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: Feds press IL on teacher evaluation rollout
By: Cassandra West / July 03, 2012
Federal officials are pressuring Illinois to speed up the rollout of a controversial evaluation system that will rate teachers in part on how their students perform, records obtained by the Tribune show.
But the state is balking, creating a standoff with the federal government that could derail broader education reforms and lead to other troubling repercussions. The stalemate reveals the tension between states such as Illinois and federal officials over who is in charge of reforming the nation's public schools, and on what timetable.
A summer writing institute for adolescent black males based at the University of Illinois at Chicago is advancing literacy around the country through two curricula based on it. Scholastic, Inc. recently launched "On the Record," a middle-school school curriculum by Alfred Tatum, director of the UIC Reading Clinic. Last year, Scholastic published Tatum's "ID," a writing curriculum for high school. Catalyst wrote about the program last year.
IN THE STATE
Two districts — Glenbard High School District 87 and Naperville Unit District 203 — provide prime examples of the secrecy surrounding the comings and goings of many top school administrators who oversee the education of thousands of children and millions of dollars in local tax money. (Daily Herald)
IN THE NATION
NEA officials said the union has lost more than 100,000 teachers and education support personnel since 2010, and it projects that it will lose even more in the future. By the end of its 2013-14 budget, NEA expects it will have lost 308,000 members and experienced a decline in revenue projected at some $65 million in all since 2010. Also: The NEA aims to remake its image, help re-elect Obama. (Education Week)
After school programs are key to boosting STEM education, professionals say. (U.S.News & World Report)
Illinois preserves teacher-test cutoff score. (Education Week)
Union leaders plan to meet this week to consider options after the state-appointed emergency financial manager running the Detroit Public Schools imposed a contract on the district's teachers. (The Detroit News)
A judge has ruled that a private company cannot open the first online charter school in North Carolina this fall unless it has the approval of the state board. The state board did not respond to the company's application for final approval, saying it would not consider any online charter schools applications for 2012-13. (Huffington Post)
Ohio Gov. Kasich signs Cleveland school "reform" plan into law. (Plain Dealer)
Please-we cannot even get through the new REACH process
no PD and confusion--vendor does not call back and the test reminds one of the CASE exams ==all over again.
Feds should love CPS
The state may be taking a cautious route to new and untested teacher evaluation system, but CPS has charged blindly into the hazy morass. Whoopee!
Chicago didn't even have a plan in place when it volunteered to go first (even though only 300 schools had to be in place for the coming year). Why bother with a stinkin' pilot program? It's just teachers' careers and livelihoods at stake.
Isn't it a good thing that the state is taking its time to make sure it gets this right? At least other districts will be able to learn from Chicago's mistakes. Sigh.
Most suburban districts are
Most suburban districts are just counting on this to blow up before it ever gets to us. There is no reliability with these tests, and your results depend on who is in your class,,get it? We, in the wealthy suburban districts, will be judged "effective" and I don't have to tell you how the teachers at CPS are going to be judged, do I? Of course this is totally unfair and irrational, but when a civilization is on the decline, anything can happen. Most of us are hanging on until retirement. Parents and the I.Q. of the student make most of the difference. Let's just blame the teacher for everything (poverty, etc.) I guess the plan is to privatize.
Many teachers will just quit
Many teachers will just give up on teaching because they are creating standards that no one can live up to. Many societal problems are roadblocks to learning and unless they work on respect for authority and other human beings, these new evaluation measures just aren't going to work. Many teachers work in schools where students yell across the room at will, cuss the teacher out for asking them to listen to instruction and participate in class, sell drugs in the bathroom, and threaten you. This is not just a story of some schools, its in the magnet schools too where you have a 'regular' level population that refuses to cooperate with school policy and common sense behavior in public and the administrators won't back the teachers up with discipline because they want their misconduct reports to look better. The administrators keep dumping their responsibility of keeping order in their school by telling the teachers that they have to improve THEIR classroom management but who can teach in a class where students ignore your requests for them to stop disrupting class, tell you to shut the f up and push your face back in your book or never mind me, just shut up and teach all the while they're yelling across the room to their buddies about basketball and what they did last night. And now on top of not supporting teachers in enforcing discipline, principals are going to rate us on whether or not these disruptive students are engaged in our class? They won't even be quiet when the principal is in the room observing us! I'm tired of people saying all students want to learn... some don't care to partake in their own education.
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