Chicago schools

From: christina beacock (christina.beacock@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Jun 14 2001 - 09:10:28 PDT


I forwarded Helena's original post to a friend of mine
who is a radical Chicago teacher. Here is her response
with lots more info about PACT and the teachers'
campaign.

Hope it is of interest.

Bruce Robinson
****** Forwarded Message Follows *******

AWL INTERNAL - http://www.workersliberty.org

Bruce et. al. :
May the circle be unbroken! Yes, I am part of the PACT slate and am on the
incoming executive board.

PACT would love to claim credit for Vallas and Chico leaving - but it's a
little more complicated. They face the winding down of the Chicago miracle.
They've shoved out the maximum kids possible, done all the maneuvers they
can to raise test scores, and people predict it will only get worse from
now. They both have promising careers they don't want to ruin.
Besides confronting a new combative leadership of the union, they face the
winding down of the Chicago miracle. They've shoved out the maximum kids
possible, done all the maneuvers they can to raise test scores, and people
predict it will only get worse from now. They both have promising careers
they don't want to ruin.And Helena is dead right -the reason this is
expensive is, they're confronting a new combative leadership of the union.

There are two, not one, overlapping poles of opposition, which this time
brought down Tom Reese, the CTU president (AFT affiliate, for those who keep
track), Gery Chico, president of the school board and Paul Vallas, the CEO
 yes, Chief Executive Officer - nicely corporate, no?)
The first is PACT, Debra Lynch Walsh president. PACT's program opposes
testing, but the main reason for our support, and the main thing we stressed
in the campaign was opposition to the teacher-abuse part of the Fordist
model: reconstituting schools ( fire everyone, reapply for your old job),
"accountability", putting schools on probation because of their reading
scores ( the "product's" statistical control"), and principal's power to
discipline and fire teachers without due process. Teachers are also furious
that the union leadership bought in totally to the "interest bargaining"
model, did nothing to oppose the NEW state law which bans teachers strikes,
and got a pitiful raise for a four 1/2 year contract signed in '98- money.

PACT ran on lowering class size, raising teachers' and aides' pay, freeze
and reduce dues, no officers' salary higher than the highest-paid teacher,
and respect for teachers -- real participation in school reform.

The second, parallel and connected pole is coalesced around Substance, which
printed copies of a NEW Chicagowide standardized test (CASE) introduced by
Vallas to measure teacher performance CLASS -by CLASS, and around
parent/student community opposition around PURE (Parents United for
Responsible Education)to high-stakes testing- using IOWA and TAP to decide
promotion. The editor George Schmidt was fired from his teaching job for
printing the CASE test (and expelled form the union for not paying dues
while he was fired!). The paper focussed since then more and more on Chicago
and nationwide opposition to testing. One major factor in the teacher vote
was massive free distribution of Substance, featuring PACT, to every Chicago
school board employee.

The real fun begins now. PACT opposed all the RESULTS of the corporatist
policy. Can we take on the whole strategy? Can we avoid getting sucked in to
the collaboration model? Can PACT organize a solid base, with a clear stand
on testing, HOW to oppose "reconstitution" , now called intervention, taking
on the state law which bans CHICAGO teachers from striking, peer review,
union democracy? Can it keep its disparate supporters together and make
connections to causes beyond wages, to solidarity with the rest of the labor
movement, teachers in the rest of the national union? Stay tuned......

And one thing we hope to do, is invite Worthen in to do labor education,
help us set it up.
Below is the P.A.C.T. platform. For some more articles, see the website,
http://www.ctupact.com/
Write me for more. I want to get this off before I get distracted by a
hundred other tasks . Good hunting, Bruce!
Tina B
If you can talk, you can sing; if you can walk you can dance.
(773)509-1399

P.A.C.T. PLATFORM
q Wage a real fight against Vallas' anti-teacher policies such as
reengineering, intervention and reconstitution.
q Mobilize our membership to defend teachers unfairly fired by board
policies.
q Lead a fight, and public educational campaign against unfair testing,
and for the rights of teaching professionals to determine promotion.
 q Strongly advocate and defend the teachers of the Chicago Public
Schools who teach under adverse and difficult conditions.
q Negotiate for competitive pay and working conditions, as a key
solution to the problem of teacher shortages.
q Use the pages of the Union Teacher to discuss important issues facing
teachers.
q Practice genuine union democracy-in House of Delegates meetings,
union elections, and on committees.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Robinson <bruce.rob@btinternet.com>
To: AWL INTERNAL <AWLINT@listbot.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 12:43 PM
Subject: [WL] Fw: Chicago schools

> AWL INTERNAL - http://www.workersliberty.org
>
> This comes from a list mainly focussed on psychology and education. Sounds
relevant for the UK and interesting for our NUT cdes. Tina, have you been
involved in PACT? Is this an accurate description of what happened? The
> author is a labor educator.
>
> Bruce
> > ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Helena Worthen" <hworthen@igc.org>
> To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Sent: 13 June 2001 15:08
> Subject: Chicago schools
>
> > > Dear xmca people:
> > > Yes, Paul Vallas, Superintendent of Chicago school, quit. So did the
head of the Board of Education, Chico. But it wasn't just because the test
scores were drooping. It was because there was organized resistance to the
implementation
> > of the education plan of which the test scores were the publicity
vehicle. Another activity system expanding, you might say.
> >Chicago Mayor Daley (plus Chico plus Vallas) set up what was supposed to
bcome "the Chicago miracle," a whammy of testing and "intervention" and
"reconstitution" of the public schools. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)
> > president during this period was Tom Reece, who went along with the
testing binge.
> > In reaction, a caucus of union reformers ran against Reece. The
opposition group is called PACT. The central issue for PACT was the use of
massive testing to determine the whole range of possibilities of what goes
into a school. PACT ran against Reece back in the previous election. At
that time they got 43% of the vote, then gained strength and maintained a
visible opposition between elections, and this time around (while Reece et
al appeared to be unconcerned) they ran again and won with 57% of the vote.
Exit polls from the Mary 18 election (in whch 22,788 ballots were cast out
of 34,000 members) reported a solid win for PACT. The next day in the
Chicago Trib Chico's retirement was announced. Then Vallas quit. The new
head of the Board of Education is apparently a "go-along-get-along guy" who
currently runs the park department! We'll see!>
> > So it wasn't that Vallas, reflecting on the failure of the tests to
produce miracles, decided to get another job. It was that years of
organizing work resulted in a big win where it counts -- in the union,
producing a much more militant leadership that campaigned on a platform that
includes resisting the testing mania. The change in union leadership
resulted in heads rolling at City Hall. Yes, it was about testing. But it
was also about organizing and organizational structure and process -- and
activity systems and "learning by expanding."
> > I apologize for abstaining from the LBE discussion so far. I got iced by
the interactions around Marxism and nature. I've been reading the book,
which is wonderful but very very dense. I'm in the middle of Chapter 4.
> Helena Worthen
> >
> > Mike Cole wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Phillip-- Yes, the noose is being tightened around our children in
the name of their futures.
> > > Yesterday the head of Chicago schools who implemented a lot of quality
control measures, and totally scripted teaching, gave up gbecause the early
gains leveled off. The attempt to create good education through Fordist
measures will fail over and over and over again, if not at grade 2 then at
grade 4 or 5 or 6.
> > > ______________________________________________________________________
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