Illinois

"The teachers insisted that any evaluation has to take into account the fact that poverty and other social problems make many of their students virtually unteachable. This is true, but there's also a circular element to their arguments. The widespread poverty and social dysfunction are at least partly rooted in the failure of the last generation of schoolchildren to get adequate instruction in Chicago public schools."

"The fact is that teachers are being saddled with absurdly high expectations. Some studies have shown a correlation between student performance and teacher "effectiveness," depending how this elusive quality is measured. But there is a whole body of academic literature proving the stronger correlation between student performance and a much more important variable: family income."

"No one likes teachers strikes. But teachers are on the front line. In a time of spreading poverty and rising hunger, with harsh exploitation of the poor by landlords and payday lenders, poor children too often come to impoverished schools. Teachers take the rap for poor student performance without having the power to change what gets in the way of learning."

"Are we expecting too much of our teachers? Schools are clearly a critical piece -- no, the critical piece -- in any anti-poverty strategy, but they can't go it alone. Nor can we do school reform on the cheap. In the absence of any bold effort to alleviate the pressures of poverty, in the absence of any bold investment in educating our children, is it fair to ask that the schools -- and by default, the teachers -- bear sole responsibility for closing the economic divide? This is a question asked not only in Chicago, but in virtually every urban school district around the country."

"Whites who didn't flee the city after the schools were desegrated fled the schools. Less than 9 percent of Chicago public school kids are white. And few of those kids are not in charter or other specialized schools. The real' schools, as Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis called them a few days ago, have long since been abandoned by white folks. With overwhelming poverty in black and Latino neighborhoods, parents simply can't afford to send their kids to private schools. A whopping 87 percent of all public school students come from low-income families, says the school system."

"Are the social factors Lewis named beyond a teacher's control? Sure. But do any of those mean kids can't learn, can't excel at school? Absolutely not. A 2011 federal study showed impoverished inner-city kids in Boston, New York, Houston and other metro areas outperforming Chicago elementary students in math and science. The kids all shared similar backgrounds. Teachers in those other cities' classrooms obviously didn't think their students couldn't learn."