teachers unions

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DC Teacher's Union Agrees to Merit Pay

Hard-won deal could become model for country, but it's pricey

(Newser) - Washington DC’s school district has struck a breakthrough deal with its teacher’s union that includes a merit-based pay system and eliminates what DC’s school chancellor called “ridiculous hurdles” to firing ineffective teachers. Teacher’s unions have long opposed linking pay to classroom performance, but they agreed...

Del., Tenn. Only States to Qualify for Education Stimulus Prize

Union support helps 'Race to Top' winners

(Newser) - With $4 billion in stimulus funds up for grabs in an initiative to improve US schools, only two states of the 41 that applied scored high enough to get a piece. Delaware and Tennessee will each get $600 million, from the “Race to the Top” program, the Department of...

Fire Bad Teachers&mdash;Now
 Fire Bad Teachers—Now 



OPINION
Mar 8, 2010 2:30 PM CST

Fire Bad Teachers—Now

But for some frustrating reasons, that's almost impossible

(Newser) - The American education system has been falling behind for a while, and the reason is obvious: Teachers can't be fired. Recent studies have shown that teacher quality is one of the top predictors of a student’s success, write Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert in Newsweek . Yet education unions are...

Give Obama Some Credit for Education Reform Push

The president is taking political risks for the right reasons

(Newser) - President Obama ought to be applauded for pushing eduction reform, despite political risks. Obama's agenda is based on two ideas: That failing schools should face consequences and that teachers and principals ought to be evaluated based on student results. Each principle could benefit the system, writes Michael Gerson for the...

Rhode Island to Fire High School's Entire Staff

Fed up with teachers' union refusal to add 25 min to work day

(Newser) - Every single staff member at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island will be getting a termination notice, the district’s superintendent announced this weekend, ending a tense standoff with the teacher’s union. The teachers had refused to go along with superintendent Frances Gallo’s plan to reform the...

Teachers' Unions Strangling School Reform
 Teachers' Unions 
 Strangling School Reform 
JOE KLEIN
Jan 28, 2010 12:28 PM CST

Teachers' Unions Strangling School Reform

Obama must fight for accountability and neuter 'reactionary' lobbyists

(Newser) - New York could really use $700 million in federal Race to the Top education funding, Joe Klein writes, but it won’t get it thanks to intractable teachers’ unions. The federal funds require school choice and teacher accountability, so the powerful union lobby stymied it in the state legislature. The...

President Has Delivered Real Change in Education
 President Has Delivered
 Real Change in Education
DAVID BROOKS
Oct 23, 2009 5:35 AM CDT

President Has Delivered Real Change in Education

Race to the Top program has sparked a 'quiet revolution' in education

(Newser) - President Obama's huge success in education reform has been overlooked amid all the carping about his failure to deliver as much change as expected, writes David Brooks. The $4.3 billion Race to the Top fund Obama and Arne Duncan established has helped accelerate real reform in education and has...

Et tu, Barack? Teachers Lose Another Ally

Embattled unions don't want evaluation based on test scores

(Newser) - Teachers union members are fuming over President Obama's desire to stay the course and evaluate educators based on student test scores, McClatchy reports. Obama is even threatening to withhold California stimulus money unless the state enshrines the student-teacher performance link into law. "It takes more than the ability to...

Accusations Rarely Fell LA's Tenured Teachers
Accusations Rarely Fell
LA's Tenured Teachers
INVESTIGATION
May 3, 2009 3:59 PM CDT

Accusations Rarely Fell LA's Tenured Teachers

Review hearings costly, unreliable: principals

(Newser) - One Los Angeles high school teacher allegedly ridiculed a student for failing to commit suicide. Another kept a trove of pornography, marijuana, and cocaine at school. A third drank alcohol in front of students. None was fired, the Los Angeles Times reports in an investigation of a school district afraid...

Calif. Teachers Drop $1M to Fight Gay Marriage Ban

Broader effort by ban opponents to step up funding

(Newser) - The California teachers union donated $1 million to the fight to defeat a gay marriage ban on the ballot next month, reports the Los Angeles Times. Opponents of the ban have been dramatically outspent by supporters, and so have lately stepped up their fundraising. “For us it’s a...

Obama Runs to Center on Education, Touts Charters

Democrat will support charter schools, merit pay for teachers

(Newser) - Barack Obama will come out today in favor of merit pay for teachers, doubled federal support for charter schools, and other centrist strategies to boost American education, reports Time. In the draft of a speech he's giving in Ohio, Obama warns that teachers who fail to improve will “be...

UK Teachers Blame Parents for Bratty Kids

Pupils poor at behaving, good at manipulating adults

(Newser) - UK teachers complain that classrooms are getting tougher to control because kids throw more tantrums—and parents are to blame, the Daily Telegraph reports. A Cambridge University study says that parents are letting children indulge in video games, junk food, and TV. "Teachers described highly permissive parents who admitted...

Obama Quits School Reform Talk on Trail
Obama Quits School Reform Talk on Trail
OPINION
Mar 12, 2008 6:29 PM CDT

Obama Quits School Reform Talk on Trail

Senator may be caving to old guard where he'd been breath of fresh air

(Newser) - Barack Obama has been backing off post-partisan rhetoric on education, looking more like a stick-in-the-mud Democratic regular on schools and less like the reformer who supported test-based accountability and performance pay for teachers. The Chicagoan had bucked teachers' unions and other stodgy liberals, supporting charter schools in Illinois and mentorship...

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