Recently, Chicago Public Schools announced a formal Instructional Materials Adoption Plan, starting with Literacy and Language materials for the 2013-2014 school year.   As a third-year teacher in the district, I value the autonomy I have in making curricular decisions.  Teachers should have the ability to design and create classroom curricula fitted to the unique needs and interests of their students.

Recently, our class has been engaged in a massive project to create a 40-inch by 60-inch, 3D map of the damage caused by the Great Chicago Fire.  The areas burned in the fire have orange buildings, and buildings that went untouched are green.  Roads are made from Popsicle sticks, as streets at the time were made of wood. Important historical sites are labeled.  Most importantly, the project was completely designed and created by the students and me, with students doing the majority of the work—I acted largely as the facilitator. 

Is the project messy?  Yes.  Have I wanted to pull my hair out because tape and construction paper are everywhere?  Of course.  But, have my students learned to work together? Are they learning material that is applicable to their lives? And have they begged me to work on the project every day since we began? Absolutely.    

The project does not just fulfill social studies goals. It also integrates a range of topics, as students read about the fire, write expository essays about the fire, write as though they are citizens during that time, record video explaining the project, and use a grid system to locate points on the map.  It is an all-encompassing learning experience. It is possible because of the freedom we currently have to plan curricula that is relevant to our interests.  It is also just the kind of curricula that could be used to meet the Common Core State Standards in my classroom.

Narrow choices 

I worry about what mandates will be placed on teachers with the new Instructional Materials Adoption Plan.  From what I have read, curriculum adoption will be universal across the district with only narrow choice options.  While new materials are being purchased to accommodate the Common Core, I wonder how teachers will have time to adequately learn a new curriculum for the 2013-2014 school year if many do not even know that new materials are being purchased and no dates have been given for their arrival or for trainings.

Recently CPS sent out an email inviting teachers to be a part of a committee to help identify Literacy and Language Instructional Materials.  I couldn’t wait to sign up.  I quickly emailed my principal to ask for permission to participate (yes, principal approval is mandatory), only to realize that the meetings were scheduled over spring break.  Like most teachers, I have already made plans for the week.  Spring break was just two weeks away when we received the initial email.

Teachers are professional educators who know how to design, plan, modify, and implement curriculum that works best for our students.  In fact, according to Domain 1 in the new Framework for Teaching, the framework used to evaluate teacher performance, teachers should be able to plan and prepare effective instructional outcomes, assessments, and instruction that demonstrate knowledge of content, pedagogy, and students.   I am uncertain about the flexibility teachers will have to demonstrate this skill or the ability administrators will have to evaluate it if curriculum is mandated. 

Teachers should play an integral role in the adoption and implementation of all new materials.  We are professionals who know our students and know our craft.  The new Framework for Teaching presents an opportunity for CPS to identify teachers who are particularly effective at designing innovative curricula, and target those teachers to advise the district or even coach colleagues.  Let us ensure life continues to be good for students and teachers alike, that they have a choice and play an active role in the learning and instruction in their classrooms.

Paige Nilson is a teacher at Hamilton Elementary and a member of Teach Plus, an organization that supports teachers in urban schools.

Teacher strikes, school closings, new standards, new standardized tests, new teacher evaluations, too much testing, unequal resources between neighborhoods, charters vs. traditional school advocates, increasing childhood poverty, lack of recognition for schools that are doing well, reduced resources overall--so where are teacher voices in all of this?

Some teachers speak out bravely. Some complain angrily. Some moan mainly to each other. What we lack is a wider sharing with the public about effective classrooms where teachers are creative and inspiring and where kids are engaged and learning in depth. Teachers feel undervalued, misunderstood, not heard. Yet it’s not in the tradition of teaching in America to sound our horns in public.

Increasingly, though, some educators are calling for more exercise of teachers’ voices. And teachers can begin simply and effectively by telling their stories – not complaining about challenges we face, real as those can be, but telling what our classrooms are like, at our best. Without this understanding, it’s impossible for citizens, parents, or policy-makers to know how to support our work. If we want people to understand and value what we do, it’s up to us to tell them. Think of this as “building our brand.” That’s what Coca-Cola does; it’s what Ford Motor Co. does. And in America, that’s what we must do.

(Note for hurried readers: Of course I want you to hear all my reasoning. But if you already agree with me and are short of time right now, I still want you to go to the end to see what I’m asking – namely for teachers, as well as appreciative parents, to write your own great classroom story and send it to me to see about getting it into print.)

Wonder whether teachers’ stories can really get heard? Here are a few excellent examples from other parts of the country:

• Teachers connected with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project provide monthly feature articles for the Hampshire Gazette, a local newspaper there. The teacher who facilitates this says that area superintendents love it.
• University of Georgia Professor Peter Smagorinsky writes portraits of outstanding teachers, published regularly by journalist Maureen Downey in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
• Atlanta TV station WXIA features a weekly video portrait of an excellent teacher, nominated by parents and moderated by reporter Donna Lowry

Building public trust

We’re not saying that all schools are wonderful and all teachers excellent. We know there are struggling, alienated, burned-out teachers in some places, and schools that have become dysfunctional organizations. But improving them means not simply judging and firing teachers--and where would all those supposedly better teachers come from, anyway?--but helping them, starting with a clear view of what a great classroom looks like, in its many forms and styles. It means understanding a school as a complex social organization where each adult influences the others – rather than just a disconnected collection of separate classrooms. And we can best start on this with our stories.

Certainly unions and teachers organizations can contribute to this informing, this education of the public. But while these groups play an important part, unfortunately their voices are too often perceived as “special interests.” However, when large numbers of individuals speak out from their own experiences and expertise, change can begin to happen.

True, the positive approach I propose will not solve all of our problems in education. But if it helps build public trust and support, it will lay the groundwork.

Now, there are obstacles to teachers speaking out more publicly, even when speaking positively:

• Lack of specific skills. Writing effectively in public forums, on blogs and websites, in newspapers, requires particular kinds of rhetorical skill that many of us have not had an opportunity to learn.
• Lack of time. A teacher’s first responsibility is of course to his or her students. The work is intense in any educational setting. Most non-educators, having no idea how intense, are shocked, if they change careers, when they first step into the classroom. And with new mandates, larger class sizes, and little time for planning or collaboration, teachers are more stressed than ever.
• Fear of administrative reprisal. Many teachers worry they’ll anger their principal if they go public in any way, except perhaps through informational messages to parents. This worry may or may not be justified in specific schools or situations.
• Believing no one will listen. Some teachers have described attempts to communicate in their schools on some issues, only to be rebuffed, or worse, ignored. Others feel that decisions are made by powerful voices with money and influence, leaving them helpless.
  

New strategies from organizers

However, some of us have been learning from community organizers, who, having faced similar obstacles in many struggles over the recent course of American history, have learned how to overcome them. (I’d like to especially credit Kim Zalent at Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, an organizer with whom I worked for several years, for what I’ve learned about this.) Organizers have explicit training in how to strategically inform and energize people, and how to thoughtfully exert influence in a community or organization.

Here are some strategies I’ve learned from this thinking: 

• Hold one-on-one discussions with key people – the principal, supportive fellow teachers, active parents – not to argue for specific actions, but to build trust as a basis for later collaboration. Talk with teachers who are like-minded so you aren’t acting alone. But also meet with and listen to people who don’t see things your way.
• Build connections with parents, community members, and groups by finding common ground, involving them in the school, and visiting them on their turf. People outside the school can often be more believable spokespersons for your work than you.
• Document meaningful data about students’ learning in your classroom, to concretely show the important learning that takes place.
• Get your message out through newspaper articles, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, e-mail, letters to parents, etc. Craft messages to share ideas positively. Messages must be well-crafted so we don’t become defensive or self-serving.

I’ll share just a few thoughts on the first strategy for now. It’s not directly about speaking out publicly, but creates the base for it. Ask almost any organizer about his or her most valuable tool, and you’ll be told: “The one-on-one meeting.” When you sit down with an individual over coffee, not in a public forum, it becomes possible to non-defensively exchange stories about how you came to the work you do, what each of you values, and how you think about your situation. Doing this even briefly, but repeatedly, with a principal can build trust and understanding. Then later on when you approach him or her about writing an article on good things happening in your classroom or the school, the principal can trust your motives.

For more detail on the strategies I’ve outlined, plus good examples of teachers’ public writings, check out my website, www.teachersspeakup.com .

So here’s the point: I’ve talked with a number of news editors and reporters in the area who are strongly interested in teachers’ stories. I urge teachers – or parents, principals, or interested community members – to write and send me, through the website, stories about vivid moments of great teaching and learning. I can work to get some of them published in local newspapers and/or online. (This could include Catalyst Chicago, we hope, but also more general media.) I’ll be happy, too, to give feedback to writers who wish it. I’m not just seeking the nodding of heads here. I want action.

Steve Zemelman

Director, Illinois Writing Project

Several principals contacted by Catalyst Chicago say the district’s substitute center rarely, if ever, provides them with substitutes, even when requests are sent in several days in advance. The problems started in spring 2012, principals say, but got worse during this winter’s massive flu outbreak.

In November, Catalyst filed an open records law request with CPS for data including teacher absences, substitute teacher spending by school, and the steps the district is taking to reduce teacher absences. Last Thursday, the district said it could not fulfill the request because it was “unduly burdensome” and would require more than 40 hours of work to collect the data.

Another factor contributing to the shortage could be new restrictions on teachers’ ability to get paid for unused sick days. That could mean more teachers who are sick are staying home, rather than coming to work in hopes of getting money for unused sick days later.

“Every day we are without subs and we are plugging the holes [by] pulling people off schedules,” said another principal, Tamara Witzl of Telpochcalli Elementary. When the special education teacher must cover classes, students do not get their mandated services. When the world language teacher gets sub duty, students skip that class.

Witzl says she tries to book substitutes she knows in advance, but that it’s hard because they are in such great demand.

“The amount of time I am spending either plugging the holes or tag-teaming can be between an hour and two hours, almost every single day,” Witzl says. “It is extremely stressful. Day-to-day operations are being disrupted. We don’t have any subs coming out to the schools, and we don’t know why.”

One issue could be a district rule that, starting in 2010, required substitute teachers to have teaching certificates “to alleviate concerns from principals regarding sub quality,” says CPS spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler. But, she says, existing subs were grandfathered in.

The district has roughly 3,000 substitutes, Ziegler says, including 600 that were hired in August – but CPS is trying to find “several hundred more” through job fairs and outreach to retirees.

Chicago’s substitutes are spread more thinly than those in Los Angeles, another large urban district. According to state teacher service records, Chicago has roughly 17,500 classroom teachers, or about 5.8 teachers for every substitute. Los Angeles, by comparison, has 4.6 classroom teachers per sub.

Several studies done in the 1990s and early 2000s suggest that nationally, about 5 percent of teachers are absent each school day. This would suggest CPS would need at least 1,260 substitutes each day, but that number doesn’t include substitutes who are used when teachers are released from class due to professional development and testing.

Also, teacher absenteeism can be higher in high-poverty schools like many of those in CPS. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, 15.5 percent of CPS teachers missed 10 or more school days in 2008-09, the most recent year for which data was available.

“We hope that as the flu outbreak diminishes, absenteeism due to illness will also diminish,” Ziegler says.

Head teacher Marta Moya-Leang, the only administrator at Belmont Cragin Early Childhood Center, said the shortage has been particularly hard on her school.

“There was one time we had four teachers out. I can only go into one classroom [at a time],” she points out. “We have relied on the teacher assistants and the parents to help, and that’s not good.”

But Peck Elementary Principal Okab Hassan, a veteran, says that he has learned he has to fend for himself as far as substitutes are concerned.

“If I waited for the district, they would never do anything,” Hassan says. “When we have a sub that is good, we keep them in the file. I am not going to depend on anybody to make my school run.”

Charter school teachers belong to the same pension system as teachers at neighborhood schools, but each charter school determines whether teachers’ pension contributions are taken from their pay or covered by the charter.

Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, doesn’t think the fines will cause problems for charter schools because they should be paying on time anyway.

But expanding the number of teachers required to participate in the pension system could be controversial, he says, because charter schools don’t want more restrictions on how teachers are compensated.

 “There are uncertified teachers in charter schools who aren’t part of the pension system and that’s okay,” Broy says.  “We don’t see that as something wrong. Our focus should be on whether the teachers are effective. We already have a huge funding challenge with charter teachers who wind up not receiving the same salary as traditional teachers do, and this has the potential to exacerbate that problem” –because a portion of those teachers’ salaries would now go toward pensions.

Fines, late fees

Under the proposed change in state law, the fund wants to be able to charge charter schools 8 percent interest on back payments plus a fine of $100 per day for late payments, up to 20 percent of the amount a school owes.

However, the money typically owed by chronically late charter schools – which during an end-of- November pension fund audit was $360,000, according to the pension fund – is just a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of state and CPS dollars the pension funds have missed out on due to recent “pension holidays” and cuts in state contributions.

The proposed bill would also amend the law to require all charter schools to put someone in charge of tracking pension fund payments, and broaden the fund to include all hourly and salaried charter school staff unless the charter school establishes they are not working as teachers or administrators. Currently, the pension fund only includes certified teachers who are working in salaried positions, but some charter schools pay teachers hourly or hire teachers who aren’t certified.

The pension fund has not yet found legislators to sponsor the bill.

A third of charters “chronically late”

A spot-check of charter contributions last fall showed that a third of charter schools were “chronically late” reporting and making payments, according to fund officials. That includes four schools that submitted nearly $31,000 in payments that the fund said it could not credit to anyone because the schools haven’t sent in teacher payroll information.

Charter schools included in the audit say that in many cases, logistical problems caused the delays--staff were out of the office or switched jobs, employees were learning a new payroll system, or the fund’s website had technical problems.  Some were not aware the fund considered their payments late and said no one had tried to address the issue with them.

“We make payments regularly, generally every 2 to 4 pay periods. We have never been told that a problem exists,” notes Kelly Dickens of Urban Prep. “We are current on all payments. As far as we know, there has been no problem.”

But because the school had not paid in three pay periods at the time of the audit, it was listed in CTPF’s analysis as owing a total of $46,500 among three campuses. Kevin Huber, executive director of the pension fund, says all payments must be received by the 10^th day after the end of a school’s pay period.

Youth Connections Charter School Comptroller Hope Mueller says at least two of the three affected campuses, which were listed as owing over $48,000, made all their payments for November on time.

Mueller says that Youth Connections, too, has been allowed by CTPF to file its payroll monthly, rather than after every pay period. 

Salazar's students sat in classes with their coats on. "By 1:45, my room was freezing," Salazar writes. "But they still engaged in a conversation about decision making.  One student shivered every once in a while. At the end of the day, students chatted and chewed bubble gum by their lockers. They smiled. They slowly went home."

Chicago school teachers, paraprofessionals and other activists will take their anti-school closing message to parents and other residents at several el stops during Friday morning and evening rush hours, according to a CTU press release.

The Chicago Teachers Union has completed a study suggesting that Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and the owners of the United Center are paying less than a quarter of the property taxes they should be paying on the arena. The study also suggests that the money Reinsdorf saved dwarfs a contribution he made to help launch a Nobel Network charter school. (DNAInfo)

IN THE STATE
A former Maine West High School soccer player who says he was sodomized as part of a hazing ritual by members of the varsity soccer team spoke publicly for the first time Thursday about the attack. (Daily Herald)

IN THE NATION
High school students are using online forums to collect information about college and connect with admissions' officers. (Education Week)

The University of Wisconsin and the National Council on Teacher Quality reached a settlement in the legal dispute between them related to NCTQ’s review of over 1,100 teacher preparation programs in the United States. The report, to be distributed by U.S. News & World Report in spring 2013, will highlight the country’s programs that are considered most effective at producing classroom-ready teachers and is designed to serve as a consumer guide to prospective teachers and district leaders and a resource to programs seeking to improve, according to the press release from the NCTQ.

Edutopia looks at the new digital divide—the sharp socioeconomic division between those that have savvy tech professionals and the high-speed connections that can support WiFi-dependent tablets or laptops, and those that lack these basic internal support structures for individual student devices, let alone the funds to purchase them for all students.

Michael Vargas, one of the teachers featured by Catalyst, landed a job teaching 8th-grade bilingual education at Calmeca Academy. 

Angel Torres was offered a full-tuition scholarship to complete a master’s degree in math education at Northeastern Illinois University. He took it, and will spend another year learning instead of teaching.

Torres had several reasons for opting to take the scholarship. One is the chance to build confidence.

 “I knew I wasn’t prepared to go out and teach at this time. I wanted to stay in school and take a couple more classes,” he says.

Second, the math endorsement that Torres will earn makes him more marketable, adding to endorsements he has already earned in social studies, history and English. “I wanted to have options,” Torres says. “The schools I am applying to work for, I want to make sure I can get in. If a job is offered in a specific subject, I want to make sure I can cover that subject and stay in the neighborhood. “

He’s not alone. Of the 22 Grow Your Own graduates in the evaluation released this summer, 36 percent are currently enrolled in graduate programs and another 45 percent say they plan to participate. With a tough job market in CPS, one principal advised Grow Your Own that it should “let (candidates) know Chicago is challenging, and they should have endorsements before going out to get a job.”

Student enrollment in Illinois is expected to decline through 2015, according to a 2011 report from the Illinois State Board of Education, and fewer students will mean tougher job searches for teachers. The trend is likely to hold for teachers elsewhere, too: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, the number of students is stagnant in many other Midwestern states and declining in the Northeast, as well.

Reached over the summer, Torres said he also feared that if he took a job, he would lose pay should teachers strike—which they did.

“My wife just lost her job at the state, so I needed to make sure there was an income,” Torres said at the time. As a master’s student at Northeastern Illinois University, he was able to keep his full-time job at People’s Gas.

Constrained by funding

Grow Your Own is intended to help increase diversity in the teaching force by training candidates who already have ties to underserved communities, helping them to complete their bachelor’s degrees and become teachers. In CPS, the workforce has recently experienced a decline in the number of African-American teachers, coupled with a substantial gap between the percentage of students and the percentage of teachers who are Latino.

The district agreed to a provision in the most recent Chicago Teachers Union contract that will create a plan for recruiting more minority teachers. CTU staff coordinator Jackson Potter says he thinks the district should look at models like Grow Your Own.

But an evaluation of the program released this summer noted that, despite positive ratings of graduates on a modified Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching, and good reviews from principals, not all the 33 Chicago graduates have found jobs.

Of the 33, most are teaching in CPS—but 10 are not. Of those 10, two are hunting for CPS jobs (one is subbing in the meantime), two are working in schools but not as teachers, two are teaching outside the district, three are in graduate school, and one is still working to get her credentials from the state.

One program coordinator told researchers in the evaluation that “the GYO model is great when the state budget is in average to good condition. When state finances and the economy constrict teacher hiring, district finances and state funding, the model breaks down and is not functional.”

Another barrier is the slow trickle of teacher candidates into the schools—just 70 so far have graduated, 33 in Chicago and 37 elsewhere in the state. Grow Your Own is moving to address this issue.  Community groups—which partner to offer Grow Your Own—and universities around the state have toughened the screening process for applicants in order to ensure they’re more likely to finish, the evaluation noted.

Anne Hallett, the director of Grow Your Own Illinois, says that the program has adopted a “Pre-Grow Your Own” strategy to strengthen recruitment. Five of the community organizations require candidates to take several college classes—such as math—without assistance from the program. The candidates also participate in Grow Your Own student activities.

“This allows the candidate to assess if he or she can succeed in college courses and if being an active member of a GYO cohort is a good fit for her or him,” Hallett notes. The strategy also lets Grow Your Own figure out if the candidate can succeed academically and commit to the program.

But as educators deeply invested in the success of Chicago’s schools, we come away with very different lessons. We argue that teacher unions have in the past proven to be an essential voice in improving public education; that the recent strike has preserved that voice for Chicago’s teachers; and that unions must continue to serve as the teachers’ voice into the 21st century.

Throughout a century of disagreements with mayors over patronage, segregation, and unequal resources, organized teachers in Chicago have used their collective power to foster improvement in the public schools. The recent strike reflects this legacy, with the CTU taking a stand against charter schools and high-stakes testing. The spread of charters, on which Mayor Rahm Emanuel staked his position, has had exactly the same mixed results in Chicago as elsewhere:  Research consistently shows that overall, charters perform the same as, or worse than, comparable neighborhood schools while also increasing segregation along racial and class lines. Now, CPS plans to close up to 120 public schools and welcome 60 charters anyway.

Another central issue in this dispute was the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers. The rush to use standardized test scores, despite documented significant flaws, has been compared to early 20th Century IQ testing and the minimum-competency exams of the 1970s, both of which are now recognized by historians as having been racially discriminatory and bad for children and learning.

Many backers of these so-called reforms--including Rauner, CPS board member Penny Pritzker and the Gates Foundation--are politically connected and wealthy, and they are also generous donors to both local and national campaigns. Organized teachers provide a vision of public schooling grounded in the daily realities of children, communities, and schools that offsets this unequal distribution of power. Only one of the seven appointed members of the CPS Board of Education has any education experience. Unions support continued education and the sharing of best practices grounded in empirical research. In fact, the only research-based proposal to come out of this recent contract fight came from the CTU, which argued against the narrowing of the curriculum, more charters, and value-added evaluations.

It’s time to start trusting educators again. Teachers unions of the 21st Century can evolve to become as dynamic and diverse as learning.  Unions should collaborate with districts to put new tools of education, such as mobile computing, in the hands of all students. Teachers’ collaborative power will also be enhanced by bringing charter and “virtual school” educators into unions.  And, as we have seen too many smart people leave this profession out of frustration, unions can carve out new career ladders based on peer-certified mastery: mentor for aspiring and new teachers, master teacher to coach colleagues, online educator, and so on.

All of this takes time, and we have heard over and over again that our most disadvantaged students don’t have it. But we also need to stop treating education as if it is in crisis. The patient is not bleeding out; she has a chronic illness. There is a big difference between doing something—whether to please those demanding that something be done, or out of desperation for a solution—and finding the right thing to do.

It’s time to do the right thing for the children of Chicago and the United States.

Charles Tocci is a clinical assistant professor in the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago. Melissa Barton is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago as well as a teacher and union delegate in the Chicago Public Schools.

Still, it’s questionable how much the new provision will change what is happening on the ground in schools, given a host of factors.

For one, the provision had a stipulation that if CPS could not meet that quota by hiring back teachers, they could do so by taking the most-senior in the pool and making them substitutes.

Also, while the percentage of new hires who are displaced teachers has dropped in recent years, the overall number of displaced teachers has declined also. In fact, last year CPS could not have filled 50 percent of available jobs with displaced teachers because there were just not enough of them.

Here’s how the numbers compare: In the 2011-2012 school year, only 29 percent of new hires were of displaced teachers, according to a Catalyst Chicago analysis of data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. But three years ago, 48 percent of new hires were displaced teachers. During that time, the number of teachers in the displaced pool declined to 404 from 721.

Another factor is school closings, which simultaneously increase the number of displaced teachers and limit the number of jobs available. As many as 120 schools could be shut down in coming years, and more than 2,000 teachers could be displaced. But fewer schools means fewer teaching jobs, and the district’s budget problems are also likely to limit new hiring. New schools that are opened will, overwhelmingly, be charters, whose teachers by law cannot belong to the Chicago Teachers Union.

Another factor is retirements. A big wave of retirements took place this year, the last year in which teachers could take advantage of a pension enhancement program that allowed them to cash in unused sick and vacation days and have it count toward their pension. Fewer retirements in coming years will mean fewer new replacement hires.

CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey acknowledges that many unknowns existed when the union signed on to the provision. However, he said the union believes the provision will result in more displaced teachers being hired.

CPS also agreed to force principals to interview at least three displaced teachers when three or more apply for a position. If they choose not to hire one of the three, they must provide a reason to the Office of Talent Development.

“In the past, there was a real propensity for principals to hire new people,” Sharkey said. “Now principals will have a reason to hire more veterans, or the district will face a financial penalty.”

Another complicating factor is that the provision only applies to “pre-qualified” displaced teachers—those who have been rated satisfactory or excellent. In the past, there were no performance provisions to be part of the reassigned pool.

It is predicted that under the new evaluation system, about 70 percent of teachers would achieve those ratings.

Two new charter school operators received grant money to set up shop in Chicago in time for the next school year, though Chicago Public School has yet to approve any new school charters. Foundations College Prep and Intrinsic Schools, both founded by veterans of the corporate world, won grants of up to $450,000 from Next Generation Learning Challenges, a school initiative funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, Next Generation announced Wednesday. (Sun-Times)

Chicago Public Schools'  fourth chief in less than two years says "everything is on the table" in her plan for the district, from deficit solutions to moving on from this summer's teacher strike. (NBC Chicago)

IN THE STATE
The Illinois State Board of Education announced it has awarded more than $39.4 million under the federal School Improvement Grant Program to help seven schools in three districts make comprehensive changes to improve student performance and ensure college readiness. Five Chicago high schools—Chicago Vocational Career Academy, Clemente Community High School, Bowen Environmental Studies, Bogan and Al Raby—are on the list. (Press release)

IN THE NATION
The University of Phoenix has announced plans to close more than half of its brick-and-mortar locations and to lay off about 800 employees, reflecting declines in the for-profit higher education sector. (The New York Times)

Student and parent groups in Chicago, the District of Columbia, New York, Newark, N.J., and Philadelphia gathered in Washington late last month to call for a moratorium on school closings and filed separate complaints with the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights. In those complaints, the groups allege that in previous rounds of school closings, their districts have not been transparent and have been influenced by outside interests, such as charter school operators. They also argue that the closings have had a harmful and disparate impact on minority students and communities. Each of the districts has predicted new closures for the coming school year.  (Education Week)

The union said that of 20,765 votes it counted, 79.1 percent were in favor of the contract. The Chicago Board of Education must vote on the contract as well before it takes effect.

On one hand, I wanted to be in the classroom, providing students with the opportunity to learn.   On the other hand, I recognized that a strike was a powerful tool to increase resources for public education.   My students need great teachers, and the strike made me wonder - what do I need to be that great teacher?

The amount of blame I saw leveled at teachers during the strike discussions was terrifying for someone about to enter the profession.   Like our students, the teachers of Chicago feel the effects of unemployment, violence, urban depopulation, and poverty on a daily basis.  Did the responsibility of solving social inequality really fall squarely on my shoulders, as a future teacher?  Such a burden would be unbearable - which may explain why 33% of Chicago teachers leave after only one year.

I have learned in my training that a teacher must maintain high expectations of her students, regardless of their circumstances.   Likewise, I want our district to hold high expectations of me as a teacher, and hold me accountable to those expectations.  But there is another crucial lesson of my student teaching: high expectations alone are not enough.  You can't expect your students to reach great heights without a ladder.  Demanding high achievement without offering support simply leads to stress, frustration, and despair.

Many Chicago teachers are feeling that stress and frustration right now, and many flee the profession before they have the chance to become expert teachers.  I want to stay in the profession for my entire career, and have sought support to make the path more sustainable.  This includes coaching, mentoring, and other professional development from the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation and from my credential program.  But this kind of support is rare and currently unavailable to most teachers.

Our compromise contract holds some promising features.  The union fought to limit the portion of teacher evaluations based on standardized tests, as these have been shown to give greatly varying results even when examining a single teacher from year to year.  As anyone else who has received a bad grade on a paper or test with no explanation should understand, explicit feedback is more useful than an unqualified ranking.  

The compromise is an evaluation system that includes value-added scores from standardized tests, along with evaluations based on student surveys and comprehensive feedback on the teachers' performance in the classroom.  I think this system will encourage me to grow as a professional and strengthen my ability to help students learn, rather than spend my time trying to outwit a test.

(Editor’s note: In the compromise, student surveys will be piloted next year. The student surveys will only be incorporated into formal evaluations the following year upon approval by a majority of a committee of CPS and union representatives.) 

The contract resulting from the strike also tries to balance high, enforced expectations with support. The limits on class sizes were retained and additional money has been committed to reduce class sizes.  This means that I will be able to know my students and give them individualized feedback.  What's more, improved working conditions for school support staff mean that I will have more time to focus on instruction instead of trying to be a social worker for my most troubled students.  

Just as my students must put time and effort into learning their subjects, teaching is a profession that can only be learned and mastered with time and practice.  I hope that the compromise contract will give me, and other new recruits, the opportunity to stay in classes for years to come.

Ivy McDaniel is completing her teaching credential in the Urban Teacher Education Program at the University of Chicago.

They touted solutions favored by Advance Illinois and the state P-20 council, many of which are already under way: Expanding early childhood education and implementing a new state kindergarten assessment, improving teacher and principal training and evaluation, expanding community schools and career education, and improving struggling schools.

But questions about Rahm Emanuel's post-strike ad campaign -- as well as the effectiveness of Senate Bill 7, which was supposed to help prevent strikes, particularly in Chicago -- lingered over the gathering.

Robin Steans, executive director of Advance Illinois, said that the strike restrictions were just one small part of the overall reforms included in Senate Bill 7. Steans said the goal of the law was to encourage districts and unions to avoid strikes. But, she added, "there's a million reasons why strikes happen. It's bigger and deeper than only one piece of legislation."

When asked whether Advance Illinois would back legislation banning strikes outright, Steans said "it is too soon to have any thoughts or discussions about that."

[View the story "Education reformers set post-strike agenda" on Storify]

Since almost 20 percent of Illinois students come into kindergarten as English-learners, there is a substantial gap between the need for bilingual services and the supply.

The survey examined teachers between birth and 3^rd grade in programs that receive state Prevention Initiative (birth to age 3) or Preschool for All (age 3 to 5) funding. The data don’t show how far the state is from meeting a fall 2014 bilingual certification requirement for preschool teachers, because the survey included programs that aren’t affected by the requirement. The mandate only applies to teachers in state preschool programs administered by school districts.

One survey question indicated the state may have a tough road ahead. The survey found that a large number of program directors – 43 percent – reported that none of their certified teachers were interested in seeking bilingual or ESL endorsements.

“There is a sense that there isn’t a whole lot of interest in pursuing, or need for, the certifications,” says Margaret Bridges, a senior research scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, who coauthored the report. “I think there probably is some confusion… about who is under the new mandate.”

However, 12 percent of program directors – and 26 percent in heavily Latino areas – reported that all of their staff members were interested, showing that some teachers’ interest has been piqued.

For the time being, though, many students may not be getting access to bilingual instruction. Across all program types, there were 35 English-learners for each bilingual or ESL certified teacher, and in heavily Latino areas, it was 50 students – showing that many may not be getting face time with qualified teachers.

“Interacting with a teacher is an important part of learning,” Bridges says. “[It provides] social-emotional support, but [it’s] also how teachers model language and offer instructional support to children.”

Sylvia Puente, executive director of Latino Policy Forum, says principals and teachers need more education about the issues and more universities need to offer bilingual certification programs tailored for early childhood candidates. Just two currently do, but as of spring 2011, seven more universities had programs in the works.

Looking to the future, Puente would eventually like to see all teachers, early childhood through high school, required to take substantial coursework – “ideally a full endorsement” – in either ESL or bilingual education.

“We are beginning to plant the seeds of that,” Puente says. “Policy change happens very slowly and the idea has got to be buzzing around.”

[View the story "CTU releases deal details" on Storify]