After more than a decade of top-down
dictates, disruptive school closures, disregard of teachers’ and parents’
input, testing that squeezes out teaching, and cuts to the arts, physical
education and libraries, educators in Chicago said “enough is enough.” With
strong support from parents and many in the community, teachers challenged a
flawed vision of education reform that has not helped schoolchildren in Chicago
or around the country. It took a seven-day strike—something no one does without
cause—but with it educators in Chicago have changed the conversation about
education reform.
These years of dictates imposed upon teachers
left children in Chicago without the rich curriculum, facilities and social
services they need. On picket lines, with their handmade signs, teachers
provided first-person accounts of the challenges confronting students and
educators. They made it impossible to turn a blind eye to the unacceptable
conditions in many of the city’s public schools.
Teachers and parents were united in the frustration
that led to the strike. Nearly nine out of 10 students in Chicago Public
Schools live in poverty, a shameful fact that so-called reformers too often
ignore, yet most schools lack even one full-time nurse or social worker. The
district has made cuts where it shouldn’t (in art, music, physical education
and libraries) but hasn’t cut where it should (class sizes and excessive
standardized testing and test prep). The tentative agreement reached in Chicago
aims to address all these issues.
Chicago’s teachers see this as an opportunity
to move past the random acts of “reform” that have failed to move the needle
and toward actual systemic school improvement. The tentative agreement focuses
on improving quality so that every public school in Chicago is a place where
parents want to send their children and educators want to teach.
Its key tenets:
First, use time wisely. The proposed contract
lengthens the school day and year. A key demand by educators during the strike
was that the district focuses not just on instituting a longer school day, but
on making it a better school day. Additional seat time doesn’t constitute a
good education. A well-rounded and rich curriculum, regular opportunities for
teachers to plan and confer with colleagues, and time to engage students
through discussions, group work and project-based learning—all these contribute
to a high-quality education, and these should be priorities going forward.
Second, get evaluation right and don’t fixate
on testing. Effective school systems use data to inform instruction, not as a
“scarlet number” that does nothing to improve teaching and learning. One
placard seen on Chicago’s picket lines captured the sentiment of countless
educators: “I want to teach to the student, not to the test.” If implemented
correctly, evaluations can help Chicago promote the continuous development of
teachers’ skills and of students’ intellectual abilities (and not just their
test-taking skills).
Third, fix—don’t close—struggling schools.
Chicago’s teachers echoed the concerns of numerous parents and civil rights
groups that the closing of struggling schools creates turmoil and instability
but doesn’t improve achievement. Low-performing schools improve not only by
instituting changes to academics and enrichment, but also by becoming centers
of their communities.
Schools that provide wraparound
services—medical and mental-health services, mentoring, enrichment programs and
social services—create an environment in which kids are better able to learn
and teachers can focus more on instruction, knowing their students’ needs are
being met. Chicago, with an 87% child-poverty rate, should make these
effective—and cost-effective—approaches broadly available.
Fourth, morale matters. Teachers who work
with students in some of the most difficult environments deserve support and
respect. Yet they often pay for their dedication by enduring daily denigration
for not single-handedly overcoming society’s shortcomings. These indignities
and lack of trust risk making a great profession an impossible one.
In a period when many officials have sought
to strip workers of any contractual rights or even a collective voice, the
Chicago teachers strike showed that collective action is a powerful force for
change and that collective bargaining is an effective tool to strengthen public
schools. Chicago’s public-school teachers—backed by countless educators across
the country—changed the conversation from the blaming and shaming of teachers
to the promotion of strategies that parents and teachers believe are necessary
to help children succeed.
It is a powerful example of solution-driven
unionism and a reminder that when people come together to deal with matters
affecting education, those who work in the schools need to be heard. When they
are, students, parents and communities are better for it.
Ms. Lewis is president of the Chicago
Teachers Union. Ms. Weingarten is president of the CTU’s national union, the
American Federation of Teachers.
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