Friday, September 14, 2012
CTU attorney on tentative agreement(videos's)
Robert Bloch, attorney for the
Chicago Teachers Union, comments on the status of a tentative agreement
between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union. Video by Ellen
Hirst. (Posted on September 14th, 2012.)
Raw video: CPS chief education adviser addresses media
Barbara Byrd-Bennett, CPS chief
education adviser, addresses the media Friday morning outside of the
Hilton. No one from the CTU spoke before the start of negotiations
Friday. (Posted on: Sep. 14, 2012)
Parents for teachers march in Logan Square
Hundreds of CPS teachers, students
and their supporters rally for teachers at the Logan Square monument on
Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)
Striking teachers rally in Congress Plaza
Chicago Teachers Union members and
supporters rally in Congress Plaza on South Michigan Avenue in downtown
Chicago on September 13, 2012. (Alex Garcia, Chicago Tribune)
Three generations of striking teachers
Chicago Public school teacher Keelin
Mayer brings her 1-year-old daughter, Opal, to the Chicago Teachers
Union picket line on Sept. 13, 2012. Keelin participated with her
mother, also a teacher, during the last Chicago teachers' strike in
1987.
U.S. embassies attacked in Yemen, Egypt after Libya envoy killed
SANAA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a film they consider blasphemous to Islam, and the United States sent warships toward Libya, where the U.S. ambassador was killed in related violence this week.
In Libya, authorities said they had made four arrests in the investigation into the attack that killed AmbassadorChristopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi on Tuesday.
U.S. PresidentBarack Obama, facing a new foreign policy crisis less than two months before seeking re-election, has vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the Benghazi attack, which U.S. officials said may have been planned in advance - possibly by an al Qaeda-linked group.
Secretary of StateHillary Clinton said Washington had nothing to do with the crudely made film posted on the Internet, which she called "disgusting and reprehensible."
The amateurish production, entitled the "Innocence of Muslims," and originating in the United States, portrays the Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser.
For many Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous and caricatures or other characterizations have in the past provoked violent protests across the Muslim world.
Demonstrations spread further on Thursday, with U.S. embassies again the targets of popular anger among Muslims questioning why the United States has failed to take action against the makers of the film.
Hundreds of Yemenis broke through the main gate of the heavily fortifiedU.S. Embassy compound in Sanaa, shouting, "We sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God." They smashed windows of security offices outside the embassy and burned cars.
A security source said at least 15 people were wounded, some by gunfire, before the government ringed the area with troops.
In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon around the U.S. Embassy inCairo after climbing into the compound and tearing down the American flag. The state news agency said 13 people had been hurt in violence since late on Wednesday.
About 200 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait and hoisted banners, one of which bread in English: "USA stop the bullshit. Respect us."
In Bangladesh, Islamists tried to march on the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, and Iranian students protested in Tehran. Earlier in the week, there were protests outside U.S. missions in Tunisia, Morocco and Sudan and state-backed Islamic scholars in Sudan have called a mass protest after Friday prayers.
The U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed during a protest against the film when Islamists armed with guns, mortars and grenades staged military-style assaults on the Benghazi mission.
A Libyan doctor said Stevens died of smoke inhalation. U.S. information technology specialist Sean Smith also died at the consulate, while two other Americans were killed when a squad of security personnel sent by helicopter fromTripoli to rescue diplomats from a safe house came under mortar attack.
Clinton identified the two as Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, former Navy SEALS who died trying to protect their colleagues.
In a statement, she said both Woods and Doherty had lengthy experience in Iraq andAfghanistan. It did not say in what capacity they were working in Benghazi.
In an interview withABC News last month, Doherty, 42, said he was working with the State Department on an intelligence mission to round up and destroy shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
Thousand of those missiles disappeared in Libya afterMuammar Gaddafi's overthrow by in a U.S.-backed uprising last year, prompting concerns they could end up in the hands of al Qaeda militants.
FIRST U.S. AMBASSADOR KILLED SINCE 1979
Charter schools leave special-needs kids behind
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The high cost of educating students with special needs is disproportionately falling on traditional public schools as other students increasingly opt for alternatives that aren’t always readily open to those requiring special education.
The issue is particularly acute in districts where enrollment has
declined due to demographic changes such as low birth rates and
population shifts combined with an influx of charter schools and voucher
programs that have siphoned off students.
School district officials say all schools that receive public funds should share the cost of special education.
“It raises an ethical responsibility question,” said Eric Gordon, chief executive officer of Cleveland Metropolitan School District. “We welcome our students with special needs, but the most expensive programming is on public districts.”
In Cleveland, the district has lost 41 percent of its students since 1996 while its proportion of students with special needs rose from 13.4 percent to 22.9 percent last year. In Milwaukee, enrollment has dropped by nearly 19 percent over the past decade, but the percentage of students with disabilities has risen from 15.8 percent in 2002 to 19.7 percent in 2012.
Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest system with 665,000 students, has seen enrollment slide by 8.5 percent since 2005-06, while its special needs population has increased from 11 percent to 13 percent.
The U.S. Department of Education’s office of civil rights is investigating charter school practices relating to students with disabilities in five districts around the country, said Russlyn Ali, assistant secretary of civil rights. The probes, which look at admissions, curriculum and accommodation of needs, are the first of their kind, said Ali, who would not release the names of the districts.
While the number of students with special needs has not increased, the rising proportion has driven up costs for cash-strapped schools. Special education, which requires speech pathologists, psychologists and trained teachers, and sometimes special facilities and equipment, can cost four times more than general education. Federal funds only cover a fraction of the extra expense.
Public Schools of Philadelphia, for example, spent $9,100 per regular education pupil in 2009, $14,560 per pupil with milder disabilities and $39,130 for more severe disabilities, according to a consultant’s report that compared special education costs. Other districts cited report similar numbers: Los Angeles Unified spent $6,900 to school a regular education student, $15,180 for a pupil with milder disabilities and $25,530 for a child with significant needs.
With budget shortfalls creating staffing crunches and federal law requiring putting children with disabilities in regular classrooms when possible to remove the stigma and encourage diversity, general education teachers now may find a number of pupils with special needs in their classes.
“There used to be one or two. You’d sit them at the front of the class, but now there are 10 or 12,” said Barbara Schulman, an Orange County special education teacher who heads the California Teachers Association’s special education committee. “Teachers need to know what they’re doing.”
Most charter, parochial and magnet schools serve children with disabilities, but they are often milder disabilities, leaving the brunt of students with significant needs in traditional district schools.
Special needs enrollment in Philadelphia district schools and charters is roughly 14 percent, but about half the district’s pupils with special needs have severe disabilities compared to about a third for charters.
Charter proponents say schools do not turn away kids with disabilities or ask if an applicant has disabilities, which is illegal, and note that in six states — Nevada, Wyoming, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania — charters serve more pupils with special needs than local districts
As districts increasingly offer other options, kids with disabilities are not enrolling in the alternatives at the same rate. Some parents may feel their child is better served with a traditional public school, said Ursula Wright, interim president and chief executive of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools.
“Charter schools give all parents opportunities for choices. Sometimes the choice is not to select a charter school,” she said.
Some charters, such as Partnership to Uplift Communities, have made serving special needs their mission. The Los Angeles charter organization has special needs enrollment ranging from 9 percent to 17 percent at its 13 schools.
Many charters have been reluctant to tackle special education because they lack expertise, but that is starting to change, said Kaye Ragland, who heads special education for the Partnership.
Districts have started to reach out to charters to collaborate more on special education. Some, like Los Angeles Unified, are training charter teachers. Denver Public Schools has gone further.
Two years ago, the district requested that charter operators agree to a mission of equity in schools and included clauses in charter contracts stipulating that they must install programs for severe special needs if required.
Aided by district-provided training and funding, several charter operators now host centers specializing in autism, emotional disturbance and cognitive delay, serving 15 percent of the district’s students with significant needs. More centers are in the works, said John Simmons, executive director of student services for Denver schools.
“We want to realize this idea of equity between traditional district schools and non-traditional schools. It’s about looking at schools on a level playing field,” he said.
Parents like Matthew Asner, whose 9-year-old son with autism attends a traditional Los Angeles Unified school, hope the issue gets figured it out soon. He’d like the fourth-grader to go to charter middle and high schools, but knows it’s a challenge to find one that accommodates autistic students and has openings.
“I don’t think we’ve got a good handle on this,” said Asner, who is executive director of Autism Speaks, an advocacy organization. “We don’t want to see this kind of exclusion.”
————
By Christina Hoag
School district officials say all schools that receive public funds should share the cost of special education.
“It raises an ethical responsibility question,” said Eric Gordon, chief executive officer of Cleveland Metropolitan School District. “We welcome our students with special needs, but the most expensive programming is on public districts.”
In Cleveland, the district has lost 41 percent of its students since 1996 while its proportion of students with special needs rose from 13.4 percent to 22.9 percent last year. In Milwaukee, enrollment has dropped by nearly 19 percent over the past decade, but the percentage of students with disabilities has risen from 15.8 percent in 2002 to 19.7 percent in 2012.
Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest system with 665,000 students, has seen enrollment slide by 8.5 percent since 2005-06, while its special needs population has increased from 11 percent to 13 percent.
The U.S. Department of Education’s office of civil rights is investigating charter school practices relating to students with disabilities in five districts around the country, said Russlyn Ali, assistant secretary of civil rights. The probes, which look at admissions, curriculum and accommodation of needs, are the first of their kind, said Ali, who would not release the names of the districts.
While the number of students with special needs has not increased, the rising proportion has driven up costs for cash-strapped schools. Special education, which requires speech pathologists, psychologists and trained teachers, and sometimes special facilities and equipment, can cost four times more than general education. Federal funds only cover a fraction of the extra expense.
Public Schools of Philadelphia, for example, spent $9,100 per regular education pupil in 2009, $14,560 per pupil with milder disabilities and $39,130 for more severe disabilities, according to a consultant’s report that compared special education costs. Other districts cited report similar numbers: Los Angeles Unified spent $6,900 to school a regular education student, $15,180 for a pupil with milder disabilities and $25,530 for a child with significant needs.
With budget shortfalls creating staffing crunches and federal law requiring putting children with disabilities in regular classrooms when possible to remove the stigma and encourage diversity, general education teachers now may find a number of pupils with special needs in their classes.
“There used to be one or two. You’d sit them at the front of the class, but now there are 10 or 12,” said Barbara Schulman, an Orange County special education teacher who heads the California Teachers Association’s special education committee. “Teachers need to know what they’re doing.”
Most charter, parochial and magnet schools serve children with disabilities, but they are often milder disabilities, leaving the brunt of students with significant needs in traditional district schools.
Special needs enrollment in Philadelphia district schools and charters is roughly 14 percent, but about half the district’s pupils with special needs have severe disabilities compared to about a third for charters.
Charter proponents say schools do not turn away kids with disabilities or ask if an applicant has disabilities, which is illegal, and note that in six states — Nevada, Wyoming, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania — charters serve more pupils with special needs than local districts
As districts increasingly offer other options, kids with disabilities are not enrolling in the alternatives at the same rate. Some parents may feel their child is better served with a traditional public school, said Ursula Wright, interim president and chief executive of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools.
“Charter schools give all parents opportunities for choices. Sometimes the choice is not to select a charter school,” she said.
Some charters, such as Partnership to Uplift Communities, have made serving special needs their mission. The Los Angeles charter organization has special needs enrollment ranging from 9 percent to 17 percent at its 13 schools.
Many charters have been reluctant to tackle special education because they lack expertise, but that is starting to change, said Kaye Ragland, who heads special education for the Partnership.
Districts have started to reach out to charters to collaborate more on special education. Some, like Los Angeles Unified, are training charter teachers. Denver Public Schools has gone further.
Two years ago, the district requested that charter operators agree to a mission of equity in schools and included clauses in charter contracts stipulating that they must install programs for severe special needs if required.
Aided by district-provided training and funding, several charter operators now host centers specializing in autism, emotional disturbance and cognitive delay, serving 15 percent of the district’s students with significant needs. More centers are in the works, said John Simmons, executive director of student services for Denver schools.
“We want to realize this idea of equity between traditional district schools and non-traditional schools. It’s about looking at schools on a level playing field,” he said.
Parents like Matthew Asner, whose 9-year-old son with autism attends a traditional Los Angeles Unified school, hope the issue gets figured it out soon. He’d like the fourth-grader to go to charter middle and high schools, but knows it’s a challenge to find one that accommodates autistic students and has openings.
“I don’t think we’ve got a good handle on this,” said Asner, who is executive director of Autism Speaks, an advocacy organization. “We don’t want to see this kind of exclusion.”
————
By Christina Hoag
Tentative deal reached with striking Chicago teachers
'If the delegates so vote, we will suspend the strike'
Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract and classes could resume for 350,000 students on Monday, according to school and union officials.
The union’s House of Delegates will review details Sunday and are expected to vote then on whether to end the 5-day-old teachers strike, according to Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.
She cautioned there is no contract yet, though a City Hall source said the school district and union have reached a “framework with all points resolved.”
Lewis said delegates at a meeting Friday afternoon did not receive a summary or any details of the agreement. But she said she was “very comfortable” with the terms.
“Our delegates were not interested in blindly signing off on something they have not seen,” she said. “We think it’s a framework that will get us to an agreement.”
CTU attorney Robert Bloch said union negotiators were "hopeful that we will have a complete agreement to present to the union’s House of Delegates by Sunday. And if the delegates so vote, we will suspend the strike and students can return to school on Monday."
Bloch was asked how confident he was that delegates would be happy enough with the deal to end the strike.
“I can’t provide assurances, but I can tell you that it’s a contract that the committee expects to recommend to the membership. And if we have been listening to the membership well and have heard their concerns, then that agreement will be acceptable to our membership overall,” Bloch said.
“We are hopeful that we will have a complete agreement done by Sunday, that when the House of Delegates will review it, that they will have confidence in that agreement and that they will vote to suspend the strike so students can return to school on Monday,” he added.
School board president David Vitale was also upbeat about the strike ending as he left the talks at the Chicago Hilton and Towers this afternoon.
“I’m pleased to tell you that we have in place the framework around the major issues," Vitale said. “We have more work to do here. The heavy lifting is over. The general framework is in place.”
He declined to discuss specifics but indicated the two sides will be back Saturday with the hope of finalizing details of a contract.
“My message (to parents) is they should be prepared to have their kids in school on Monday,” Vitale said.
In a statement released Friday afternoon, Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the "tentative framework ... an honest and principled compromise that is about who we all work for: our students."
"It preserves more time for learning in the classroom, provides more support for teachers to excel at their craft, and gives principals the latitude and responsibility to build an environment in which our children can succeed," he said.
Under a deal put on the table by CPS earlier this week, teachers would receive on average a 16 percent raise over the next four years. That figure includes both cost-of-living salary bumps and the so-called step increases for working another year in the district.
CPS estimates the cost of those raises will begin at $80 million the first year and increase by that amount in each of the contract's next three years. The union calls those projections exaggerated and says its own analysis puts the cost at $60-$100 million less.
The district and union continue to haggle over how teachers will be evaluated and a framework for recalling teachers who've been laid off because of school closings, consolidations and turnarounds.
Job security has emerged as a critical issue during these contract talks as CPS considers closing between 80 and 120 sparsely enrolled and under-performing public schools to cut costs and conserve resources. Union leaders worry about the jobs that could be lost during such a dramatic downsizing.
Tribune reporter Naomi Nix contributed
Linda Del Favero · Top Commenter
CTU union leader Lewis said the roofs leak, snow blows in the windows in the winter, repairs are needed, not all the schools have air conditioning so it's too hot to learn, books have to be shared, supplies are lacking, and even toilet paper is scarce. Seems to me that instead of demanding more money for themselves, any money from increased taxes or more debt should go toward putting the schools in good condition and providing sufficient supplies. If the extremely well compensated teachers truly cared about the children, they would accept a freeze on pay increases for the next four years and insist the 16% go toward the schools. Looks like they failed the test of their character and veracity.
Beryl Turner · Top Commenter · DJ/Producer at Halsted Street Entertainment
Read the above comment I left for E-Rock...under Illinois law (IELRA, Sec. 4.5 & 12(b)), teachers can't negotiate for anything else but money. They are prohibited from bringing in other factors like classroom and school conditions to the negotiation table.
Linda...get your facts straight, please. Your post is more than wrong; it's bordering on libelous.
Linda Del Favero · Top Commenter
I didn't know they could only strike over wages. Lewis said other issues are evaluation and re-hiring. Perhaps some or all of the increase in pay could voluntarily go into a fund for each school for supplies and to make needed repairs. That action would support the statement that they are striking for the children. Was a strike really necessary knowing that the city is deeply in debt and cannot afford this increase in pay, let alone supplies and repairs? There is resentment that pay is extremely good for school teachers and personnel compared with other cities and people are hurting with the economy and fear increased taxes. Next other public employees will threaten strikes for increased pay so they are on par with the teachers, creating more debt and increased tax burden.
Sean Harvey · Homewood- Flossmoor High School
Teachers and politicians are both to blame. Vote out Madigan, Burke, Cullerton, and all entrenched politicians in Chicago. DeCertify the teachers union and start from scratch.
Alex Machinis · Top Commenter · Illinois Institute of Technology
A really funny video on teachers unions: "Teachers Unions Explained"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxc6kzH-uI
Ryan Yast · Top Commenter · Chicago, Illinois
Increases in (non-union!) charter schools are going to happen in Chicago no matter what. It's more than likely a positive thing for our kids and the board of education budget.
This strike is all about how fast the CTU allows it to happen. Teacher performance evaluation? It's a vehicle to close down schools based on measurements of underperformance. The system needs a good gutting or nothing will change...let Rahm do what he needs to do for the kids.
Terry Boone
I also hear how great the charter schools are. Most people don’t realize this but the charter schools get to pick their students. So if the child has special needs or is a bad egg they are not going to a charter school. If the child has bad grades and has no desire to learn where do you think they end up. You got it right into the CPS school down the street that has to take them no matter what their grades have been or no matter how they have behaved. They are just dumped right into the system the teacher can become a baby sitter.
Nicole Ohenewa Buckle · Top Commenter · Chicago, Illinois
Just a few weeks ago, the Associated Press reported that charter schools are leaving special needs students behind. The article says,
Most charter, parochial and magnet schools serve children with disabilities, but they are often milder disabilities, leaving the brunt of students with significant needs in traditional district schools.
Charter schools have also been faulted for various forms of selection. Most draw from a pool of parents who are seeking them out. Some have requirements for parental support and participation, which excludes some students. And some, such as the KIPP schools, have been found to have higher than average rates of attrition, meaning students who are not making the grade are transferring back into the public schools.
http://www.davisenterprise.com/ local-news/ associated-press/ charter-schools-leave-speci al-needs-kids-behind/
Gregg Mehr
I do not understand why we need to keep a teacher who is performing poorly...anyone? So if you are a crappy teacher and fall to level X, as long as you don't fall to level Y you can keep your job...in the REAL world, if you continue to perform at X you get fired....NICE! That doesn't sound to me like it is all about the students....Chicago Teachers Union...where our motto is "Keeping Teaching in The Dark Ages by Promoting Job Security...not Quality".
Debra Dit · Top Commenter
Because back in the early 1990s, a reading teacher who taught PHONICS was a "bad teacher" even though their students were the only kids in the building learning how to read. Back in the 1970s, any teacher not teaching UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MATH was a "bad teacher" even though they were the only teacher in the building whose kids could add, subtract, multiply or divide!
Greg Foster-Rice
If you read the details of the contract, you will note that it does not force them to keep people who are underperforming. Rather, my understanding from the contract is that the very worst will be dropped after a year (which gives them an opportunity to improve and also takes into account the variability in the assessment procedures, which are heavily influenced by factors outside teacher control). The next group up will be given a little more time to improve, but will have every incentive to do so in order to prevent their firing. It is estimated that under the Charlotte Danielson model for assessment, which makes up 50% of the new assessment, most teachers will score in the middle with opportunities for improvement made via additional Professional Development days (PD). It's complicated, but the fact that CPS and CTU are j...See More
Jeff Seiffert · Consultant at Slalom Consulting
Greg that is the best detailed description I've read yet on poor performance evaluation. I think the system you described sounds like a good system should eliminate the bad ones like the ones my friend knows which are a group of teachers who go out every night and get completely hammered. I doubt they do a good job the next day and definitely not a good mentor to the children they are teaching.
Debra Dit · Top Commenter
It is really irritating that this is being called a 16% raise. For experienced teachers, the latest I've heard is that it is an 8% raise spread over four years. I doubt that any teacher will experience a 16% raise. Furthermore, I didn't see anything about teaching conditions. Air conditioning, class sizes -- those are HUGE issues. They are also safety issues. Teachers are Mandated Child Abuse Reporters. It IS CHILD ABUSE to hold children in a room for 50 minutes at a time when temperatures approach 98 degrees Fahrenheit or 36 degrees Celsius.
Daniel McNeil · Top Commenter · Downers Grove, Illinois
That is my understanding as well. It amounts to a substantial increase in pay no matter how you parse the arguement. Given what we know of the state of affairs in Chicago, this creates a huge hole in the gov't's budget that won't easily be filled even with substantial tax increases.
That whole mandated child abuse reporters thing is an interesting but flawed arguement. By whose standards is it child abuse for a student to sit in a classroom with a 98% temp? Please show me the regs.
Asten Rathbun · Top Commenter
Yep, if so, 16% is better than the vast majority of the rest of america will get in raises in the next 4 years. Teachers should be paid well, but CPS seems to be relatively high-paying compared to many surrounding districts, and they're getting above average raises on top of it. Be thankful for it. Most people aren't so lucky.
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