The election was a referendum on how well Lewis' leadership and the Caucus of Rank and File Educators handled the fall's teacher strike and contract negotiations.

The opposition caucus, Coalition to Save Our Union, charged that Lewis put style and big-picture promises over substance and results.

But many teachers said that Lewis' leadership during the strike, when she went head-to-head with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, proved decisive in their decisions to vote for her.

“You need a force like Karen Lewis to get in the face of the mayor,” said Emily Rosenberg, director of DePaul University's Labor Education Center and a supporter of Lewis. “She can't be bullied.”

As the union's biggest battle yet over school closings drags on, Rosenberg says the election “gives a signal to the whole city that (teachers are) solidly behind her, and that there's going to be a struggle.”

Voting kicked off today, and early results may be released as soon as this evening.

Saunders-Wolffe, a guidance counselor at Jesse Owens Elementary on the Far South Side, is waging an uphill battle to unseat Lewis, harnessing dissatisfaction among many teachers with the latest union contract.

Saunders-Wolffe has also criticized Lewis and the current leadership team for their tactics against the district and City Hall.

“We have to give [teachers] a voice from the table. We can’t just keep screaming from the streets,” Saunders-Wolffe told Catalyst Chicago in March. 

“We have done so many school visits. Teachers are really unhappy with the contract,” said Mary Ellen Sanchez, opposition candidate for recording secretary, who was outside Byrne Elementary in Garfield Ridge this morning. Sanchez teaches 3^rd grade at Byrne.

Candidates on Saunders-Wolffe’s opposition slate, the Coalition to Save Our Union, are pledging to focus more on member services, which they charge have fallen by the wayside as Lewis’ team, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, focuses on organizing. Organizing is a major component of CORE’s strategy, as Lewis’ team led the CTU through a week-long teachers’ strike last fall, Chicago’s first in 25 years. Immediately after the strike, CORE switched gears to fight school closings through protests and partnerships forged with community and parent groups.

The Coalition also wants to rebuild the union’s bridges with district management, despite a relationship that has grown increasingly bitter in recent years.

At Byrne, teachers enumerated the issues that swayed them to support the Coalition, many of them boiling down to unhappiness with the contract: longer days and hours that the pay raise didn’t make up for, a cut to paid before-school prep time, and an agreement to drop litigation over the contractually promised 4 percent raises that teachers didn’t get during the 2011-2012 school year.

“People were getting scared [because] the strike was too long,” and thus gave in too much at the negotiating table, said librarian Mary Beth Corbin. She also complained that even though the contract ended up including incentives to participate in a wellness plan, and even teachers who are participating are being charged due to bureaucratic snafus.

Scott Worden, Byrne’s special education teacher, said he was undecided but also felt the contract left much to be desired. “With the strike, I don’t think we gained anything,” Worden said. “No matter who’s in charge, we always lose something as teachers. The board’s going to win, because they’re going to sneak something in.”

At Kenwood Academy High School in Hyde Park, many teachers said they supported CORE and cited Lewis’ handling of the strike.

 “I trust the leaders who led us through the strike to carry us through another year,” said science teacher Barbara Richter. Coreen Uhl, another staff member at the school, said Lewis “did a great job representing us during the strike, so I’ll be taking that into account.”

Added history teacher Shannon League: “I don’t think we could have asked for much more. In negotiations, you have to give a little.”

NEW TACTIC: Stymied in its efforts to stop the city from closing scores of schools, the Chicago Teachers Union on Monday said it will turn its attention to a voter registration campaign and efforts to oust Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other elected officials. (Tribune)

SCATHING REPORT: The Chicago Teachers Union released a report examining the upheaval at two elementary schools—one in West Englewood and one in East Garfield Park—slated for closure in recent years by Chicago Public Schools. "A Tale of Two Schools: The Human Story Behind Destructive School Actions in Chicago" used testimony from parents, staff, administrators and community leaders to address district neglect, barriers to improvement, low student morale and other concerns at Simon Guggenheim Elementary and Jacob Beidler Elementary schools, and examine the overall causes and effects of school actions, according to a news release by the union.

POOR ATTENDANCE: The Austin High School campus’s large auditorium was nearly empty during a Chicago Public Schools meeting held to address public concern for the closure of Emmet and Key Elementary Schools. About 30 people sat scattered around the auditorium on April 13 for the Francis Scott Key Elementary School meeting, held from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. That number only grew by a few people at 7:30 p.m. when the Emmet Elementary School meeting started. (Austin Talks)

IN THE NATION
BILINGUAL DECREE: A judge Monday approved changes to a consent decree for Denver Public Schools that will establish new rules for bilingual education classes for the district’s 36,000 students who do not speak English. Nearly 90 percent of those students are Latinos. (KDVR.com)

SUPERINTENDENT TRENDS: Katherine Schultz, a professor and dean of the School of Education at Mills College in Oakland, notes two trends that have come to characterize the urban school district superintendency in recent years. First, urban superintendents rarely stay in their positions for more than a few years, she says. And second, new superintendents tend to start with their own bold visions, in order to make their mark. "This is nearly always a mistake; this strategy inevitably slows the momentum of progress and the consequent discontinuity often causes disruption in the lives of children, teachers and families." (The Washington Post)

GED OVERHAUL: Several dozen states are looking for an alternative to the GED high school equivalency test because of concerns that a new version coming out next year is more costly and will no longer be offered in a pencil and paper format. (AP/Philly.com)

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: New York City public school students are undergoing rigorous preparation for the redesigned exams, which are likely to cover some material that is not yet in the curriculum. (The New York Times)

They’re demanding an end to testing in preschool through 2^nd grade, and fewer tests for older students. They also want the district to offer an accounting of the instruction time and money that is spent on test prep and test-taking.

The petition gathering was organized by the anti-testing More than a Score campaign, a coalition of the Chicago Teachers Union, Parents United for Responsible Education, Raise Your Hand, and Parents 4 Teachers. The union has long been opposed to the use of standardized test scores in teacher evaluations, but new teacher evaluations incorporate a test-score component.

It is part of a national day of action to support teachers in Seattle who are boycotting the Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test, which CPS also uses. The test has recently been criticized because a U.S. Department of Education study found that its use had no effect on 4^th- and 5^th-grade students’ reading achievement.

CPS schools use the test two to three times a year, and it is one that has come in for criticism. At the January board meeting, teacher Anne Carlson, who teaches 4^th- through 6^th-grade at Drummond Montessori, cited the research and said testing in Chicago amounted to child abuse. Kindergarteners, she said, take as many as 14 district-mandated tests a year.

Dramatic changes are coming to the testing landscape in Chicago and Illinois. The Illinois State Board of Education plans to raise the cut-off scores on the ISAT test  and test scores are virtually certain to plummet across the board as a result. In 2014, new tests based on the Common Core Standards are expected to replace the ISAT, and scores on these tests are also expected, at least initially, to paint a dim picture of student achievement.

“Let’s play school…let’s play DIBELS”

Parent Rhoda Rae Gutierrez, who helped organize the petition gathering at Coonley, complains that her children even take tests when they are playing. “My older daughter, who is 8, said to my 5-year-old, ‘Hey, let’s play school… let’s play DIBELS,” Gutierrez said (DIBELS is an early literacy test.) “Teachers are put in a really awkward position of having to balance the district mandates with trying to provide a quality education.”

Julie Greenberg, whose son is in 2^nd grade at Coonley, said that now that winter break has passed and the ISAT is approaching, “You can see the content of the homework is changing. It’s fill-in-the-bubble homework. I think we all know that’s not the best way our children learn.”

Others complain that for gifted students, testing takes away from the accelerated program. “They are re-hashing what they did a year ago,” said Coonley parent Steve Johnson, also a local school council member at Amundsen High School, who signed the petition. Johnson has one child in the school’s gifted program and another in the neighborhood program.

Parent Joy Clendenning had little luck getting signatures at Kenwood Academy High School, where few parents got out of their cars. But at Ray Elementary, she found more signers including Aisha Mays, who was dropping off a 1^st-grade student. Mays quickly understood what Clendenning was petitioning against.

“I hate standardized testing,” Mays said. “I think it is stupid.”

Mays went onto say that she never performed well on standardized tests, but that had little bearing on her ability to make it through school and get a good job.

Clendenning, who has two children at Ray and two who have graduated, tells Mays that she knows her son’s 1^st-grade teacher well and that she would trust her, as a professional, to get an accurate read on where her son is without a standardized test. Mays agrees, noting that the teacher comes early every Wednesday to provide extra help in reading for her son.

Not all parents at Ray signed the petition on the spot. Many wanted to take the information and read it. Some of them are concerned that, if they were to opt out of the testing, it would hurt the school and their child’s teacher.

Sabrina Miller, another parent at Ray who stopped to talk to Clendenning, said she never had a problem with testing. “It puts me in a mind frame of where my child is at,” she said. Before talking to Clendenning, Miller said she never thought about the drain that tests have on instructional time or on the district’s money. She decided to sign the petition.

Chicago’s high school dropout rate – about 35 percent – is at the heart of the city’s problems with poverty, violence and unemployment, according to a special episode of "Chicago Tonight." Watch a recap of our 90-minute live online chat here.

IN THE STATE
The Illinois State Board of Education announced Thursday that it has awarded more than $14 million in 21st Century Community Learning Center grants to fund before- and after-school academic enrichment programs. These programs are expected to serve more than 13,600 students from 110 Illinois schools. The 21st CCLC grant program provides academic enrichment opportunities to help students in low-income, underperforming schools meet state and local performance standards in subjects such as reading and math. The program also offers a variety of services to students and their families, including drug and violence prevention lessons, counseling, art, music and recreation classes, technology education and character education. (ISBE press release)

Four leaders of Springfield’s black community Monday requested a meeting with the Springfield School Board to discuss what they said many blacks see as racism aimed at School Superintendent Walter Milton and other black school employees. (State Journal-Register)

IN THE NATION
A new analysis of federal data that provide a deeper and more systematic look into students’ ability to understand the meaning of words in context than was previously available from “the nation’s report card” finds stark achievement gaps in vocabulary across racial and ethnic groups, as well as income levels. (Education Week)

Hispanic students now make up nearly a quarter of the nation’s public school enrollment, according to an analysis of census data by the Pew Hispanic Center, and are the fastest-growing segment of the school population. Yet nonwhite Latino children seldom see themselves in books written for young readers. (Dora the Explorer, who began as a cartoon character, is an outlier.) (The New York Times)

A vast majority of public school teachers in Northeast Florida are rated as effective or highly effective, a statistic that one local superintendent says is “inconsistent.” (The Florida Times-Union)

In a report embargoed until today, “The Black and White of Education in Chicago’s Public Schools,” the union reiterates the charge that school closings have disproportionately affected African-American students and blames CPS charter school openings for funneling students away from neighborhood schools. (As part of the embargo, CTU asked reporters not to discuss the findings with CPS for comment.)

The report finds that high schools that have been targeted for school actions may be struggling because of factors outside their control. Of the 10 high schools with the lowest incoming student scores on the EXPLORE test (which high schools do not have influence over) between 2009 and 2012, nine were turned around, closed or phased out.

CTU also goes on the offensive against charters, particularly on the issues of:

*School leader pay. Several multi-campus charter school networks often have presidents and CEOs who earn more money per student served than the CEO of Chicago Public Schools. The charter network with the highest-paid chief relative to the number of students served is at Urban Prep’s Tim King, followed by leaders at LEARN Charter and North Lawndale College Prep. Schools chiefs at Perspectives, UNO, Noble Network of Charter Schools, and Chicago International Charter Schools also earn more per student than schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, according to the report. The charter chiefs’ salaries range from $101,591 at North Lawndale College Prep, to $289,274 at LEARN.

*Enrollment. According to the report, the district’s 2013 budget showed that not all charter school slots were filled.

*Student achievement. The report points out that the average value-added scores at high-poverty, more than 90 percent African-American schools are actually higher among CPS-run schools than among charters. CPS-run schools scored, on average, in the 43^rd percentile and charters in the 33^rd. The schools’ math scores were similar. Among schools that are 85 percent or more low-income students, charters outscored district-run schools on math (but still did worse on reading).

*Teacher diversity. The report charges that more than 95 percent of charter school students are black or Latino, but only 30 percent of teachers are.

*Teacher turnover. The report claims that just 65 percent of teachers at Noble Network of Charter Schools, and 54 percent of teachers at UNO charter schools, return to their jobs each year.

Panelists at the event, "Charter Schools, Neighborhood Schools and Public Education in Chicago," included Chicago Teachers Union Staff Coordinator Jackson Potter, Illinois Network of Charter Schools President Andrew Broy, and University of Chicago sociology professor Charles Payne.

[View the story "Panelists debate future of charter schools" on Storify]

Board President David Vitale warned CTU Recording Secretary Michael Brunson, before Brunson addressed the board, that “you are here, and your ability to speak is, at my discretion.” (At the board’s discretion, CTU officials are allowed as a courtesy to address the board without first registering.)

“Unfortunately, your organization does not seem to want to behave as civilly as we do. Your vice president is quoted in the Tribune as saying, ‘We are coming after you,’” Vitale continued.

He then accused the union of “spewing lies” about board member Penny Pritzker, referring to criticism of Hyatt Hotels’ involvement in a tax increment financing district-funded project.

“You also threaten us, Vitale said.  “You had your members march on my home. No one was home except my daughter,” because schools were closed due to the strike at the time.

Brunson said he was “a man of peace” and suggested that CPS publicly post the position files and budgets of charter schools, include charter teachers in the CTU pension funds and put school closings on hold.

“I make these suggestions so we can have peace, but we cannot allow you to shut down our schools,” Brunson said.

Before the exchange, CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett noted that CPS is asking the Illinois General Assembly for an extension, until March 31, of the deadline for proposing school closings.

“The intent of Senate Bill 630 is our intent,” Byrd-Bennett said, referring to the bill that sets a Dec. 1 deadline for announcing school closings. She said the extra time is necessary because the process “requires a much more rigorous and much more transparent, open dialogue” than has occurred so far.

The first meeting of a district-appointed school closing commission, on Tuesday, “was an opportunity to guarantee this commission that they are totally independent, that we will not meddle in their work,” Byrd-Bennett said.

She said the commission will hold meetings in every community and will provide monthly reports to the board, and added that CPS does not have a set number of schools it is looking to close.

Later in the meeting, Stand for Children member Lisa Kulisek, the parent of a pre-kindergarten student at Smyth Elementary, asked board members not to close Smyth, an underutilized school that is in the lowest-performing level (Level 3) in the district.

“Our school’s test scores are improving and we have a terrific IB [International Baccalaureate] program,” Kulisek said. “Most of the students walk to school. Where would they go if our school closed?”

Information like that, Vitale said, was what the school closings commission will consider.

But at the end of public participation, board member Andrea Zopp said that if the proposal from school closing opponents is “to say stop, don’t do anything… I don’t see that happening.”

Zopp said CPS wants and needs to work together with CTU, but that it is tough to do so when personal attacks are involved.

“They have threatened us personally, and made misrepresentations about Ms. Pritzker… the CTU needs to pick,” Zopp said.

After the march, supporters – including many teachers – rallied inside the Hyatt Regency Chicago, protesting Hyatt’s participation in a Hyde Park development that received tax-increment financing dollars.

One, which was on the ballot citywide, asked if the state should pick up the tab for Chicago’s teacher pensions. The state pays for teacher pensions elsewhere, but Chicago covers its own – in effect, charging Chicago residents twice. Seventy-seven percent of voters approved it, according to preliminary results from the Chicago Board of Elections.

However, critics of the measure have pointed out that with the state facing a funding crisis, it’s highly unlikely to make that move. State officials have discussed, however, shifting the burden of all teacher pensions onto local school districts.

Another, which only made it onto the ballot in 327 precincts, asked voters if Chicago’s school board should be elected like others in the state.

Chicago’s school board has historically been appointed, although it was not until 1995 that the city’s mayor gained unfettered control of the appointment process.

The measure was backed by Communities Organized for Democracy in Education (CODE), a coalition of ten groups. 

Raul Botello, associate director of Albany Park Neighborhood Council, says the next step is for parents and students in CODE to lobby Chicago’s state legislators. State Rep. LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago) may introduce a bill that would create a task force to study the issue.

 “Chicago legislators should really be listening to the voters,” Botello said. “Even if it is advisory, I think legislators have a responsibility to listen to the people and the voters in their communities.”

Preliminary Election Results

Should the state of Illinois cover the cost of Chicago’s teacher pensions?

Yes: 77%

No: 23%

Total: 855,847 voters

Should Chicago have an elected school board?

Yes: 87%

No: 13%

Total: 70,260 voters

Source: Chicago Board of Elections

Chicago Public Schools released on Wednesday a preview of the criteria for which it will shut down schools throughout the city. CTU President Karen GJ Lewis said the “CPS’ school actions appear to be an arbitrary real estate plan and not a school improvement plan that will benefit our students.  We have heard the District plans to open 60 new charter operations and it has to get the buildings from somewhere. School closings have a significant negative impact on student learning. These closings destabilize neighborhoods and lead to the layoffs and firing of experienced educators."

During the United Neighborhood Organization Annual Awards Dinner last night, UNO CEO Juan Rangel announced a $70 million school construction program to build new schools in Chicago’s Hispanic communities, where CPS schools are overcrowded. (Hispanically Speaking News)

IN THE NATION
A study by the Fordham Institute offers a comprehensive analysis of American teacher unions’ strength, ranking all 50 states and the District of Columbia according to the power and influence of their state-level unions. In Tier 1, the strongest, the top 10 unions are in Hawaii, Oregon, Montana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, California, New Jersey, Illinois, New York and Washington. The Fordham Institute study assesses teachers unions according to their power and influence across five major areas: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies, and perceived influence. (Indiana Public Media)

New York City public school students will return to classes on Monday morning, but some of them will not go to the buildings they left last week. Forty-four buildings housing 79 schools were severely damaged by the storm, Dennis M. Walcott, chancellor of the city’s Education Department, said Thursday in a news briefing. Students whose classes were held in severely damaged buildings will be relocated to other schools, Walcott said, and some classes may have to be broken up. (The New York Times)

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.

Valerie Leonard, co-founder of The Lawndale Alliance, offers five reasons why Chicago should have an elected school board.

IN THE NATION
Education came up several times during Monday night’s debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney that was supposed to focus on foreign policy. The Washington Post captured some of the best tweets about what was said about eduction.

Minority students at New York City’s top private schools say they are confronted by a racial and economic divide that manifests itself as indifference and social segregation. (The New York Times)

The Gates Foundation, the country's most influential education-policy organization, has quietly ended financial support for a national group formed to push for favored reforms, including an overhaul of teacher evaluations. Communities for Teaching Excellence, headed by former L.A. school board member Yolie Flores, is planning to close its doors next month. (Los Angeles Times)

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 V