As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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In the News: Rise in violent attacks against teachers
By: Cassandra West / July 02, 2012
A Tribune story about attacks on school personnel shows that Cook County led the state, with 21,806 reported attacks against teachers and other school staff from 2000 to 2009. Teachers who are attacked by students often show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Also, police records show reports of violent attacks against teachers and school staff have risen sharply in Illinois over the past decade.
As part of a new series in The Huffington Post, the organization TeachPlus is running a series of reflections by teachers grappling with whether to remain in the teaching profession.
Gene Roundtree of Madison Park High School in Boston relates that he left teaching to pursue an Ed. M in Education Policy and Management because he wanted to influence public education beyond the classroom, but then returned. In his graduate program, he was confronted with the fact that teachers are the single most important in-school factor for student outcomes. Kylie Alsofrom at the D.C. Preparatory Edgewood Elementary in the District of Columbia didn't intend to teach past her second year. "But when it came time to leave the classroom, I could not pull myself away," she says. "Although I had my struggles, there were a lot of people within my school and the teaching profession who inspired me and showed me that with hard work, the payoff is unspeakable." Brittany Clark of Middle College High School in Memphis confesses she never wanted to be a teacher, just saw it as a stepping-stone toward being a post-secondary professor. Nine years later, she can't imagine doing anything other than teaching, though she admits every year she has moments she contemplates leaving the classroom. Read more here.
Occupy Chicago to provide support for possible Chicago teachers' strike. (Substance News)
IN THE STATE
The Illinois Alliance for Arts Education, in partnership with Columbia College Chicago, will hold a professional development conference on Friday, July 20, in Chicago. This year’s Arts Alive conference is titled “Connecting Through the Arts.” Participants can earn up to six CPDU credits at the institute, which features a wide variety of sessions and workshops.
IN THE NATION
Union leadership in Detroit Public Schools is speaking out against the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan, saying the reform school district's plans to privatize services is a ploy to splinter unions and underpay employees. (Detroit Free Press)
Los Angeles school officials are examining whether three students who flunked a required course should have been allowed to make up the class in a few days at another campus and then return to graduate with their classmates. (Los Angeles Times)
Five more states, including Virginia—a state that did not sign onto the Common Core State Standards—have received wiggle room from the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act. (Education Week)
A federal judge dismissed the Department of Education’s requirement that, for career-training schools to get federal aid, at least 35 percent of graduates must be repaying their student loans. (The New York Times)
to mr devalle
I voted for mr devalle for mayor. However, his last article really changed my mind about him. Look at the violence in chicago.
Attacks per 100,000 teachers
47 in cook county
7 or less in surrounding counties
Yet CPS teachers were given an extra hurdle to strike??? the public has no idea what really goes on at cps. do you think mr emmanuel will address this statistic?? he wouldnt dare talk bad about students. however, i hate to say it, students are also part of the problem at cps. they need to be given a scolding too. sorry mr emanuel, but children need old fashioned discipline too! i am not talking about hitting them, but punishing them. they obvioulsy have no fear to hit a teacher. this is unbelievable in the western world. do you think this happend in Norway or Canada??? You need to fix this problem if you ever hope to have world class schools. all of your intiatives and firinings and turn arounds will amount to NOTHING. now you want to put more blame on the teachers??? just wait a few years...try to recruit the best and the brightest with low salaries on top of the violence!! GOOD LUCK!!!
Problems Not Addressed
The article illustrates yet again what happens when politicians and ed reformers, both of whom are motivated by self interest, dictate policy for the classroom. There is no possibilty of anyone solving the behavior problems at various schools by sitting in a fancy leather chair issuing decrees and mandates that may win a few extra votes.
Principals, area superintendents or whatever the hell they're called today, and Board members have zero concern for the minute-by-minute nightmare that some teachers go through on a daily basis. As long as the school stays off the front pages, these hypocrites are not around.
It is a well-known practice of principals to give the newest teachers the worst classes. It goes to the inherent disdain that administration and middle management have for the classroom teacher.
How much more ludicrous is it for a member of the City Council to pontificate from City Hall about anything in the schools. Teachers need the most important seats at policy-making discussions. And long-serving politicians need to be voted out. They are not supporting teachers.
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