haven't made it at all. Now, I make it a point to come to these students' classroom to remind them that tutorng is the next day or whenever. However, the same trend remains. To show you what I mean, I called one student's home because her mother really wanted her daughter to come for the morning tutoring. However her, daughter missed several days of tutoring. I would stop this student in the hallway and asked why she wasn't coming? She would always give me a lame excuse. But, she would say she would be there the next day or time. She didn't make it. When I spoke with the mother to let her know that her daughter was not coming, her mother's response was, "Well, have you been reminding her?" Yeah, right. Of course it was my responsibility because I'm the one who see her right before she gets up to get dress and get ready for school! How silly of me to call. So before you lay all the problems of former students' lack of educational achievements, get all of the facts. But why would anyone blame themselves for their failures when it so much easier blaming someone else for something they had control of.
Anyway, if you checked the State's Report Card, the top 10 schools were CPS traditional schools. Not a charter. Apparently there are quite a few teachers WHO ARE concern about their students' achievement.
Teachers never give up on their students. We do everything humanly possible to help our students achieve. However, many, many things are out of our control. We do this job because we love this job and the students we teach even when people are bashing us because it's now become some kind of sport.
a parent storey
A parent demand that the lunchroom manager provide a restaurant-type menu for her child to choose what he will eat for dailey school lunch. The manager said there is a limited 'menu' of a choice of 1 or 2 items. Manager suggested parent make lunch for the child--parenttold manager that we her job. When you do everything for everyone, no one knows how to do for themself.
Learned Helplessness
Is a problem not only common among special education students, but is a growing problem among the general student population. I always tell my students that I will do my part and that I expect them to do their part, and that if we all live by that simple axiom they will learn and be ready for the next step. I don't think teachers, as a rule, have low expectations for any student, but we can't do it alone. I agree with Marcia that it seems to be getting worse every year that students simply refuse to do their part, whether in or out of class. I am a very student-centered, inquiry-based teacher and few subjects are off limits; I want students to be interested and encourage them to pick a topic and I will create lessons around their interests. Guess what? When it comes down to it, they complain that they like "work sheets" better and ask why I can't just tell them what they need to know to pass a test. Have I given up? No - it is still my responsibility to find a way to engage them. But I can tell you that students often outright lie about what is expected of them by their teachers and what their contributions are to that process, and if you disagree with that you have either never been a CPS teacher, or you have been out of teaching too long.
I still think this name
I still think this name Pioneer Schools is funny is in so many ways...but somehow it reminds me most of the Soviet Union's Young Pioneers..read this quote from Wikipedia....sounds a bit familar. I am not saying that CPS is a communist organization ...but they seem to share some recruitng methods....read below about the Young Pioneers
"Although membership was theoretically optional, almost all the children in the Soviet Union belonged to the organization; it was a natural part of growing up. Still, joining was not automatic. In the 3rd grade of school, children were allowed to join the Young Pioneer Organization, which was done in batches, as a solemn ceremony, often in a Pioneers Palace. Only the best students were allowed into the first batch, slightly less advanced and well-behaved were allowed into the second batch, several weeks later. The most ill-behaved or low-performing students were given time to 'catch up' and could be allowed to join only in the 4th grade, a year after the first batch of their classmates. Not being admitted at all was odd, and lack of desire to join was considered suspicious. Most often it was a religious student that stubbornly refused to join[citation needed], and religion was frowned upon by Soviet officials due to the fact that it was against Communist ideals."
interesting responses
I found the responses interesting to what these former CPS special education students told CEO Brizard. Neither I nor any staff at Access Living told these students what to say and I think most of them, except for the two former CPS special education students that graduated from college, really did not know much about Mr. Brizard. It seems that when confronted with the very real problems of the results of CPS special education from the perspective of young adults that experienced special education the reaction is in some cases to blame the parents and the students with disabilities themselves. I have seen this at IEP meetings too when a parent challeges the progress their child is making.
It seems that teachers have limited options on what they can do to help students with disabilities based on resources, but it does seem clear that teachers are also part of the failed system like it or not. We here at Access Living attempt to listen to what these young people tell us after they have left CPS, we think their voices are important. The plight of these graduates are profound and it goes way beyond not turning in assingments or parents arguing students should be advanced when they are making little or no effort. By the way both the parents and their children learned that CPS rarely failed special education students who showed up at school, some effectively internalized what is a standard CPS practice at many if not most schools. I have also represented parents of children with disabilities who never missed an assingment and largely failed teacher designed tests where there were very real legitimate disagreements about modifications with teachers and schools.
When I taught at now converted Calumet High School most of my failures were for students who made very little effort along with class cutting and in some sections it amounted to 60% of the classroom. I do grasp the fustration of teachers. But I also recognize I was set up to fail at Calumet along with some far, far better teachers than myself.
When CPS as a school district can only get 5.5% of its students with IEPs by grade 11 to read at state standards we have a profound problem that goes well beyond groups of lazy and unmotivated special education students. In fact with the exception of some higher wealth suburban districts our state as a whole has very deep problems teaching these students to read.
Rod Estvan
Rod
I am totally not being sarcastic, but if what you say is true, perhaps your efforts should be redirected back to the classroom. Return to teaching; make a difference.
Watching the Principal
I applaud the change at Nash elementary school. Why can't this happen at other schools. Specifically, Hedges school where the principal is insensitive, brash, arrogant and not caring of students, parents or staff. This principal has installed cameras throughout the building and spends his time sitting in his office watching the staff- who they talk to. It wouldn't surprise me if the building was also wired with microphones so that he could listen to all conversations. Mr. Garcia continually favors certain staff who comply with his bidding. If someone goes against him, he will try everything in his power to make sure they "suffer". You get the picture! Instead if providing a warm, nurturing environment for his students, staff and parents the atmosphere has become one of distrust, negativity and NOT AT ALL EDUCATIONAL! He refuses to listen to teacher's suggestions and does not heed any advice except his own. Mr. Garcia should take lessons from the principal of Nash.
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Keeping kids in longer is no help
The mayor needs to understand that keeping kids in school longer does not effect there education for the better. You can keep a student in an class for 9 hours and if the teachers choose not to teach (which is very common these days) therefore this 9 hours were wasted. The Mayor needs to come up with an better plan, all this is gonna cause, is furious rage with students and teachers, along with drop out ratings through the roof and i'm almost certain 99.9 chance that there is only going to be only a slight change and that's it. Work it out, there's more con than pros.
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