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Ever tried to talk with educators as a parent? If so, you'd know what I've posted is overwhelmingly true. Educators tout themselves as professionals and disregard concerns parents bring to their attention. Educators have trained parents to stand down when it comes to issues at school.
My son attends a small Catholic school in the Mpls area.
Right now, it is 82 degrees outside and it is supposed to be 94 today. His school has no air conditioning, never has and the kids ALL survive. In fact, on Wedensday's when they have mass, it is mandatory that they wear pants that day. No exceptions. And yet, they ALL survive.
His school has teachers who are not union and are paid WELL below what public school teachers get paid yet they don't seem to have an issue with it. The teachers have been there forever and I believe the teacher that has been there the least amount of time has been there 5 years. Most in the 10-25 year range.
THESE are the teachers that I believe teach because they love the kids. These public school teachers that cry constantly that they are not getting enough of this or that, just make me furious. It makes me really appreciate all my childs school is.
And before anyone gives me greif about being able to send my kid to private school, it is $4800 per year. Cheaper than it is to send my child to all day kindergarten in PUBLIC school.
Behavior back then was a totally different story as well. You could have 35-40 students.
Today...15 could be a handful and unmanageable.
Kids don't respect the teachers one bit and they know that nothing of substance will happen to them if they misbehave in class. Last year I only had 1 parent side with me on student behavior issues when I called them up. Only 1 parent who thanked me and said they would take care of it at home. The rest..well it was my classroom and my problem. They didn't want to be involved.
Smaller classrooms won't fix this problem at ALL. A class of 15 would still disrespect the teacher, and would still be confident that nothing will happen to them.
They don't want longer hours..5.5 is good enough.
They want smaller classes..24 students is too much for them. Union studies indicate 15. So that would be near doubling of teachers needed.
They want A/C in all classrooms.
They don't want to be evaluated against student scores.
They want to keep their current healthcare benefits.
They want a 30% raise.
They want job security.
They want automatic recall of layed off teachers as openings come up even if they were layed off for bad performance.
Nothing unreasonable here ? Really ?
I agree with you on some things, but there are a few things wrong here.
The class size in CPS is not 24. That would be considered a fairly small class. The truth is, many classes in CPS have well over what other districts would permit. I know five teachers right now in CPS that have a class of 38. I know two which have classes over 50. 24 would be a reasonable number.
Also, the 30% raise that many people keep repeating is way off. The arbitrator this summer proposed a 15-20% raise for the teachers. Both the union and the board rejected the report. The union's reason for the rejection was that class sizes would have increase again and more teachers would have to be laid off.
The current pay raise that is proposed is basically a settled issue. It is composed of 3%, then 2% the following year, and another 2% the year after. Insurance premiums will also raise about 1.5% to 2%.
The 30% number that is being repeated over and over is wrong.
The main issues left on the table are the evaluation system and lack of social service, (social workers, counselors, and nurses.) This is a valid concern. There are many schools in CPS that don't have a nurse. One school is over 2,000 students and has not had a nurse in two years. The same school has one social worker for the entire student body. This is a school in which almost all students come from impoverished homes, and if they have hope of being successful, will probably need some social service to deal with various home/life issues.
I agree with you on some things, but there are a few things wrong here.
The class size in CPS is not 24. That would be considered a fairly small class. The truth is, many classes in CPS have well over what other districts would permit. I know five teachers right now in CPS that have a class of 38. I know two which have classes over 50. 24 would be a reasonable number.
Also, the 30% raise that many people keep repeating is way off. The arbitrator this summer proposed a 15-20% raise for the teachers. Both the union and the board rejected the report. The union's reason for the rejection was that class sizes would have increase again and more teachers would have to be laid off.
The current pay raise that is proposed is basically a settled issue. It is composed of 3%, then 2% the following year, and another 2% the year after. Insurance premiums will also raise about 1.5% to 2%.
The 30% number that is being repeated over and over is wrong.
The main issues left on the table are the evaluation system and lack of social service, (social workers, counselors, and nurses.) This is a valid concern. There are many schools in CPS that don't have a nurse. One school is over 2,000 students and has not had a nurse in two years. The same school has one social worker for the entire student body. This is a school in which almost all students come from impoverished homes, and if they have hope of being successful, will probably need some social service to deal with various home/life issues.
Well thanks for the corrections. I just gleaned those from various articles.
From your post there seem to be valid issues. But with a $700 million deficit this year and a proposed $1 billion deficit next year the Chicago school system will only get worse. And there is nothing that Rahm can do to fix it either as he's gone the legal limit with taxing. The unions just can't ignore that elephant in the room..the huge deficit.
Smaller classrooms won't fix this problem at ALL. A class of 15 would still disrespect the teacher, and would still be confident that nothing will happen to them.
I think the issue with class sizes is not discipline related, but the fact that the teacher will not have enough time to give each student the time and attention he/she deserves. I mean, you can have a class of five students, and if one of them is a jerk, it's going to interrupt the learning environment.
Many studies also say that smaller class sizes benefit students and help raise student achievement.
Ever tried to talk with educators as a parent? If so, you'd know what I've posted is overwhelmingly true. Educators tout themselves as professionals and disregard concerns parents bring to their attention. Educators have trained parents to stand down when it comes to issues at school.
I spoke with hundreds of parents during my years as a high school teacher. Most of the them worked with me towards the best interests of their students. Some, like you, had attitudes, which made it difficult for all involved.
I think the issue with class sizes is not discipline related, but the fact that the teacher will not have enough time to give each student the time and attention he/she deserves. I mean, you can have a class of five students, and if one of them is a jerk, it's going to interrupt the learning environment.
Many studies also say that smaller class sizes benefit students and help raise student achievement.
Smaller class sizes and more teacher time per student are necessary in mixed-ability classrooms because the academic needs vary significantly. Go back to assigning classes by skill level/ability and teachers' time won't be taken up by such a huge range of academic needs in a single class of 30-35 students. Huge extra benefit: instruction is specifically targeted to each group instead of trying to be everything to everybody, so each group makes much more academic progress.
I think the issue with class sizes is not discipline related, but the fact that the teacher will not have enough time to give each student the time and attention he/she deserves. I mean, you can have a class of five students, and if one of them is a jerk, it's going to interrupt the learning environment.
Many studies also say that smaller class sizes benefit students and help raise student achievement.
Lately though it's coming to light that small classes may not make a difference.
OECD has produced studies of class size to outcome and found that over the years the class size did not produce much improvements (over 70% did not improve) but increased teacher quality did produce improvements. They recommended putting the resources into teacher improvement rather than smaller classes.
Well thanks for the corrections. I just gleaned those from various articles.
From your post there seem to be valid issues. But with a $700 million deficit this year and a proposed $1 billion deficit next year the Chicago school system will only get worse. And there is nothing that Rahm can do to fix it either as he's gone the legal limit with taxing. The unions just can't ignore that elephant in the room..the huge deficit.
I definitely agree that you cannot ignore simple mathematics. I think the reason most teachers are aggravated is because they see a lot of money wasted since CPS is such a dysfunctional system in and of itself.
Last week, a principal at a CPS high school received classroom full of boxes containing books that he did not request or order. He does not know why they are there. Those book are worth tens of thousands of dollars. To track someone down to solve this is a nightmare.
Three years ago, the same school had to pay for an hundreds of thousand of dollars for new curricular materials and books. This was mandated by the board. They also had to pay for coaches to come in and work on curriculum even though the school has a curriculum director. These funds came from discretionary funding from the school. This meant things like less security guards, which the high school desperately needs.
Guess what? Two years later, CPS decides they don't like this new curricular direction and don't want the school to continue using these materials anymore. $500,000 dollars down the drain.
Principals also bring in friends to work in positions that are supposed to be teacher positions in the classroom. These people have cush jobs with their own offices in schools. They typically do things like work in the office sorting lunch forms, getting mailings together, going through field trip paperwork. These people are paid a teacher's salary. That means less teacher positions for the school, which again means bigger class sizes.
Lots of money being wasted in the system through no fault of the teachers. That's what so frustrating to most.
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