This deal is to collective bargaining what Olive Garden is to Italian food.
From those who have defended the deal between Cullerton and the We Are One coalition that led to SB2404, there has been a constant theme. They compare the process to collective bargaining.
Well, folks. This process makes a mockery of collective bargaining.
I was talking to a class of college students last night about teacher unions. Of the many things that makes collective bargaining work, I explained, is the ultimate ability of the rank-and-file members to say no.
Glen Brown says this about that:
Approximately 35,000 retirees are being deprived of an earned and promised benefit.
Arne at the AERA. The solution to a bad guy with a test is a good guy with a test.
Arnold Dodge:
On April 30, Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, gave what was billed as a Special Invited Address, at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association (AERA) in San Francisco. This conference, attended by thousands of higher ed scholars in education departments, is for many, the high water mark of academe. Focused research and investigation from all over the world is shared and critically examined.
What we heard was breathtaking in its lack of awareness about the effects of Race to the Top (RTTT). Far from being chastened by what is going on in schools around the country, the Secretary doubled-down on his test-driven offensive. A look at some of the things he said is eye opening.
“We need you, the researchers, to answer the question, ‘Which approach works better – this one or that one’ and then we need to move forward by your answer.”This is a disingenuous invitation at best. The research community has been telling the administration for years that high stakes testing is an invalid, unreliable and unstable measure of both student and teacher performance. We have not seen any effect on policy from our clarion call for dumping this metric as central to
CTU election debate. The Brawl at the Electricians’ Hall.
At the CPS Delegates Meeting tonight there were debates for President and Vice-President. Both were pretty lopsided victories for the CORE slate as the Salvation Caucus seemed to lack any sort of coherent plan for the future of the union beyond picking away at their current leadership. It was clear that it was going to be a long night for the Salvation Caucus when vice-presidential candidate Mark Ochoa consistently ran out of things to say before coming anywhere close to the two minutes he was allocated to answer questions.
Jesse Sharkey seemed much more capable in response, focusing on how he believed the union could best prepare to combat Mayor Emanuel in the future. Sharkey, as usual, had great enthusiasm for the task at hand. Ochoa, on the other hand, seemed to be hoping that once we explained to the Board that we didn’t like things like overtesting, they would simply end the offending practices.
The second debate between Karen Lewis and challenger Tanya Saunders-Wolfe was even testier. The conflict