Summer is officially over for Chicago's crotchfruit, let us all give praises.

All of Chicago's dead voters who vote twice in each election rejoice!

Thank god we pay so much money so America makes the most smart students!

Just ask all of your European friends how smartest we are!

CavalierEternal: relcec: GoldSpider: CavalierEternal: Now if we could just end that other strike...

[www.cbc.ca image 620x349]

Guess who doesn't know the difference between a strike and a lockout.

they don't have a contract because they not only want a raise, they want a huge one.
there are 119 referees. they make on average $32k a month for 4 months for part time unusually weekend work.
they are also demanding a 5-11% raise (depending on seniority) each for each over the next 5 years.
the NFL isn't locking them out, they just aren't interested in giving an equity stake to a handful of part time workers. this is a strike.

And after the massive sh*t show the replacement refs put on across the league this weekend and on national television last night, they've got all of the leverage they need to get those demands met.

they are awful and slow, while the regular refs were just plane awful. the real refs gave a win to the steelers two years back by missing a fumble and recovery at miami. if you don't remember last year they f*cked up a game in a huge way almost every week last year. personally, I don't care if the refs never come back. the old refs gave us such wonderful ditties like deciding that what used to be a touchdown catch for 50 years no longer was (calvin johnson td catch) and going forward like this made sense in order to cover up for one bad call. they came up with a new rule all by themselves about a second act or some shiat.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d81a77070/Contro v ersial-call-on-Megatron-non-TD
/I for one haven't forgotten how bad you actually are real refs.

Baryogenesis: FarkLiter: Popcorn Johnny: They're getting a 17.6% raise over the next 4 years and a rehire pool for laid off teachers. In exchange, they're now going to be evaluated based on the performance of their students on standardized tests.

If they know they are getting a 17.6% raise over the next 4 years, what is the point of evaluating their performance? I read the "Summary Term Sheet" in TFA, and bullet item 3 says "No Merit Pay."

I am all for teachers making more money. In fact, when people point out the "average salary" I generally think it should be higher. The problem I have is that basic economics teaches us that if you completely divorce reward from performance, performance will decrease.

How do wr grade teacher performance? Just standardized tests? What about teachers who deal with at risk or learning disabled students?

Teachers are largely evaluated the same way lots of people are. Through the opinions of supervisors and peers and the product they put out. If you're really interested the evaluation forms are right here. This strike wasn't about if they used standardized testing for teacher evaluations but how heavily they were weighted in the overall assessment.

cman: RogermcAllen: cman: Ikam: cman: 1. Who gives a fark? Fark isn't some borough in Chicago
2. No snark in headline makes me a bit sad

Chicago doesn't have boroughs.

That is besides the point

The fact that you call it a borough by default tells me that you are probably from the North East. When the endless NYC threads come pouring in we don't start complaining, "Who gives a fark? Fark isn't some neighborhood in New York".

Let us have this one.

/ I don't give a fark about your borough, district, parish, quarter, district, precinct, ward, or diocese
// I will concede that deep dish is not actually pizza
/// New York pizza is shiatty pizza
//// Casserole

Yes sir. I am a Mainer. Although we do not have boroughs in Maine, our big brother MA has them, and we visit our big brother occasionally.

We do?

/life-long Bostonian

Popcorn Johnny: FarkLiter: If they know they are getting a 17.6% raise over the next 4 years, what is the point of evaluating their performance?

People who are guaranteed raises can still be terminated for bad performance.

"Which will only make you work just hard enough not to get fired." Bob

CavalierEternal: The Browns-Bengals game Sunday is a perfect example. Bengals had the ball with 3:20 left in the first half. Dalton throws an incomplete pass to AJ Green. The refs allowed to clock to tick off for 40 seconds after a goddamn incomplete pass without ever noticing. That's not a blown call, that's f*cking up the basic rules of football.

wait, you think the refs are starting and stopping the clock? chirst, you are dumb.

CavalierEternal: relcec: CavalierEternal: The Browns-Bengals game Sunday is a perfect example. Bengals had the ball with 3:20 left in the first half. Dalton throws an incomplete pass to AJ Green. The refs allowed to clock to tick off for 40 seconds after a goddamn incomplete pass without ever noticing. That's not a blown call, that's f*cking up the basic rules of football.

wait, you think the refs are starting and stopping the clock? chirst, you are dumb.

In about two decades of watching football, I've never seen that happen until this past weekend, which tells me that the judge assigned to monitoring the clock severely f*cked up at his job while the rest of the referees, who have the right to realize a clock error and order it to be rewound, neglected to do so.

but wait, you actually think they start and stop the clock. you sad they didn't understand the rules of football, as if they had only known the clock stops on an incomplete pass this wouldn't have happened. are you full of shiat, or just a moron?

Popcorn Johnny: relcec: wait, you think the refs are starting and stopping the clock? chirst, you are dumb.

The refs do start and stop the clock, by using whistles and arm motions.

ahh, motion sensing equipment. like a kinect. so how long have they been in possession of this equipment?

CavalierEternal: relcec:
They failed to follow the basic rule of "signal the clock operator to stop the clock" that's supposed to happen after every goddamned incomplete pass, of which there are many. That's what I'm trying to get through to you but you seem more concerned with insulting people who disagree with you.

you thought they started and stopped the clock. you said if they just understood the rules this wouldn't happen.
you are an idiot so I called you an idiot.

relcec: ahh, motion sensing equipment.

It's the job of the clock operator to watch the officials as to when to start and stop the clock. Ever notice the ref moving his arm in a circle? That's a sign to start the clock.

All you people biatching about this should keep your kids home and educate them yourselves. That'll teach those greedy, overpaid teachers!

relcec: . you said if they just understood the rules this wouldn't happen.

If the refs understood the rules the clock would've been stopped.

Old enough to know better: All you people biatching about this should keep your kids home and educate them yourselves. That'll teach those greedy, overpaid teachers!

I personally like the "They get a pension and I don't!" people. So, no one should have better employment terms than some people have and those same people think it's ok with their employers throwing them down a flight of stairs. After all, they just tripped.

andersoncouncil42: Kenny B: [i306.photobucket.com image 430x519]

Silly Jesus: [3.bp.blogspot.com image 504x353]

smitty04: [encrypted-tbn0.google.com image 241x209]

Wow. All of you, what color is the sky in your bubble in your world?

Rahm supporters are often over-the-top.

This threat is positively trolltastic! Apparently, teachers are right up there with fatties on the Fark shiat list.

thread... FTFM

Adolf Oliver Nipples: but when you try to hide behind the very kids you're farking over

It's not the teachers farking the students over. When you have kids attending schools that by any objective measure should be razed to the ground and rebuilt from scratch, to say nothing of things like textbooks, the teachers aren't the ones to blame. Also having teachers teach to the test instead of actually teaching isn't helping. Standardized tests, all of them, including the ACT and SAT, need to be done away with.

CavalierEternal: relcec: CavalierEternal: relcec:
They failed to follow the basic rule of "signal the clock operator to stop the clock" that's supposed to happen after every goddamned incomplete pass, of which there are many. That's what I'm trying to get through to you but you seem more concerned with insulting people who disagree with you.

you thought they started and stopped the clock. you said if they just understood the rules this wouldn't happen.
you are an idiot so I called you an idiot.

THE CLOCK STARTS AND STOPS ON THEIR SIGNAL. IF THEY HAD THE PROPER TRAINING OF NFL REFEREES IN REGARD TO THAT RULE, THESE ERRORS WOULD NOT HAPPEN.

Jesus Christ, it's like talking to a plate of french toast.

I want French toast. You should get me some.

As for the demands of the teachers: if they can demonstrate that they deserve the money, I'm all for them getting a pay increase. That is, "If you pay us x number of dollars, you see y return on your investment."

Ultimately, that's what it boils down to. Education is just that, an investment. You don't get your money back for 12 years, but you're investing in your human capital as a society. Given what's going on with our educational system, I'm not sure whether more teacher pay is the answer. It could be in some instances, but facilities and raw numbers of teachers need to be put first.

WhyteRaven74: Old enough to know better: All you people biatching about this should keep your kids home and educate them yourselves. That'll teach those greedy, overpaid teachers!

I personally like the "They get a pension and I don't!" people. So, no one should have better employment terms than some people have and those same people think it's ok with their employers throwing them down a flight of stairs. After all, they just tripped.

We pay into a pension, so we don't get social security, just for the record.

CavalierEternal: relcec: CavalierEternal: relcec:
They failed to follow the basic rule of "signal the clock operator to stop the clock" that's supposed to happen after every goddamned incomplete pass, of which there are many. That's what I'm trying to get through to you but you seem more concerned with insulting people who disagree with you.

you thought they started and stopped the clock. you said if they just understood the rules this wouldn't happen.
you are an idiot so I called you an idiot.

THE CLOCK STARTS AND STOPS ON THEIR SIGNAL. IF THEY HAD THE PROPER TRAINING OF NFL REFEREES IN REGARD TO THAT RULE, THESE ERRORS WOULD NOT HAPPEN.

Jesus Christ, it's like talking to a plate of french toast.

so you are now saying they didn't give the proper signal? you saw them not give the signal?
oh don't go trying to finesse this thing now. we all know you have no clue about anything other than media said new refs are bad, media said new refs are bad, media said new refs are bad.

It's as if thousands of young voices cried out, "I'M SHOT!" -The End

/Chicago
//BANG!

RogermcAllen: It's really a hoot when the state raids the pension and takes away their well earned retirement income.

There are some states where that can't happen. Among them? Wisconsin. Care to guess why Walker has it in for the teachers?

Dreamless: We pay into a pension, so we don't get social security, just for the record.

I know :) I have several friends that are public school teachers, including a few in the Chicago public schools fittingly enough. And to add my own thought to that, I find the idea that someone doesn't get Social Security just because they paid into a pension rather insane.

Adolf Oliver Nipples: with money they don't have

Maybe we should look at why the government doesn't have money. Couldn't possibly be the consequences of 30 years of stagnant wages could it?

something a significant number of kids cannot do.

Well when you have teachers spending more time worried about test results than results in the classroom...

CavalierEternal, you weren't kidding me about the gigaDerp factor of this thread. Broke my damn meter.

school days
school days
dear old golden rule days
readn and riting and rithmetic
taught to the tune of a hickory stick. 
the good old days

howdoibegin: Since every post here seems to be from once side, anyone wanna link to a balanced article on the impasse?

No. The Chicago Teacher's Union, and most teacher unions, are corrupt and celebrate mediocrity. Many are mouth breathing idiots, too.

In fact, I'll post a link that provides evidence for this claim. I mean, the movie does. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_%22Superman%22

NO ONE CARES HOW MUCH YOU PAY A DAYCARE

/Homeschooled.
At 14 I had a P.S.E.C. (That means I could have earned a Bachelor's) level Science, 16th Grade level English, 14th Grade level Social Studies, 13th Grade level Health (mandated by Montana) and an 8th Grade Mathematics score.

Public Schools are meant for compulsory societal engineering. Nothing else.

From a CPS teacher who's the son of one of my mom's friends:


WHAT'S HAPPENING IN CHICAGO RIGHT NOW:
A NOTE TO MY FORMER STUDENTS IN LOS ANGELES
by Michael Rusin, History Teacher

I think that it's important that I share a bit about what's happening in Chicago right now. For the past two days, Chicago teachers have gone on strike for a variety of issues. Unfortunately, media reporting on the lead-up to the strike itself was terribly ignorant of the major
issues--especially considering negotiations have been happening for 9 months-- and was in large part biased against the Chicago Teacher's Union. Read about this issue in the news media with a careful eye: this is a strike about the future of public education in the U.S.

Here are some of the reasons we are striking in no particular order:

1. COMPENSATION

No one wants to hear about teacher compensation. However, Chicago teachers were mandated to work a longer school day and year-- for high schools: about 20 minutes longer than the typical LA school, and about 10 more days a year. This longer day and year came one year after the school board decided not to pay teachers a 4% raise that they were CONTRACTUALLY obligated to pay, and then literally the next month turned around and started offering raises to individual teachers and schools that "volunteered" to work a longer day. Importantly, while teachers are extraordinarily upset about the way the longer day and year played out, the Union and District have almost come to an agreement over teacher compensation. If you've read about it in the news, it has been reported as a 16% raise over the course of 4 years. However, the actual raise they are offering is 2.25% a year for four years. If you do the math that adds up to 9%. Where are they getting the other 7%? No one knows, but the mayor said it to reporters, so now that's what's getting reported. However, I want to emphasize that compensation will be worked out and is not currently the primary issue in dispute.

2. TEACHER EVALUATION

Illinois passed a state law requiring [only the city of] Chicago to implement a new evaluation system. It required that the union and district work together to create it, but that if they could not come to an agreement-- the district could just implement its own final offer. This has led to an evaluation system that has some good aspects: it does a much better job of creating an objective criteria for "good" teaching. But it also has some terrible aspects. For example, the current rubrics would rate teachers on a 1 - 4 scale (with 4 being the highest). Teachers would then be rated 1 - 4 on four different components and those scores would be averaged together to create an overall evaluation score. Teachers that receive the lowest rating two years in a row not only can be fired, but they will lose their teaching license. While teachers agree that schools should have a right to fire "bad" teachers, the current rubrics state that if you score a 2 (considered basic) on all four components, then you are actually rated a 1. As a comparison, imagine that I graded an essay on 4 components and scored each component as a "C", but then made the overall essay grade a "D". Doesn't make sense, right?

Another problem with the system is that the criteria for category 4 (distinguished) teaching describe good teaching, but they are so stringent that they are almost impossible to achieve. For example, in the component on classroom management, if you have a student that disrupts class, and you deal with the disruption to get the student back on track, you are rated as a 3. You can only be rated as a 4 if you never have any students that are disruptive. This assumes that teachers have total control over all students at all times. To me, effectively dealing with disruptive students IS distinguished teaching, especially when working with students that are not intrinsically motivated. There are myriad other issues with the current proposals, but [the primary issue is that] teachers see a future where the state/district will demand that teacher pay be tied to evaluations. If we allow the district to create an evaluation system that is rigged to rate all teachers as mediocre, it will allow them to justify freezing or cutting our salaries, or even firing teachers whenever they like.

In addition, the district wants to tie teacher evaluation to student standardized testing. To do this, in my school, of the 10 additional days in the school year, 7 of them will be used to give students standardized tests. For 11th graders, this test is the practice and real ACT, so it is significant. For students in other grades, they are all practice tests. So, teachers will be evaluated on student test scores that will mean nothing to the majority of students. Also, the district asked teachers to create what they call "Performance Tasks," which are standardized tests to be given in an individual classroom. While teachers helped to develop these tasks, the district method of grading the tasks is designed to rate all teachers as mediocre. The grading system ranks students on a 0 - 3 scale (with 3 being the highest). Teachers will be evaluated based on whether or not students move up in the 0-3 scale. The US history task (which is similar to a DBQ) is graded out of 30 points such that a 28-30 counts as a 3, an 18-27 counts as a 2, a 8-17 counts as a 1, and below that is a 0. In this case, a student could score an 18 the first time he takes the test, and a 26 the next time he takes it (improving from a 60% to an 87%) but for the purposes of evaluating his teacher that student will not be considered "improved."

3. TEACHER RECALL

The school district plans to close 100 "underperforming" schools over the next several years and replace them with new schools and charters. This is nothing new in Chicago. For the past 8 years, CPS has closed over 100 schools, fired all the teachers, and re-opened them as new schools and charters. To the surprise of no one, the vast majority of the new schools and charters that were opened scored THE SAME as the previous schools. Then why close neighborhood schools and force kids to travel to different areas of the city to go to school...? To fire experienced teachers that earn a higher salary, and replace them with inexperienced teachers that make less money. Since this is the goal of these new schools, is it any surprise that they are not outperforming the old schools? The Union wants a system in place so that if the district decides to close schools, the teachers that get fired (through no fault of their own) have the first opportunity to get the new jobs that open.

4. CLASS SIZE

CPS wants to avoid putting language in a contract that limits the amount of students in a class. Instead, they want to have the right to raise class sizes if they need to. The Union wants language in a contract that limits class sizes to 28 kids per class.

5. WORKING CONDITIONS

Lots of schools in Chicago are ill equipped for the 21st century. They lack libraries, computer labs, and even air conditioning. For example, last week it was 94 degrees in my classroom. This was not an anomaly [and yes, teachers buy and bring in fans]! This happens regularly when it is close to summer time. The Union wants the district to fix these problems.

There are other issues that we are fighting for, but I need to stop there. If you read most articles about the strike you will not read in any detail about the reasons why Chicago teachers are unhappy about compensation, evaluation, and recall - so please consider this and SHARE what I wrote. We are on strike because we refuse to accept a system where the mayor can systematically lower scores on teacher evaluations in order to justify the privatization of education. 

Bhasayate: howdoibegin: Since every post here seems to be from once side, anyone wanna link to a balanced article on the impasse?

No. The Chicago Teacher's Union, and most teacher unions, are corrupt and celebrate mediocrity. Many are mouth breathing idiots, too.

In fact, I'll post a link that provides evidence for this claim. I mean, the movie does. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_%22Superman%22

No it doesn't.

I am continually amazed that farkers, who generally see that things like private prisons are a bad idea or see how obvious it is when oil companies doctor up research against environmental regulations, totally buy that privatizing schools is a good idea based on the word of corporations trying to get a piece of the public education pie.

 
The President of CTA during negotiations

oops CTU... CTA... same fat greedy people

WhyteRaven74: Maybe we should look at why the government doesn't have money. Couldn't possibly be the consequences of 30 years of stagnant wages could it?

Might be the consequence of a Congress filled with people whose educational success was measured by standardized testing instead of the ability to actually process information.