Chicago Teachers - A big pay raise and watered-down teacher evaluations

[Still a Democrat]

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The union had demanded a pay increase of 29% over four years, but the 25,000 teachers will still get 16%, which is far more than most workers in the private economy get these days. Chicago teachers already make on average far more ($71,000) than the average private worker ($47,000), not counting benefits and summer vacation, and this deal will increase the wealth redistribution.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel did win a longer school day—to seven hours from five hours and 45 minutes. But the city had already agreed to a union demand to hire 500 additional new teachers to help fill the longer school day, and the average teacher will work a mere 15-20 minutes more per day.

The district also won more autonomy for principals to hire teachers, though they will have to first interview from the pool of union teachers laid-off at public schools.

Teachers won big, however, on what they really care about (other than money), which is limiting the degree to which student test scores count in teacher evaluations. Student performance will count for only 25% starting this year, moving up over the next two years to 35%. This leaves the rest of the evaluation to the kind of subjective judgment that has long kept the worst teachers firmly in place.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872...23046.html

[SeattleGirl]

Quote:Teachers won big, however, on what they really care about (other than money), which is limiting the degree to which student test scores count in teacher evaluations. Student performance will count for only 25% starting this year, moving up over the next two years to 35%. This leaves the rest of the evaluation to the kind of subjective judgment that has long kept the worst teachers firmly in place.

I really like that! While I understand that one of the reasons for giving tests to students is to see what they have learned, I don't think teacher evaluations should be based largely on results of those tests. There is so much more to learning than just being able to spit out the right answers on a test.

[sandnsea]

This sounds like a pretty biased article against teachers. Increase the wealth distribution? Keep the worst teachers in place?

I hope they are reaching a settlement though. The teacher evaluations never relied on testing alone, so reducing test scores as part of the mix shouldn't change the outcome much.