Just how far is a union willing to go to avoid accountability for results? As a teacher strike in the Evergreen Park School District in suburban Chicago passed its fourth day, there is little indication that the two sides have managed to make much progress in reaching a contract.
Among the issues that separate the two sides is a bonus program that the school board would like to carry over from last year. The Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers would apparently rather go without it.
Just how far is a union willing to go to avoid accountability for results? As a teacher strike in the Evergreen Park School District in suburban Chicago passed its fourth day, there is little indication that the two sides have managed to make much progress in reaching a contract.
Among the issues that separate the two sides is a bonus program that the school board would like to carry over from last year. The Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers would apparently rather go without it.
The bonus is based on the district-wide score on the MAP test. MAP is a computerized program that measures a student's progress, and is unique in that the software adjusts the difficulty of the questions to the student's apparent ability - get more questions wrong and the questions get easier, get more right and the questions become harder. MAP also projects how far an individual student should progress over a year based on past performance.
The district had a program that checked how many students reached that cutoff, and if enough students succeeded district wide, all teachers and staff got a modest bonus, three-quarters of a percent of base pay for reading, one-quarter of a percent for math. For a teacher earning $60,000 a year the bonus could add $600 to his or her income. Support staff received a little extra pay as well. (See item 3 from the board's most recent offer here.)
Unions have typically resisted merit pay awards, but this is one that even a militant union should be able to live with: it's district wide so there's no jealousy between those who get the bonus and those who don't, and there's no chance of favoritism. The bonus promoted teamwork (or "Solidarity", if you prefer) among staff, who rise and fall together.
Teachers in Evergreen Park were not exempt from new state rules governing teacher evaluations in Illinois; teachers will be rated and that rating will be affected by student performance. But the Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers is so resistant to merit pay that even if there's no distinction between above average and below average teachers they want no part of it. At no point is this union interested in accepting responsibility for results.
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