By Judy Keen and Greg Toppo
(From USA TODAY, September 11th, 2012)
CHICAGO — The teachers’ strike that went through its second day Tuesday highlights tensions between public schools and the federal government, unions and administrators, and teachers and their bosses.
It’s a trend that began under President George W. Bush with No Child Left Behind, which required states to test students to qualify for federal funds, and continues with President Obama’s Race to the Top, a federal grant competition that pushes schools to use standardized test scores to retain and reward teachers.
“We are at a critical moment,” says Kevin Kumashiro, a University of Illinois at Chicago education professor. At stake, he says: Whether unions can resist a nationwide shift toward the use of test scores to evaluate teachers, the spread of charter schools that hire non-union teachers and the erosion of teachers’ job security.
About 26,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union walked out Monday, locking more than 350,000 students out of schools. Contract negotiations continue.
In the past, says Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform, a New York-based group that has pushed for new teacher tenure laws, teachers’ strikes have “been about the numbers — pay and benefits. You don’t tend to get these larger existential battles.”
This strike is different. Foremost among the disputes: How much weight should schools give to student test scores when evaluating teachers? Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, following the lead of the Obama administration, wants to make test scores represent as much as 40% of evaluations.
The union says many other factors, including a student’s health, family situation and the stresses of poverty, make test scores less relevant.
Schools across the nation are wrestling with the same issues, which have long-term political repercussions that could undermine the longstanding bond between Democrats and unions.
“This strike brings to the surface a tension that has been brewing in the Democratic Party for the last few years between the old guard of teachers unions and a generation of hard-charging education reformers,” says Michael McShane, an education policy fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Read the full post here.