September 20, 2012

More than 350,000 children returned to school yesterday, after Chicago teachers voted to suspend their eight-day strike. The teachers had walked out on September 10, just days after a new school year began, following a breakdown in their months-long contract negotiations with the Chicago school board. The walkout was the first teachers’ strike in the nation’s third-largest school district in 25 years.

A teacher in a computer lab explains an assignment to students. (© Scott R. Indermaur, Liaison Agency)

The issues upon which the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the school board could not agree included compensation, job security, and teacher evaluations. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called for a longer school day and school year and other changes as part of an effort to meet national education requirements set by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. President Obama, in whose administration Emanuel had served as White House chief of staff, had waived some of the academic targets set by former President George W. Bush’s 2011 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In return for this flexibility, states were required to implement their own strategies to turn struggling schools around and to create guidelines for teacher evaluations based in part on student performance. CTU President Karen Lewis sought, among other concerns, to protect teachers in underperforming schools from being laid off.

The teachers initially called for a 30-percent raise over four years. They also proposed that laid-off teachers should be the first hired when new positions become available at other schools. And they fought a board proposal under which test scores would count for as much as 45 percent of teacher evaluations.

The contract that union representatives eventually endorsed after days of heated negotiations includes a raise of more than 16 percent over four years. Test scores are to count for no more than 30 percent of teacher evaluations. The school day and year have been extended. For elementary school students, the school day will increase from 5 hours and 45 minutes to 7 hours; for most high school students, it will increase from 7 to 7 1/2 hours. Both elementary and high school students will attend school for 180 days, up from 170–the shortest school year in the nation. The additional hours of instruction are to be filled with such classes as art, music, and physical education. They will be taught by teachers who have been laid off since 2010. In addition, highly rated teachers who are laid off from closing schools in the future are to be granted interviews at the schools to which their students are being transferred, if a vacancy exists.

Emanuel called the deal an “honest compromise” that was “in the best interest of our students” and “in the best interest of our teachers, who always strive to achieve the best results they can for their students. . . .” Though disappointed with the wage results, CTU President Lewis said, “I think this has been an opportunity for people across the nation to have their voices heard, and I think we’re moving in the right direction.” The deal awaited a vote by union members, which was to take place in several weeks.

Additional World Book articles:

• The Child Left Behind (special report)
• Education
• Education 2011 (Back in Time article)
• Education 2010 (Back in Time article)
• Education 2003 (Back in Time article)