Excerpt
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): We have heard much about education reform in recent years, and again in the political conventions that just ended. In Chicago, the issue and fight has spilled into the streets.
Hours after a midnight deadline passed, Chicago public school teachers headed not for the classroom, but for the picket lines.
It was the first time in 25 years that teachers have struck the nation's third largest school system and it came after five months of negotiations over pay and health benefits and over tying teacher performance to student results on standardized tests.
Late last night, the talks involving 26,000 teachers and support staff broke down.
KAREN LEWIS, Chicago Teachers Union: This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided. We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve.
COMMENT: I've always thought that the Standardized Test, AS USED TODAY, is the wrong approach to evaluating schools or teachers. As applied today it is the prime mover in schools 'teaching to the test' rather than teaching to improve education of students. No teacher OR school should be 'failed' if there is any improvement in the scores, even if the score is not up to what is now expected. The key requisite should be improvement.
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