Chicago Teachers Strike Links, Sunday Evening Edition

So the latest news, as of Sunday evening, is that the Chicago Teachers Union strike will continue into this upcoming week. I'd been collecting strike links since my last linkfest on the topic, holding off in the hopes that they would become moot. -- Well, no, not moot: the issues are bigger than the particular, and some of these links address the larger issues. But less pressing: links to be saved for another time. Since the strike is continuing, however, here is some more reading on the issue.

• In the last link roundup I was waiting for a longer report from Charles Pierce on the CTU strike. He's now written it.

• Paul Street, Striking Neoliberalism in Chicago (via)

• Eric Zorn on why teachers, justifiably, don't want to be judged on student test scores. (via the Facebook page of a striking teacher)

• Fran Spielman suggests some lessons that Mayor Emanuel could learn from the strike. (via ibid)

• Yet another testimony from a Chicago public school teacher

• Richard D.Kahlenberg asks the optimistic question Can the Chicago Teachers’ Strike Fix Democratic Education Reform? in.... The New Republic. Even the Conservative New Republic realizes that neoliberal education reform is a crock!

• John Cook offers a simple, radical solution to the problem. I wouldn't actually agree with this proposal -- although I do think it would solve the problem. But maybe if we start talking about it it will put some fear into the right people.

• Rich Miller points out that, at least at the start, parents are supporting the CTU. (Obviously this can change, and that's something to worry about. Still, worth knowing.)

• This is the claim which the link backs up with data:

Chicago salaries for the first several years of experience are relatively average – or even slightly above. But, they do trail off at higher levels of experience and eventually fall behind. Remember though that comparable salaries would be generally insufficient for recruiting/retaining comparable teachers in a higher need setting.

The same blog has a pre-strike post on the problem with the proposed method of teacher evaluation that (in all honesty) I haven't had time to read yet, but which looks quite interesting.

Best of luck to the CTU as the enter week two of the struggle. Solidarity!

(Incidentally, in case anyone wants to read all my link-round-ups on the strike, I just made a new tag for my blog which will (among other things) allow you to do that.)