Net Baron: 2012

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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Do Scores Go Up When Teachers Return Bonuses?

An incentive system that gave bonuses to teachers upfront, with the threat of having to give the money back if student performance didn't improve, proved effective in one study. David Franklin/iStockphoto.com

An incentive system that gave bonuses to teachers upfront, with the threat of having to give the money back if student performance didn’t improve, proved effective in one study.

In Chicago, parents were fuming over a weeklong strike by teachers. Around the rest of the country, in the face of growing evidence that many U.S. students are falling behind, administrators have tried to devise different ways to motivate teachers.

Among the contentious issues is whether teachers should be held accountable for their students’ performance on standardized tests. Such efforts have produced enormous conflicts between school districts and teachers. In many parts of the country, administrators and teachers have fought one another to a standstill.

That’s where a novel social science study may have the potential to shift the conversation.

Economist John List at the University of Chicago recently conducted an unusual field experiment in Chicago Heights, a school district near Chicago. List and his colleagues found a struggling school district: Only 64 percent of students met minimum state requirements on achievement tests. Nearly all the kids qualified for free or reduced-price school lunches, a measure of straitened socio-economic conditions.

List and his colleagues, Roland G. Fryer, Steven Levitt and Sally Sadoff, divided 150 teachers into three groups. One group got no incentive; they just went about their school year as usual. A second group was promised a bonus if their students did well at math.

The third group is where the psychology came in: The teachers were given a bonus of $4,000 upfront — but it had a catch. If student math performance didn’t improve, teachers had to sign a contract promising to return some or all of the money.

Other U.S. studies have found limited evidence that traditional bonuses do much to shift student scores.

List said the idea of giving some teachers money upfront — with the threat of taking it away later — builds on a well-known psychological principle: “What we tried to capitalize on in this particular study was a concept called loss aversion,” he said. “Once we have something in our possession, we feel it would be really, really painful to have to give it up.”

Loss aversion has been shown to be a powerful motivator in many business settings, but List said this was the first rigorous test of the principle in an educational setting. The idea, he said, was that by giving teachers the money upfront, they might work harder to keep the money at the end of the year than they would if the money had been promised as a traditional bonus.

In line with earlier work, List and his colleagues found that students of teachers who received the traditional bonus performed no better than students of teachers who received no incentive at all. But List found that students of teachers who were given the bonus upfront showed significant improvement in math test scores.

“What we found is strong evidence in favor of loss aversion,” he said. “Teachers who were paid in advance and [were] asked to give the money back if their students did not perform — their [students'] test scores were actually out of the roof: two to three times higher than the gains of the teachers in the traditional bonus group.”

The difference in test scores produced by the incentive system was about the same as that detected in earlier studies that measured differences in student performance when kids were taught by great teachers rather than average teachers. Effectively, List said, the way the incentive was constructed turned average teachers into great teachers.

List said he thinks that the incentive system motivated teachers to be extra vigilant with underperforming students. If Johnny didn’t get a concept, a teacher stuck with Johnny — and the concept — until the kid got it.

There are several caveats to keep in mind before anyone can talk about implementing the bonus structure widely, List said. Among them: The study needs replication. It remains to be seen whether the gains in student performance are long-lasting, and whether the same increases in student performance can be found in subjects other than math.

List said future studies might also tweak the incentive system: Teachers may be asked to return the money for underperformance periodically, rather than all at once at the end of the year. Prior studies involving loss aversion have found that the technique is more effective when people feel the threat of periodic and regular losses.

But there’s another catch: List warned that the bonus system needed buy-in from teachers. Teaching isn’t like making widgets; it requires motivation and passion. If teachers feel they are being manipulated rather than encouraged to improve their performance, they could end up looking for other lines of work.

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Friday, September 28, 2012

The Life And Times Of Movie Star ‘Laura Lamont’

Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures Emma Straub is a staff writer for Rookie magazine. Her debut story collection, Other People We Married, was published earlier this year. Enlarge Sarah Shatz/Courtesy of Riverhead Hardcover

Emma Straub is a staff writer for Rookie magazine. Her debut story collection, Other People We Married, was published earlier this year.

Sarah Shatz/Courtesy of Riverhead Hardcover Emma Straub is a staff writer for Rookie magazine. Her debut story collection, Other People We Married, was published earlier this year.

It’s a small town girl’s dream: One day, you’re strutting the floorboards of a summer stage; the next, the silver screen. Thus is the arc of Elsa Emerson, a Door County, Wis., girl whose life at the Cheery County playhouse never quite goes away when she becomes the Oscar-winning Laura Lamont.

The quiet merging of the two tracks is at the center of Laura Lamont’s Life In Pictures, a high-buzz debut novel from writer Emma Straub. Straub tells Jacki Lyden, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered, that the main character came to her while she was reading a New York Times obituary of the real-life actress Jennifer Jones.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

On how Jennifer Jones’ obituary inspired her

“I couldn’t get it out of my mind, and so I copied it down and I just kept going back to it, and when I decided that I did want to write this novel, I made sure to stay away actually from Jennifer Jones’ biography cause I didn’t want it to be, you know, a thinly veiled version of her. I really wanted my Laura Lamont to stand on her own feet.”

On how the death of her older sister, Hildy, shapes Elsa’s life

“It’s the event that really haunts her for the rest of her life, and it’s also sort of the impetus for her to strike out for Hollywood because her beautiful and talented older sister, who she thought was always destined for great things, you know, is no longer able, she really thinks that she has to do it. She has to live both lives: her own and Hildy’s.”

On the theme of her book, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures

“I heard [writer] Ann Patchett speak at an event in Brooklyn, and at this event she said that people always say to her that they think that her novels are very different from one to the next, but she thinks that she really just has one subject matter. And I started thinking about it, and I think that might be true for me, too. That the subject matter that’s really at the heart of this book, and that’s at the heart of many of my short stories also, is this idea of the self that we present. And like how is that different from the self we are inside. You know, Elsa Emerson becomes Laura Lamont, but of course she’s always Elsa as well.”

On why she kept writing after her previous four novels were rejected

“It absolutely never occurred to me that it wouldn’t happen eventually. I never for a moment doubted it. You know, I thought, ‘OK, I’m not good enough yet, I’m not there yet, but I’ll get there.’”

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What’s Driving Dropout Rate For Black, Latino Men?

A new report says barely half of Latino and Black men graduate from high school in four years. Host Michel Martin discusses the dropout rate and what’s being done about it. She speaks with John H. Jackson of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and Pilar Montoya of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Switching gears now, it’s Hispanic Heritage Month. That’s the time of year when we talk about the contributions and, sometimes, challenges facing people of Latino heritage in this country.

And, today, we want to point out a story that has both in the area of education. A new report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education says that only 58 percent of Latino male ninth graders graduate high school in four years. Only 52 percent of black males graduate in that length of time and that’s compared to 78 percent of white non-Latino ninth graders.

So that’s the challenge. The opportunity is that a number of organizations and individuals are trying to turn that situation around. I’m joined now by John H. Jackson. He is the president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education. Also with us is Pilar Montoya. She is the CEO of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, which is also called SHPE, and she’s looking at ways to get Latino students more involved in the so-called stem fields, which is science, technology, engineering and math.

Welcome to you both. Thank you both so much for coming.

JOHN H. JACKSON: Thank you.

PILAR MONTOYA: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here.

MARTIN: So, John H. Jackson, let’s start with the challenge. The foundation, as we said, has this new study looking at the Latino and black male graduation. Well, everybody’s graduation rates, but the numbers that stand out, obviously, are the low rates…

JACKSON: Right.

…for black and Latino males. First of all, your analysis of why that is?

Well, I think, first of all, when you think about two of the fastest growing populations in our country and only half of those male students are graduating from high school at a time when two-thirds of all new jobs will require some post-secondary education, you recognize that it’s a national problem. This goes beyond just Latino communities, African-American communities, but it’s a problem for our nation.

And we believe that it’s a two-pronged problem, a problem that’s connected to a push-out crisis and a lockout crisis. The push-out are those students who are no longer in schools because of suspensions and the lockout are those students who are in schools, but can’t access the critical resources needed to have an opportunity to learn or excel.

Is it that the students drop out and stay out or do they finish in longer than four years?

There are some that come back, but a significant number drop out and I think it’s important that – and I like the way that you phrased it – these are lost opportunities for our country and we’ve got to ensure that they all have a pipeline to an opportunity to learn, so we’ve got to address the lockout problem, the fact that over three million students have been – were suspended in 2010, out of school suspension, and there’s no educational benefit to not having the students in schools, as well as the push-out challenge.

MARTIN: And Pilar Montoya, you know, to that end, increasingly, policymakers have become very interested in maintaining U.S. competitiveness in the stem fields. The U.S. Department of Commerce says Hispanics make up only six percent of professionals participating in stem fields and the numbers for African-Americans are about equivalent to that. What’s your experience of this? Why do you think that is?

MONTOYA: Well, the reason why the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers even exists is because, when we really talk about the economic potential that this country has, it really is going to be in the science, technology, engineering and math. As a matter of fact, jobs requiring science, technology and engineering degrees are going to be growing four times as fast as the overall job growth.

What we also know is that we are not doing a good enough job of educating our own students in this country to get stem degrees. Many companies are going to other countries to get their talent. In the U.S., we graduate 70,000 engineers, China 500,000 and India 200,000. We are not even beginning to compete, so our message is that we want our students, our talent here in the U.S. to be the future of this nation.

MARTIN: I think I hear what you’re saying. I think what you’re saying is that the challenge of not enough participation in the stem fields is a national challenge. It goes beyond…

MONTOYA: It’s a national imperative.

MARTIN: …ethnicity, but when you’ve got the two largest minority groups in the country – let’s just put it that way – Latinos and African-Americans not participating in numbers in anywhere near commensurate with their presence in the population in these critical fields. I see what you’re saying. That’s a problem. Why is there this underrepresentation?

MONTOYA: We need to do a much better job of really educating our communities about the opportunities that exist. They don’t know that engineering jobs are there. They don’t know what an engineer may be.

So what we’re trying to do as an organization is we are really mobilizing and inspiring our whole community coming together, the corporations, the universities, the teachers. We have a mentoring program initiative that we’ve launched. We’re inviting companies to come and really be the ones that are role models to these students. We are also – we have a network of 318 chapters that are university and professionals that are currently in the stem field. They’re the soldiers on the ground that are going to be going into the high schools and middle schools inspiring these kids to see that there is a future if you graduate from high school, go into college and, if you go into college, studying science, engineering and math, the likelihood is that there is going to be millions of jobs, companies that are going to be looking for your talent.

And an engineer graduating out of college is going to make about $80,000. We need to do a much better job to inspire these kids to see that they have the potential of actually getting those degrees and we also need to do a much better job of educating the parents of the opportunities.

Many of these kids will come home and say, I want to go to college, and the parent will go, I can’t afford it. But there are resources out there. I know Congressman (unintelligible) and many others have really worked very hard to get Pell grants and get funding so that these students have the capacity to go into college.

And it is working. We’ve had an increase in Hispanics going into college. What we do now is we really want to get those kids and support them, mentor them, give them the guidance so that they keep their GPAs up and they ultimately end up being the talent that this nation needs for stem.

MARTIN: We’re talking with Pilar Montoya. She’s CEO of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Also with us, John H. Jackson, president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education. He’s recently presented new findings showing that African-American and Latino males are not graduating from high school in four years.

So, John H. Jackson, in the couple of minutes that we have left, what has your research found? Are there some keys to turning this around that you think that people can build upon? I know that one of the things that you’ve reported in your research is that keeping kids engaged in school from a very early age is critical. What are some other things you’d like to point out?

JACKSON: Well, absolutely. We have to ensure that all students have access to early education and are on grade level reading by third grade. We have to ensure that we stop pushing our students out. You know, when you go to a place like Pasadena, Texas, where 77 percent of the Latino students were suspended at least once, that’s a push-out problem.

So that’s why we’re calling for a national moratorium on out-of-school suspension and, for those students who are behind, we believe that they should have a personal opportunity plan, an education plan that gives them the additional academic, social and health supports needed to catch up.

MARTIN: Do you feel that there’s enough conversation about this going on during this election year? I mean, it’s interesting to me that, at both major party political conventions, there was a lot of talk about education. Do you feel that there really is national attention to this or not?

MONTOYA: Well, there have been some comments, obviously, that the president – the ones that are running for office and that want to get elected – that science, technology and math is the future, that we have to get our communities to educate and, to your earlier point, we – our organization is really working on supporting the teachers so that they have the tools to be able to inspire these kids to even consider these degrees and we also have an initiative where we’re going to be creating 150 chapters at the high schools.

It is all of us working together, the corporations, the teachers, our organization, to really embrace these children so that they see the potential that exists. It’s a national imperative. We’re talking about the global competition that exists today. The jobs are technical. If we educate our kids, if we embrace them through mentoring, through supporting the teachers, to really working much more focused to get these kids to get higher grades in math, to get algebra classes. That’s what we really are needing to do because this is the future of our nation.

MARTIN: John, a final thought?

JACKSON: Well, I don’t think you get to a 58 percent graduation rate for Latinos, 52 for blacks and 78 for whites without a level of willful neglect by federal, state and local officials, so I think that this is an – as I said, an American crisis. It can be solved, but we have to begin to push for a support-based reform agenda.

MARTIN: John H. Jackson is president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education. Pilar Montoya is CEO of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. They were both kind enough to join us from our Washington, D.C. studios. Thank you both so much for joining us.

MONTOYA: Thank you for the opportunity.

JACKSON: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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At School, Overweight Children Carry A Heavy Burden

Each week, New York Times crossword puzzle editor and NPR’s Puzzlemaster Will Shortz presents an on-air quiz to one contestant and gives a challenge for Weekend Edition listeners at home.

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Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Please include a phone number where we can reach you Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.

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What The Chicago Strike Taught Teachers Unions

The strike in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest school district, raises questions about teachers unions nationwide. Jane Hannaway, vice president of the American Institutes for Research, and Andrew Rotherham, co-founder of Bellwether Education, explain how different teachers unions work.

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I’m Neal Conan in Washington. Tens of thousands of Chicago public school teachers and hundreds of thousands of students returned to class today. Yesterday, delegates for the Chicago Teachers Union voted to suspend a strike that lasted more than a week, after they got the chance to study details of a proposed contract.

The walkout in the nation’s third-largest school district raises questions about teachers’ unions nationwide. In the Washington Post, Jane Hannaway and Andrew Rotherham, co-editors of the book “Collective Bargaining in Education,” examined some of the common misperceptions about teachers’ unions.

Among they myths they examined: Are unions to blame for low test scores and high dropout rates? Are teacher unions similar to private-sector unions? And is what’s good for teachers always good for students? Teachers, administrators, parents, what’s the role of the teachers’ union where you live? Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email talk@npr.org. And you can also join the conversation at our website. That’s at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Later in the program, New York Mets knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey on the art of his unusual pitch. But first the myths and realities of teachers’ unions. And Jane Hannaway, vice president of the American Institutes for Research, is with us here in Studio 3A. Nice to have you with us.

JANE HANNAWAY: Thank you, nice to be here.

CONAN: And Andrew Rotherham, co-founder of education research organization Bellwether Education, welcome to you, too.

ANDREW ROTHERHAM: Thank you.

CONAN: And why don’t we begin with you? Many of the details of the new contract in Chicago still to come out, but how has this strike and this settlement changed things?

ROTHERHAM: Well, it’s unclear exactly what the details are, and at this point, these strikes have a rhythm to them, Neal. You know, people are sort of arguing back and forth, and now both sides kind of have an interest in both getting their story out but not upsetting the apple cart.

And so the details are still – some of the details are actually very officially TBD. They’re going to have committees and so forth to work them out. Some of them, it’s just a little unclear, and if you look at the paper the union puts out and the paper that the school districts puts out, they don’t play that up like – and so there’s a lot of spin going on.

I think what’s clear is – well, it’s a compromise. I don’t think one side rolled the other side. The union did seem to get a lot of what it wanted in terms of they got an increase in compensation. They didn’t have to give a lot on the teacher evaluation system. That was a big sticking point. And they won some what’s been called recall, which is basically everybody in Chicago knows the school system’s going to have to downsize some.

You have students who have left for charter schools. You have students who have left for the suburbs. The union, you know, they’re very smart people. They know that this is going to mean potential layoffs and so forth in the not-too-distant future. So this issue of recall and what do you do for teachers who are laid off is a big issue, and they seem to have gotten – gained a little ground on protecting some of the teachers in – when that comes to pass.

CONAN: And Jane Hannaway, I wonder how it changes the climate – those other unions around the country, other teachers around the country look at this.

HANNAWAY: I think it – there will be some long-term effects to this. I’m a little bit maybe more optimistic than Andy is on this, primarily because I think it has made the process much more transparent. There was so much press coverage of the negotiation that I think the public is much better informed, now, about the sets of issues over which teachers have tremendous control in collective bargaining.

And I think the public was not so much aware of this before.

CONAN: And specifically what?

HANNAWAY: Specifically teacher evaluation, specifically teacher evaluation, that, you know, there’s huge variation, we know that, in teacher effectiveness, and there’s very little that the system is able to do to both reward the ones who are really good and to call out the ones who aren’t so good.

CONAN: As I understand it, though, the ruling statute in Illinois is a state law, and that is what’s in this contract. So it’s not something that was won by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

ROTHERHAM: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, Illinois, as a lot of states, over the last three years more than 20 states have revamped their teacher evaluation systems. And that’s, in part, both because of a growing awareness of the importance of this issue, research done by Jane and others that really has shed a lot of light on this question effectiveness. And then also, you know, the Obama administration had the Race to the Top competition, and so a lot of states changed their laws in an effort to win that competition, Illinois being one of them.

And so what happened with this contract is essentially what got negotiated is the floor that is in state law. And so for there to be less of an emphasis on evaluation, the contract would have in violation of state law. So that – I think people were critical of the contract. That’s one thing you’re hearing.

And then second, and this is an issue you see in a lot of states, you have an evaluation system, but what exactly does it mean? And as I read some of the details that are coming out in the Chicago settlement, it’s unclear exactly at what point – so teachers can stay in sort of a developing or needs improvement status almost indefinitely. And so, you know, at what point does that become consequential? At what point does that become consequential in terms of layoffs.

And it seems like veteran teachers are going to be protected and will be protected in layoffs, even above highly rated teachers who are newer. That’s been a big issue in a lot of states. So again, a lot of details need to come out, but it seems like on some of these key issues, you know, there was a lot of money put on the table. It’s unclear exactly what the details and all the changes and how significant they’re going to be.

HANNAWAY: I see this as a skirmish along the way, that over the last just five years, there has been a huge sea change in how teachers are evaluated, how they’re rated, what the authority is of unions, what the activity is at the state level, at the federal level, at the district level in trying to identify who these teachers are that are so great.

And, you know, this was a skirmish. I think it popped up – I think it was, you know, a much stronger strike than anyone would have predicted. But I think, as a nation, the changes in the last five years have just been tremendous.

CONAN: Well, I wanted to get to some of the things you addressed in the Washington Post, every week they run five myths about, and this past week it was five myths about teachers’ unions. And the first question that you address is: Are the unions to blame for low test scores and high dropout rates? And a lot of people would say yes.

HANNAWAY: Well, I think the unions have tremendous control over personnel policies, and it’s the teachers that make the difference. They’re the most important school factor that affects student achievement. There is certainly family factors that have tremendous effect on student achievement, and teachers have very little control over that.

But as far as school factors goes, it’s the teachers. But teachers aren’t alone, and they – you know, and Andy was talking about the settlement or what appears to be a settlement in Chicago. State legislatures, you know, are playing a role in what the base conditions were. The mayor was in there. The school board is in there. Collective bargaining agreements have multiple parties that sign on.

CONAN: And it’s – as Jane was just saying, there are a lot of other people who play a role in this, not just the teachers, not just the union: parents, school boards, the state legislature.

ROTHERHAM: Exactly, I mean, I think when you asked that question, what we tried to make clear in the Post – in the Washington Post – you know, if you ask are teachers’ unions responsible for low student achievement, you could answer only in part, or you could answer yes, but, and there’s a lot of other factors that – many of which Jane just got at.

And unfortunately, you know, there’s a lot happening. The attention to the issue that Jane’s talking about in terms of evaluation, it’s also, you know, our politics, and public-sector unions are increasingly under fire, and that’s a component of this. And so in this debate you have people who – like Jane who – and myself who are pointing out areas where that we think the policy needs to change.

You also have people who simply want to eradicate public-sector unions. It’s not a secret that they’ve become kind of the bulk work of unionization in this country as the fortunes of private-sector unions have declined. And so unions like the teachers’ union, they’re sort of the front line, and so there’s a macro political debate going on at the same time that there’s this wonkish education debate.

And so what it means is that it’s very hard to have a sensible conversation about their role, because you have either people want to just be completely with them and protect them from any criticism, and you have people who sort of refuse to give them any quarter.

And there’s a bunch of things that the teachers’ unions do that are very important and very constructive. And, you know, it’s a complicated, it’s a complicated conversation.

CONAN: Jane is Jane Hannaway, vice president of the American Institutes for Research, director at the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research and co-editor, with our other guest Andrew Rotherham, of the book “Collective Bargaining in Education.”

We want to hear from teachers and parents and administrators, as well. What’s the role of the unions at your school? 800-989-8255. Email is talk@npr.org. We’ll start with Tom(ph), Tom with us from Cincinnati.

TOM: Hey, how are you doing?

CONAN: Good, thanks.

TOM: Hey, you know, I was at a charter school my first year teaching, and to see what the teachers were put through, to see what the students were put through, it was scary. And I reached out to the local union here in Cincinnati and said hey, can you help me get unionized. And, you know, of course they couldn’t.

But the next year I was in that school district, and now I’m part of the union, and I’m an activist in it. And, you know, I’m really proud to be part of a union because it – I stand up for children, and I’m the first line of defense of who they see every day.

CONAN: And so you feel that you felt defenseless at the charter school where there was no union and now have a voice.

TOM: Oh for sure. You had teacher, you know, being fired all the time, or they weren’t let into meetings because they’d stuck up for the students so much, especially on IEPs. And, you know, these students’ needs weren’t getting met, and it was partly because the charter schools and the private organizations that ran these charter schools thought that those students were too expensive and too much of a drain on their financial situation.

And so the teachers couldn’t even be advocates. Now with the union, we have a right to be in those meetings and defending those students. And it’s not a money issue. It’s about the student.

CONAN: Interesting. Thanks, Tom, for the phone call, appreciate it. And he, in an indirect way, raises one of the questions you address in your column: Is what’s good for the teachers always good for the students? And you said…

ROTHERHAM: Sure, yeah, and Neal, I mean, I think, you know, Tom’s comment, and obviously none of us are familiar with his specific situation, so we can’t speak to the veracity of it, but I think what it illustrates, there’s 14,000 public schools in this country, and you can find an anecdote anywhere to prove any point. And so people will point. And so, for example, in New Haven, the teachers’ union, with the help of the National American Federation of Teachers, negotiated a very interesting new evaluation system.

It is consequential. Teachers are losing their jobs. You go a few hours south of there in Paterson, New Jersey, and you have – right now there’s letters out in schools this week insisting that teachers work to the rule and don’t even get out of their cars in the parking lot to come in to school before the contractual day starts.

And those two examples sort of illustrate the promise, the pitfall, the high variance. And in terms of, you know, this question then of are teachers’ unions good for students, or is what’s good for teachers good for kids, the answer then again is, it depends.

I mean, there are things they push for. To the extent teachers’ unions are pushing for better professional development, better training for teachers, better support, those things are good for teachers, they’re also good for students. Protecting education funding and state budgets, good for teachers, good for students.

Some of these other policies, some of these layoff issues where teachers who are more effective teachers get laid off ahead of less effective teachers, or where you have situations like what they wanted to do in Chicago, where you have, you know, a pool of teachers who aren’t teaching, who are just carried by the district financially year after year, it’s a lot harder to explain how those things help students.

CONAN: We’re talking about myths and realities about teachers’ unions in the aftermath of the strike, which is now – at least looks like it’s been settled in Chicago. Stay with us. It’s the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I’m Neal Conan. As public school teachers in Chicago get back to work, we’re talking about myths and realities of teachers’ unions. The two largest in the country are the National Education Association, the NEA, and the American Federation of Teachers, the AFT.

The NEA, with some three million members; AFT has about one and a half million. Teachers, administrators, parents, what’s the role of teachers’ unions where you live? 800-989-8255. Email talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website. That’s at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Our guests are Andrew Rotherham, who co-founded Bellwether Education, a nonprofit focused on education policy research. He writes the weekly School of Thought column for Time and also served at the White House as a special assistant to president for domestic policy under President Bill Clinton. Jane Hannaway is vice president of the American Institutes for Research, director at the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. Together they co-edited “Collective Bargaining in Education.” The co-wrote a piece in the Washington Post, “Five Myths About Teachers’ Unions.”

Let’s get another caller on the line. This is Nathan(ph), and Nathan’s with us from Jacksonville.

NATHAN: Hi, thank you for taking my call.

CONAN: Go ahead.

NATHAN: I just want – I don’t have a question, although I do like the panelists that you’ve chosen today. I think they have a lot to say on the topic. Mine is really a comment. I am in education. I work in Jacksonville, Florida, for our public school system, and I’m also a member of our local teachers’ union.

However, I am calling to speak about my experience, which is pretty lackluster. I’m not sure if most people in the country are aware, but here in Florida, we are not allowed to strike as teachers, even if we are union members. It is against the law. So we would not be seeing a Chicago situation develop here because it wouldn’t be possible.

We’re left to simply negotiate with our union leaders, and they speak for us when it comes time to speak. Some of you may know we’re having issues with our governor, Mr. Rick Scott, and his opinion of unions and educators. So that’s one issue.

Many of us that are union members, we pretty much use the union for defensive purposes. If someone makes an accusation, we know that we have the union to back us up. But in terms of advocating for our rights as teachers, that’s where they fall short, at least here in northeast Florida. And thank you for letting me make my comment. I’ll take my answers off the air.

CONAN: Thank you for the call. And this goes to one of the points you made in the column: Are teachers’ unions the same as private-sector unions? And as we just heard from Nathan, no, they’re not.

ROTHERHAM: But there is a real – you know, the Florida comparison is really interesting. We look at Florida and Chicago, and yeah, the labor law is different. And you sort of have the extremist states like Chicago, where unions are very strong. States like Florida and Virginia are the other extreme, where they’re very weak.

But what’s interesting is you could blind-taste-test schools, so go into a school in Florida, go into a school in Chicago and not know where you were, you’d have a hard time telling the difference because the unions are very powerful politically, and a lot of these provisions that we’re talking about in the contract in Chicago, they just exist in state law somewhere else.

And so there’s a lot more sort of commonality here than you think, and people frequently say there’s no unions in the South, and the schools aren’t very good, so that must be why, and it’s sort of an obviously correlation-causation fallacy. Schools operate largely the same around the country. The question is just do these policies exist in a local contract, do they exist in state law?

CONAN: Jane?

HANNAWAY: Yes, I mean, it’s interesting to go state by state and see how these laws are indeed set up because they’re very much a creature of the state and with huge variation in terms of where various items sit in state law and then what they cover and what they don’t cover.

CONAN: There was also a point you made in the post that teachers’ unions are different also in that they can very influential in the election of school boards.

HANNAWAY: Yes, and the check on private-sector unions is an economic one. The check on public-sector unions is more a political one, as we saw in Chicago. That was political foes pitting against each other.

CONAN: And interesting, seen as an intra-party fight, inside the Democratic Party.

HANNAWAY: Very much so, yeah.

CONAN: Interesting. Let’s see if we can get another caller on the line, and let’s go to – this is Pete(ph), Pete with us from Charlotte.

PETE: Hey, how are you all today?

CONAN: Good, thanks.

PETE: My concern has to do with the states like North Carolina that don’t have unions and are not allowed to strike and the fact that our legislature has signed on with many of the, you know, proposals that the president has pushed through with Arne Duncan as the secretary there.

And so we’re being forced to have this called paid for performance, where there really isn’t any valid science that goes into these formulas to pay us based on our students’ performance. And it’s really creating some terrible issues. And that’s part of the argument that’s going on with Chicago right now is tying in student performance with teacher pay.

There are so many variables that teachers just have no control over.

CONAN: I think it’s going to be…

PETE: Well, how can you hold us accountable for family issues or, you know, a crackhead mother or just inadequate parenting?

CONAN: I think it’s supposed to now be 30 percent of the evaluation in Chicago. That’s what I read. And he raises a couple of points. One, we forget that I think 53 percent of the schools across the country are union. There are almost half and half non-union.

ROTHERHAM: And on the Chicago case, I mean, there’s actually – this story points up to the larger context. So there – actually, merit pay wasn’t on the table in Chicago. The mayor wasn’t asking for it in the negotiations, and the union obviously wasn’t asking for it. What it was was this question of evaluation.

And where we’ve essentially gone, Neal, is from a system where we really didn’t evaluate anybody at all. So in Chicago, even with the outcomes there – fewer than half the kids graduating high school enormous achievement gaps – almost every teacher there was rated effective or outstanding. Only four teachers in 1,000 were rated unsatisfactory. I mean, there just wasn’t a lot of attention to this.

But we’ve gone from a system that didn’t pay any attention to this to a system that the caller was referencing, where now we’re going to try to do this across the board. And there are going to be a lot of mistakes. There’s a lot of learning because this is still a relatively low-capacity system here. And so you’re going to see a lot of friction points not only like what we saw in Chicago but just people learning, trying to do this, making mistakes.

And I think it’s going to require – you know, I think it’s pretty clear we have to pay more attention to this, but it’s going to require a lot of patience on all sides as a lot of learning goes on over the next few years.

PETE: But the problem I have is when you make a mistake, it’s affecting someone’s salary.

CONAN: You were about to say, Jane?

HANNAWAY: Well, I think there’s going to be a lot of shakeout over the next few years on this. These – you know, as I mentioned earlier, these changes are really quite dramatic and quite stark compared to the way education used to be run. And, you know, there are going to be some mistakes along the way, and I think we are going to have to live with them, and hopefully the system as a whole will be getting better.

ROTHERHAM: It’s important to remember the backdrop here, the problems we’re trying to solve and the extent of them, and also that, you know, most teachers don’t teach in subjects that are assessed by standardized tests. Only about 30 percent of the teachers teach in those subjects and grades. And so it’s a very complicated conversation about how do you evaluate people in multiple ways.

CONAN: Thanks for the call, Pete. Here’s an email from Steve(ph) in Michigan: I’m a teacher and in fact writing from my desk in the classroom, the kids are gone for the day. And I want to share how I view my union. It’s the benefit package of the job. I don’t get a bonus, but when I started, I thought the union meant I also didn’t have to worry when and if the economy was not so great, and I could look forward to a steady check and retirement and health care, too.

It seemed reasonable 14 years ago when I started. I’m in a state that’s hit hard due to loss of manufacturing jobs, and the promise of a steady job is no longer there. Weakening unions means losing part of what balanced out the very long hours, difficult work conditions and so on that lead to so many teachers leaving the field after just a few years.

And he’s right, the turnover rate is tremendous, but other people say when a state like Michigan is undergoing such hard times, teachers have to take part of the sacrifice, too.

HANNAWAY: And in the large cities, where student populations are declining.

CONAN: And Detroit has emptied out.

HANNAWAY: Detroit, Chicago, D.C., student populations are declining. So yes, it’s risky for teachers in that situation.

ROTHERHAM: And in Michigan in particular, you’ve seen some complicated politics because you have unions where the factories are closing, and people are being laid off in the private sector, and then you hear demands for sort of ongoing job security and so forth. And it’s creating even some friction within the ranks of organized labor because just the situation around the country and in some places, it is just – it is so dire economically.

CONAN: Which again gets to a point. We were talking about Chicago as an intra-party fight, a Democratic Party fight. One of the questions you raise as a myth in the Washington Post is: Do teachers’ unions only support Democrats?

HANNAWAY: Heavily. They heavily support Democrats but not only support Democrats.

CONAN: Sometimes Republicans.

HANNAWAY: Sometimes Republicans.

ROTHERHAM: And we pointed out some examples, and I think – you know, I think the fact that they overwhelmingly support Democrats has more to do with where the two parties are in education policy. Where Republicans have been willing to support their positions, they have supported them. And we pointed out, you know, they supported a very controversial state representative in Pennsylvania who championed the card – you know the ID to the vote – voting ID measure there that’s highly controversial.

And they have given him $40,000 over the past six years. So, you know, he’s with them on their other positions. They support groups that are, you know, anti-gay and other things, if they’re with them on those positions. They’re a special interest group like any other, and we get all, you know, emotional about it because it’s teachers, but you really have to look at them the same way you’d look at any other special interest group, whether it’s, you know, AAA or Trout Unlimited or the NRA.

CONAN: Let’s get another caller in from Michigan. This one – Paige is with us from Birmingham, Michigan. Oh, but I think Paige has left us, so let’s go instead to – this Dina. Dina with us from Napa, California.

DINA: Hi there. Can you hear me?

CONAN: Yes. You’re on the air. Go ahead, please.

DINA: I’m a retired teacher. Testing got to me finally. I just – the idea – I’ve written articles on this. The idea that we judge children by testing when the testing is frequently not valid – you cannot judge teachers by that. And that being said, there are teachers in every district that everybody knows are nightmares. They shouldn’t be in a classroom, and yet year after year the principals’ claim is because the unions tie their hands, and part of that may be true in some states. But year after year, these people continue to go into the classroom and either do nothing or do great harm.

And the union, at some point, needs to be willing to somehow cooperate to protect their own profession and the name of teacher, which to me is sacred. I mean Jesus was a teacher. Muhammad was a teacher. If you want to protect the name of teacher, you have to be willing to help get rid of those people who literally are sitting, just collecting a paycheck, and sometimes doing tremendous damage.

CONAN: And Dina’s opinion – well, she’s not alone, to put it mildly.

HANNAWAY: And there are two extremes. There are teachers at the bottom – I mean, I’ll tell you what the statistics say. Teachers at the bottom, about the bottom 15th percentile in grades that are tested, are getting about a half a year’s gain from their students. Teachers in the top 15 percentile are getting about a year and a half gain for their students. Three times the amount, huge.

DINA: I was a top teacher, and I did not expect that somebody who had slower students than me to get as much gain, but I expected them to try.

CONAN: Yeah, yeah. Dina, thanks very much for the call.

DINA: OK.

CONAN: And she’s also talking about a situation where unions are seen protecting bad teachers and at the same time seen resisting programs like Teach for America.

HANNAWAY: Well, Teach for America is now in a number of districts, and I think Teach for America really goes to some effort to have a good relationship with unions. But you know, again, we’re seeing a huge shift happening, and I think the progress has been amazing, and I think within the teachers’ unions there are individuals who have different views about how much change and how fast should the change be. And that’s all working itself out.

CONAN: Jane Hannaway is with us and Andrew Rotherham – they are the co-authors of a piece called “Five Myths About Teachers Unions”; it appeared in The Washington Post this past weekend. They are also the co-editors of the “Collective Bargaining in Education” book. You’re listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

And I wanted to read this email. Eileen in California: As the wife of a teacher, I’ve been shocked by how ineffective my husband’s union is. We live in one of the most wealthy parts of the country. Many people don’t know and realize that there’s families that don’t receive medical insurance. For our family of four to be covered by an HMO insurance plan would cost my husband 15 to 18 thousand dollars a year. Many believe we get great benefits due to our union status, which makes it easier to vilify teachers, which is hurtful and demoralizing and a national trend. Teachers do a very difficult job because they love kids. They deserve our support.

And she’s right, the benefits package – it’s not the same anywhere – everywhere.

ROTHERHAM: No, it varies greatly. In fact, like when she was reading that, that’s the exact same situation my wife was in. In fact, their local union was decertified because it did such a bad job, and so the members all basically opted out of it. Where she was teaching, you know, that’s in Virginia, elsewhere, the associations are very strong and the benefit package is varying. Again, I mean if there’s one thing people take away from this conversation, education conversations more generally, it’s variance. I mean, just here, right near where we are, you can – there’s teachers who are making six figures and there are school districts where teachers’ salaries top out in the 40s.

And they’re a very close drive from one another. And the system – if you had to say one thing to describe American education right now, it would be that: highly varied.

CONAN: And it’s interesting, you were pointing out the situations in New Haven and in Paterson, New Jersey as very different, addressing another point you raise in the column, that teachers’ unions resist any kind of reform. Well, true in some places, not so true in others.

ROTHERHAM: Exactly, and it depends on local circumstance. So in New haven, for instance, the mayor was going to act unilaterally. The union came to the table and ended up designing something that has a lot of promise not only for New Haven, but potentially for elsewhere. But in Chicago, you didn’t hear that proposal on the table whatsoever. No one in the union said, let’s do what they did in New Haven. You had this different – you had this different fight. And so you can find – and this is the problem with this debate, you can find examples to prove almost any point. And against, you know, again, against this larger backdrop, this is a $650 billion industry that we’re talking about, Neal, public schools, public K12 schools, and it is transition. And it is evolving from a system that operated one way with relatively little attention to performance, to a system where we’re having a lot more conversations about performance, improving outcomes, propelling many more kids into college and careers and so forth. And so all of these different things we’re talking about are sort of friction points that are surfacing in that effort.

HANNAWAY: Structurally, the United States is very different from most other industrialized countries. Education is hugely decentralized and that’s part of the reason for the variation, variation in state laws, variation at the district level, in terms of strength of unions and different collective bargaining contracts, and very difficult policy-wise to sort of move the system as a system. In other countries where it’s more centralized, it’s much easier to move the whole system. Here it’s bit by bit, skirmish by skirmish, fight by fight.

CONAN: And you mentioned Chicago is one skirmish against the backdrop of what’s been happening politically in states like Wisconsin and Ohio over the past couple of years as well.

HANNAWAY: That’s right, in terms of public sector unions, and that’s the political side. So there are two things going on simultaneously, which I think Andy mentioned, and it’s really important to keep them distinct. One is, you know, a political backlash, I think, against unions, public sector unions in general. And the other, going on simultaneously, is an effort to try to really increase the performance of education in the United States. These are two things that are going on simultaneously, and they get conflated in some ways.

Andy mentioned some places where unions were very cooperative with local administrators in terms of affecting reform. That is going on in some places. So again, we – I certainly don’t want to and I don’t think Andy either wants to talk about this as if we’re bashing unions. That’s not what’s happening here. What – our interest is mainly in increasing education productivity.

CONAN: Jane Hannaway is vice president of the American Institutes for Research. Andrew Rotherham, co-founder of the education research organization Bellwether Education. Thanks, both of you, very much for your time today.

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College Student Recalls High School Homelessness

John Horan was dean at the charter school where Tierra Jackson was a struggling student. Part of the reason she struggled: Jackson was homeless. Enlarge StoryCorps

John Horan was dean at the charter school where Tierra Jackson was a struggling student. Part of the reason she struggled: Jackson was homeless.

StoryCorps John Horan was dean at the charter school where Tierra Jackson was a struggling student. Part of the reason she struggled: Jackson was homeless.

When Tierra Jackson was in high school, she was struggling. She kept getting yelled at for being late to school.

What most of her teachers and administrators didn’t know was the reason for her tardiness: Jackson was homeless. Her mother was in and out of prison. She and her brother were living with her aunt and cousins. All seven of them shared a single room in one of Chicago’s homeless shelters, a long bus ride from her school.

“As if high school is not hard enough itself, you know, the hour-and-a-half bus ride, it was kind of exhausting,” Jackson told John Horan, who recorded an interview with her at StoryCorps. Horan was dean of the charter school she attended for high school.

Even though Jackson was disciplined for being late, Jackson says she didn’t want to tell anyone at the school the reason why.

“I was embarrassed. I was 14, and I was homeless,” Jackson says. “I didn’t want people to look at me like, oh, you know, she needs charity.”

But Jackson needed supplies for school, and her family didn’t have the money for them, so her aunt wrote notes for Jackson to bring to school explaining the situation. She found out that it wasn’t so bad to ask for help.

“I think the first teacher I gave the note to came to school with this bag of things for me,” Jackson says. “And I didn’t know how to accept it. But after that, she never treated me differently, and I think that’s one of the things I appreciated. I knew that I’m intelligent, you know. I have a brain with thoughts that matter.”

Today, Jackson is a junior at Roosevelt University, where she is majoring in international studies with a minor in economics. Life hasn’t exactly gotten easier: In addition to school, Jackson works two jobs, at a restaurant and a financial management company, and takes care of her brother and her mother.

Jackson says she rarely has the time to go out because she is so busy. When she finishes helping her brother with his homework, she does her own. On the day of her interview, she said she was exhausted from staying up all night studying.

“I wanted to go to bed so bad, but I can’t because I have to get A’s,” Jackson says. “I have to do well in school. It’s the only thing that I have that can get me out.

“There’s so many people who could, you know, be the next Bill Gates and change the world. But because they’re poor or they’re living in poverty, they’re instantly written off because no one thinks they’ll make it. I just want to make it.”

Audio produced for Morning Edition by Jasmyn Belcher.

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Chicago Teachers Union Still Stuck On A Contract

The Chicago teachers strike entered its second week on Monday. The union says it’s looking over a proposed deal. City officials also tried to get a court order to stop the strike.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The teachers’ strike in Chicago has entered its second week. Today, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel sent city attorneys to court to try and end the strike and send students back to class. In the meantime, parents are looking for new ways to keep their kids occupied. And as NPR’s Cheryl Corley reports from Chicago, union delegates say they are still assessing a tentative contract.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: What do we want?

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Fair contracts.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: What do we want?

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Now.

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: Chanting for a fair contract, a crowd of Chicago teachers in red…

CORNISH: …is to keep their kids occupied.

And as NPR’s Cheryl Corley reports from Chicago, union delegates say they are still assessing a tentative contract.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: What do we want?

PROTESTERS: Fair contracts.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: What do we want?

PROTESTERS: Fair contracts.

CORLEY: Chanting for a fair contract, a crowd of Chicago teachers and in red union shirts jointed supporters and filled the lobby in front of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office. Their goal? Letting city leaders know they oppose the mayor seeking an injunction to end the school strike.

Steven Ashby, a University of Illinois labor professor, is with the Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign.

STEVEN ASHBY: I can tell you that injunctions have been used over the past century only as a union-busting tool to suppress the democratic right to strike. They do not belong in American democracy.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)

CORLEY: At the end of last week, union and school leaders seemed optimistic that they would reach a resolution by today. Emanuel had also warned he’d turn to the court if there is no end to the strike by week’s end. So, in its filing, the city contends the strike is illegal, that it endangers the health and safety of the school district’s students. And that under state law, issue still of concern – evaluations, layoffs, and recall rights – are not grounds for a strike.

No word from the mayor’s office or school board today. But last night, school board President David Vitale said he and the mayor were extremely disappointed with the union’s decision.

DAVID VITALE: There is no reason why our kids cannot be in school while the union reviews the agreement. Just as we have said that this is a strike of choice, it has now become a delay of choice.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORNS)

CORLEY: This morning, there were still signs of support for teachers. Motorists honked their horns and waved at teachers protesting in front of neighborhood schools. David Bobby(ph), a union delegate and a teacher at Sullivan High School, says he knows it’s a frustrating situation. But…

DAVID BOBBY: This is a bottom-up organization. Teachers, clinicians, clerks, all of us have a right and a vote in this process. And, frankly, to vote on this takes time. We also have the Jewish holiday, which inadvertently pushes us back a little bit so that we can be sure that all members have a chance to weigh in.

CORLEY: About 350,000 Chicago students are affected by the school strike. And parents are counting on places like this North Side Chicago Park District, where today children played basketball, twirled hula-hoops and took part in camp activities. Outside the filled house, the reaction from parents bringing their children here was mixed.

Yuwalla Edi Abonya(ph) was dropping off her six-year-old first grader.

YUWALLA EDI ABONYA: I do support the teachers for what they’re doing as far as the things that they want for the classroom. But, at the same time, I just wish that there could be a compromise; everybody could just come together just for the sake of the kids.

CORLEY: Edi Abonya said she had been really hopeful that school would resume today. Robin Henra(ph), the father of another first grade student, said he had been to and doesn’t think the continued strike is justified.

ROBIN HENRA: I think the union took this one step too far. And I’m afraid there’s going to be consequence in losing some of their parent support that they had last week and prior. You know, everybody should be looking for the children first. And at this point, feel like they’re kind of being used as a bargaining chip.

CORLEY: Union leaders plan to meet tomorrow to decide whether to call off the strike, the first for the city in 25 years. City officials, meantime, say Wednesday morning a judge will hold a hearing on Mayor Emanuel’s request for an order that will send striking teachers back to work.

Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Chicago.

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Outside Groups Monitor Chicago Teachers Strike

As the school strike in Chicago goes on, the contest isn’t just between the teachers union and the Chicago Board of education. Many see the Chicago conflict as a battle for the future, not just of unions, but of public education.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

With a city’s worth of students still out of school, Chicago’s Teachers Union and its members are reviewing a contract proposal aimed at ending their strike. Delegates for the union will meet tonight. And as the teacher’s strike continues, it isn’t just of interest to people in Chicago. An array of groups has a stake in the way things turnout. NPR’s Sonari Glinton reports from Chicago.

SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: Teacher’s unions from around the country have been paying close attention to what’s going on here in Chicago. The Chicago Teacher’s Union held a rally this weekend where supporters came from far and near – mainly near.

BOB PETERSON: Greetings of solidarity from Wisconsin.

(APPLAUSE)

GLINTON: Bob Peterson is president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association. He drew parallels between the union fight in Wisconsin against that state’s Republican Governor Scott Walker and the Chicago fight against Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

PETERSON: Walker and Emanuel are two sides of the same pro-corporate, pro-privatization agenda.

GLINTON: Union leaders such as Peterson have offered their moral support to the teacher’s strike. When you talk to teachers, often the main sticking point isn’t any individual provision of the contract. It’s an overall distrust of the Chicago School Board and a fear of where unions are headed as a whole. Lisa Wyatt teaches at Hyde Park Academy on Chicago’s South Side.

LISA WYATT: I understand the fiscal problems in our economy. But there has to be a stand taken by the community against an agenda to privatize education.

GLINTON: Wyatt says she doesn’t trust the Board of Education will live up to the promises, mainly that they will provide resources to teachers in local schools. That’s why, she says, teachers have been hesitant about signing on to the contract. Then Wyatt repeats what’s become a mantra in this school strike.

WYATT: We’re fighting for the soul of public education. We are fighting for the soul. What is happening here in Chicago has been happening all over the country.

GLINTON: Like most fights nowadays, this one is being played out on the airwaves.

(SOUNDBITE OF AD)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Teacher’s are on strike and kids are the losers. A deal is within reach, all CTU has to do is grab it.

GLINTON: Democrats for Education Reform is a group that’s bankrolling ads that have been played on radio and television opposing the strike. It’s just one of many groups of a variety of political stripes that is participating in the Chicago strike.

BARBARA RADNER: Well, the strike really is the quintessence, it’s the convergence of all these efforts, pro and con – school reform, charters, teachers. Here we are. I guess you would call it a perfect storm.

GLINTON: Barbara Radner teaches Urban Education at DePaul University.

RADNER: Some groups are interested, out of the fact that they see this as perhaps the teacher unions’ last stand. Some groups are involved because they resist charters. But this is Chicago. If we had a unified city we probably wouldn’t be having a strike.

GLINTON: Radner says Chicago will be a battleground for education reform long after this strike is over.

Sonari Glinton, NPR News, Chicago.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.

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Duncan On Chicago: ‘When Adults Fight, Kids Lose’

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Chicago Teachers Union Delegates Vote On Contract

The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates is set to vote on calling off the strike on Tuesday. On Sunday the delegates voted down a proposed contract offer, saying they needed more time to consider it. The surprise rejection revealed divisions within the union that may make it hard to agree on a contract.

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The teachers Union in Chicago votes later today for the second time on whether to and a strike that has kept 350,000 students and their parents in limbo. On Sunday, the union’s House of Delegates voted to continue the weeklong strike until they have more time to read the outline on of a tentative agreement. That vote was a setback for union President Karen Lewis and her bargaining team.

NPR’s Claudio Sanchez reports that with the vote pending, some teachers still don’t know what’s in that agreement.

CLAUDIO SANCHEZ, BYLINE: Robert Resner, an elementary school teacher at Orozco Academy showed up at Strike Headquarters at 6 A.M. this morning to pick up some pamphlets and the latest four-page summary of the tentative contract the Chicago teachers union is reviewing. But he still wasn’t sure what he’s supposed to reject or endorse.

ROBERT RESNER: We got our information late Monday night on what was in the contract and it was only a small part, ’cause the contract is still not being written.

SANCHEZ: How can you sign something if you haven’t seen it, says Resner? His colleague, Melissa Sears, says she just wants to get back to work.

MELISSA SEARS: What I’ve seen in the contract is good enough for me. Is it perfect? No is it ever going to be? No, but I feel like we have to, at this point, sort of appreciate what we’ve gotten and hope for the best.

SANCHEZ: Sears says her confidence in union President Karen Lewis though is not as strong as it once was. And Sears wonders was Lewis tough enough in negotiating a fair contract. And what will she do if the union’s 800 voting delegates turn down the latest proposal and remain on strike?

SEARS: All I can do is just trust that she’s looking out for our best interests.

SANCHEZ: Until now, few teachers have suggested that Lewis has not done enough. But as public support for the strike slowly fades, some teachers wonder whether she’s the best person to take on a much tougher task once the strike is settled; turning, what they call, a politically polarized school system, dominated by politicians and corporate interests into a system that respects teachers.

Brooke Pippet Thompson, a music teacher at Helen C. Pierce Elementary, says Lewis is absolutely the right person to do that.

BROOKE PIPPET THOMPSON: Can’t tell you how many times people have said to me, Well, she’s not the best spokesman for you. I disagree. She is a teacher. She knows what she’s talking about. Until we start listening to those who know what they’re talking about in the classroom; people who’ve been in the classroom who know children, who understand cognitive development, and also the pressures that poverty plays in that. I trust her and I believe what she says when she says something.

SANCHEZ: Lewis, after all, has secured a 17 percent pay raise for teachers over four years. School officials have also agreed not to fire teachers after one year under a new, tougher evaluation policy that would be phased in over time. Merit pay was taken off the table. And more teachers would be hired under a plan to extend the school day – all important victories for the union.

But with Chicago’s schools under mayoral control, teachers just don’t trust Mayor Rahm Emanuel to keep his word. As soon as the ink dries, teachers say he’ll lay off thousands of teachers, close a hundred schools, and turn many of them into privately-run, publically-funded charter schools.

What will Lewis and the union do then?

KAREN LEWIS: Ultimately the decision whether to suspend the strike will be taken..

SANCHEZ: When Lewis came on WBEZ Public Radio this morning to talk about the strike, teachers at Pierce Elementary hovered around an iPhone listening to the broadcast and Lewis’ words carefully.

LEWIS: I think that people that really want to go back to work will be able to make the argument..

SANCHEZ: Bridget Fabianski says no matter how the union delegates vote this afternoon, its time for someone other than Lewis to speak for teachers.

BRIDGET FABIANSKI: She seems confrontational. Any parent that I’ve talked to says she’s confrontational. But..

SANCHEZ: That’s her nature.

FABIANSKI: Maybe that’s her nature and she’s the one who’s going to get it done. Maybe it’s a confrontational…

SANCHEZ: So this next phase might call for (unintelligible).

FABIANSKI: For a different spokesperson, for a different person to stand up and to represent us.

SANCHEZ: As union delegates gather to vote, Karen Lewis will once again be in the hot seat and have a chance to show whether she’s the right leader at the right time.

Claudio Sanchez, NPR News, Chicago.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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FAMU’s Town Hall Calls For Hazing To Be Reported

Florida A&M University held a meeting on Thursday for students to talk about hazing. Last November drum major Robert Champion died in a hazing incident, and more than a dozen students face criminal charges. The event thrust the university and the issue of hazing into the national spotlight.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Florida A&M University held a town hall meeting yesterday. Students and faculty talked about hazing. Drum major Robert Champion died in a hazing incident last November, and more than a dozen students face criminal charges. Now, people at FAMU, known as FAMU, know the country is watching. NPR’s Kathy Lohr has the story.

KATHY LOHR, BYLINE: At the campus meeting, hazing experts said they realize it’s been difficult at FAMU since the death of Robert Champion.

HANK NUWER: Florida A&M has an target on its back, yes, but it also has a chance to change the culture of society in general.

LOHR: Hank Nuwer has written four books on hazing. He told students many schools are facing the same challenge.

NUWER: Fresno State, Cornell, Radford, Vincents, Northern Colorado, have all had recent hazing deaths. The last time I heard from a mother who suspected anything was an email at eleven o’clock last night after the drowning of a pledge at the University of Idaho. So you’re not alone.

Drum major Robert Champion died last fall after being beaten on a bus after a football game. It was part of a hazing ritual. The brutality of the beating and Champion’s death shocked this campus and the country. Throughout yesterday’s meeting, students were asked questions about the definition of hazing, many didn’t have a clear answer. Professor at the University of Maine and national hazing expert Elizabeth Allan says that’s part of the problem.

ELIZABETH ALLAN: They don’t see many things that meet the definition of hazing as hazing, because the image in their head is a physical force, and they often fail to account for the power of coercion, the group peer pressure, the emotional kinds of power dynamics that play out in a group situation.

LOHR: In a 2008 study, Allan says more than half of students who belong to clubs, teams, or other collegiate organizations said they had experienced hazing, and 47 percent said they also went through it in high school. It’s not clear how many of the FAMU students attended this town hall meeting. Many wandered in and out during the forum. President of the Marching 100, Brandon Cunningham, told the group that the band committed to ending hazing, and he had this advice for those who may not take the issue seriously.

BRANDON CUNNINGHAM: Remember one thing, the Marching 100 has done a lot of great things for the university, and if they can suspend us for a year, what makes you think that they can’t do that to your organization, all right? So just be very careful about your decisions and ask yourself if it’s going to be worth it.

LOHR: Outside students had mixed opinions about how much the meeting will change student behavior. Chandeidra Williams is a junior at FAMU.

CHANDEIDRA WILLIAMS: I’m not sure if it will stop hazing, just to be honest, but, I mean, (unintelligible) have information out there on the consequences of hazing, I think it’s good to have it out there, but I don’t know if it will stop because some people are still stuck in their mindset that they’re going to do it anyway.

LOHR: Femi Komolafe who’s a junior, brought along Christina Hibbert who attends Florida State University. After hearing the discussion, they say it’s up to students in groups that have traditionally committed the hazing to stop it.

FEMI KOMOLAFE: If they’re actually willing to let go of things they had to do to get into the organization and allow new members to come in without having to go through what they went through, then that’s when change will happen.

CHRISTINA HIBBERT: We have to be the ones to step up and say that we’re not going to allow people to do that to us. We have to be the ones to step up to say that we’re not going to continue in a tradition that’s so – so primitive, to me, at least.

LOHR: Several members of the Marching 100, including Timothius Harper and Kenneth Johnson were here. They miss the band, but they say they understand why the university suspended the group this year.

TIMOTHIUS HARPER: For every action there’s a consequence.

KENNETH JOHNSON: Right.

HARPER: And even though it was a few, you know, everybody in the Marching 100 understands that we’re now a catalyst for this anti-hazing movement. And so we’re just taking this time off to regroup and to reevaluate some things. And we’re going to come back and we’re going to be better than we ever were.

LOHR: University officials hope students learn through forums like this one, but it’s not clear how well that worked. At the end of the town hall, just 68 percent of those polled said they would report hazing if they saw it or participated in it. Kathy Lohr, NPR News, Tallahassee.

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

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Chicago Goes Back To School For A Second Time

The union rank and file still must vote on whether to accept the contract hammered out between union leaders and city officials. And both sides will have some hard work ahead to repair the bad blood that erupted during the walkout.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I’m Audie Cornish. Kids in Chicago are back in school. While teachers and school officials still need to iron out wrinkles in their new contract, both are satisfied they can do that with school in session. Chicago students lost seven days as a result of the strike.

Though parents are relieved schools are open again, NPR’s Claudio Sanchez reports that some are worried about what they call the toxic climate that led to the strike and that lingers still.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: What do we want?

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Fair contracts.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: What do we want?

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Now.

CLAUDIO SANCHEZ, BYLINE: Angry teachers’ demonstrations in Chicago have given way to recess and children playing in the cool September air.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Unintelligible)

SANCHEZ: But there was something else in the air this morning, a deep, lingering concern among parents. Cara Rudolph has two children at Helen C. Peirce Elementary. She says she’s not sure if kids won anything as a result of the strike.

CARA RUDOLPH: It’s like too soon to know what the good is that came out of it. A lot of questions come up, like, how are we going to make up the days that we lost? Will we make up the days that we lost? Will our school year stay longer or shorter if we’ve gained days or lost days with this new contract?

SANCHEZ: Parents have lots of questions: Will new teacher evaluations really help weed out bad teachers? Where will the money to pay teachers more come from if the school budget is almost a billion dollars in the red? And perhaps the biggest question of all, will the union and Mayor Rahm Emanuel be able to work together after all the vitriol? Kate Flynn has first grader at Peirce Elementary.

KATE FLYNN: I’m concerned about the level of toxicity that we all got to see between the Board of Education and the teachers’ union. I don’t know how that gets fixed. And part of my pipe dream would be that parents would rise up into that vacuum. But I don’t – I honestly don’t think that’s going to happen.

SANCHEZ: Not if you consider that the deep, deep problems that have plagued public education in Chicago persist: child poverty, insufficient investment in kids. Then there’s the issue of transparency, like on the huge issue of school closings that everybody knows are inevitable. Parents are totally in the dark about that, says Flynn.

FLYNN: Parents in Chicago don’t really have a voice. And I don’t really know why that is.

SANCHEZ: For Cara Rudolph, the lack of parental involvement simply boils down to fatigue. She says people in Chicago are tired of the conflict, of the finger-pointing and a history of unfulfilled promises that the quality of public education in Chicago will improve.

RUDOLPH: I feel like its been talked about for so long. It just was sad. It was so sad to see that we had to have this strike when we’ve had so much time. We’ve had a lot of time.

SANCHEZ: Teachers at Pierce Elementary say these are all legitimate concerns. Some say they, too, feel somewhat in the dark because so much of the contract that they’ll be able to vote on in the next two weeks is still being written. No one knows, for example, if the issue of class size is even on the table anymore. And that’s a key issue for kindergarten teacher Ted Wanberg, a 20-year veteran who was chosen as strike captain at Peirce Elementary.

On the bright side, says Wanberg, is that teachers in Chicago have never felt more unified, thanks to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

TED WANBERG: Because I don’t think there’s any way that teachers could have been galvanized the way that it has been done through shared adversity.

SANCHEZ: Mayor Emanuel, for his part, in an emotional address Tuesday night, struck a note of reconciliation.

MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I want to thank parents and taxpayers for their patience. We showed that we are not just a city of big shoulders. We are a city of big hearts.

SANCHEZ: So now, with the strike out of the way, there is a small window, an opportunity for the mayor and the teachers’ union to come together, to tackle the tough decisions about the big problems ahead, like the city’s 40 percent dropout rate and growing number of kids who can barely read. What neither side is saying, though, is just how much they’ll be willing to concede to make sure that these problems get solved. Claudio Sanchez, NPR News, Chicago.

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