Tag: Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Teachers Union Spends Big on Influence

Since the emergence of Karen Lewis as its president seven years ago, the Chicago Teachers Union has emerged as both a leading foe against systemic reform efforts in the Second…

Since the emergence of Karen Lewis as its president seven years ago, the Chicago Teachers Union has emerged as both a leading foe against systemic reform efforts in the Second City and as a key force among hardcore progressive traditionalists who thought American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten’s triangulation efforts conceded too much to reformers they oppose.

But these days, with Lewis recovering from a minor stroke and the union reeling from a string of political defeats that date back to its unsuccessful effort to oust Rahm Emanuel from City Hall, the AFT’s second-largest local would seem to have done little more than constantly call on the ouster of Forrest Claypool as the Second City district’s chief executive, complaining about the district’s proposed budget for 2018-2019, and fighting efforts to overhaul the virtually-busted defined-benefit pension it controls. But that’s not what the union’s 2014-2015 filing with the Internal Revenue Service — and that of its foundation arm — shows.

Chicago Teachers Union poured $1 million into its political action committee in 2014-2015, a four-fold increase over what it poured into the affiliate in 2013-2014. Of course, that year, the union (along with national AFT) was spending heavily on its effort to oust Emanuel as mayor, an effort that ended in the sound defeat of its candidate, Jesus (Chuy) Garcia. CTU also spent $245,285 on polling services from Celinda Lake’s eponymous firm; the outfit is the pollster of choice for the AFT and its units in the effort to maintain the Big Two teachers’ union’s influence.

The even bigger political spend came through Chicago Teachers Union’s foundation, which has become a key platform for the union’s influence-buying efforts. As with the AFT, the union thinks it can use its wallet to co-opt progressive and grassroots organizations in the Second City.

The foundation gave out $1.9 million in 2014-2015, according to its filing with the IRS, a 92 percent increase over the previous period. Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, the progressive outfit which is also a vassal of the national AFT, received $60,000 from the foundation in 2014-5015, while Action Now Institute (which organizes marches with CTU and its allies among public-sector unions) was given $35,000. The union’s foundation also gave $35,000 to Pilsen Alliance, another loud and vocal backer of CTU’s opposition to Emanuel’s regime, and tossed $5,000 to Arise Chicago, which works on organizing emigres and churches around a progressive agenda.

As you would expect, CTU Foundation poured much of its money into the Second City’s many neighborhood associations. For good reason: Since many of them lack the cash, meeting spaces, and other resources they need to conduct business (and reformers are often unwilling to help out), CTU and its foundation can leverage the grants to win them over to its opposition to systemic reform.

The foundation gave out $35,000 grants to the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Albany Park Neighborhood Council, and the westside-based Blocks Together. Reaching onto the state level, the foundation gave $35,000 to Community Organizing and Family Issues, which works on parent organizing, and gave $50,000 to the University of Illinois’ foundation, likely to support the school of labor relations on its Urbana-Champaign campus; one result can be seen a ode to the union’s 2012 strike against the Second City district written last year by the center’s resident scholars, Robert Bruno and Steven Ashby.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proven more than an able foe against the AFT local’s opposition to systemic reform.

The union foundation’s biggest donations in 2014-2015 were to its sister unit, the Children & Teachers’ Foundation of Chicago Teachers Union (to the tune of $250,000) and to the Du Sable Museum of African American History ($100,000). Another $100,000 went to Network for Public Education, the outfit headed up by once-respectable education historian (and Lewis pal) Diane Ravitch; that donation is more than the union gave individually to any of the neighborhood associations from which it buys alliances, reminding all of us that one of Lewis’ long-term goals is to gain national influence over the direction of teachers’ unions and public-sector labor.

None of these donations took a lot out of CTU Foundation. It generated $43.1 million in 2014-2015, a 43-fold increase over the previous year, likely from the sale of more real estate and investments. It ended up with a surplus of $41.1 million, a 161-fold increase over the previous year. With some $54 million on the books (three times asset levels in 2013-2014), the foundation will have plenty of cash from which the union can use for influence-buying for years to come.

As for the parent union itself? It generated $26.6 million in 2014-2015, a slight decrease over levels during the previous year. This included $2.7 million from the AFT’s state affiliate as well as $229,431 from AFT national itself. [National AFT reports that it gave $499,983 to CTU and its political action committee that year as part of its big spend in support of CTU’s unsuccessful effort to oust Emanuel.]

The union’s expenses of $30.7 million in 2014-2015 was 10 percent higher than in the previous period. As a result of the increased expenses, the union lost $821,421 versus a surplus of $2.3 million in 2013-2014. One of the more-curious spends: Some $179,449 with Robin Potter & Associates, a law firm founded by the mother of Jackson Potter, a longtime ally of Lewis who cofounded the CORE coalition that dominates CTU (and to which Lewis belongs). Potter himself is a staff coordinator for the union. The firm itself came on to the vendor rolls soon after Lewis took control of the union. Keeping it in the family, I guess.

Of course, Lewis, the union’s president (who we here hope is recovering from her illness and keep her in our prayers), made sure she got paid real nice. She collected $145,812 from the union in 2014-2015, slightly less than she was paid the year before. Still, she is still among the top five percent of wage earners in the United States. Add in the $62,207 Lewis collected from the AFT’s Illinois Federation of Teachers in 2015 (she has since collected $68,590 from the affiliate in 2016) and the $7,664 she got from the national AFT that year (she’s collected $1,314 from national since then) and she was compensated to the tune of $215,683 in 2014-2015, slightly less than Emanuel’s salary of $216,210.

[Let’s also note that none of these numbers include any salary she may still collect from Chicago’s traditional school district even though she is no longer working in the classroom. Add that in and Lewis is likely earning nearly $300,000 a year.]

The rest of Chicago Teachers leadership also did well. Lewis’ number two, Jesse Sharkey, collected $97,994 that year while number three Michael Brunson was paid $134,712 in the same period. The staff also did well. Lynn Cherkasky-Davis, who handles teacher professional development for the union (which, oddly enough, is under the union’s foundation), picked up $254,219, while Sara Eschevarria, the union’s top organizer, was paid $167,787. Michael Baldwin, the union’s finance director, collected $151,516 for his work.

It’s good to work for the teachers’ union, especially in a city in which the median household income is $55,775 a year. Of course, for the rank-and-file, which merely got a 4.5 percent increase over the next two years as part of a contract negotiated last year, they have to wonder again what are they getting for their money.

Of course, you can peruse CTU’s IRS filing and that of the foundation for yourself. Also check out Dropout Nation‘s Teachers Union Money Report, for this and previous reports on NEA and AFT affiliate spending.

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Read: What is NAEP? Edition


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What is happening today in the dropout nation — or what has been happening while your editor has been on the road: Amid last week’s woeful responses to the reading…

The senseless deaths of youth must stop. It's just that simple.

What is happening today in the dropout nation — or what has been happening while your editor has been on the road:

  1. Amid last week’s woeful responses to the reading test results from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Education Sector’s Chad Alderman offers a different perspective. He notes that if you break down the results — and realize that the underlying sampling now includes more blacks and Latinos (in order to better represent the nation), one will see some real progress. Black 4th-graders, for example, scored 23 points higher than fellow students in the same grade four years ago. This is all good. But a more-longitudinal assessment — showing progress among students between being in 4th and 8th grade — would certainly offer more perspective on the nation’s academic progress.
  2. Meanwhile the Bluegrass Institute’s Richard Innes notes that Kentucky’s NAEP performance may seem better than that of California, but appearances are deceiving. Especially when Kentucky’s education officials suppresses 46 percent of its English Language Learners and special ed students. Declares Innes: “only two other states in the entire country played the exclusion game harder.”
  3. Those two states, according to Dropout Nation‘s analysis: Maryland and Tennessee , which respectively excluded 57 percent and 55 percent of their ELL and Special Ed students. Which may explain why Maryland, in particular, is among the most-stubborn in resisting school reform efforts (and always seem to be the best-performing state in the union). New Jersey, which excludes 42 percent of ELL and Special Ed students, is no better, and neither is Delaware (it excludes 42 percent of ELL and Special Ed students); North Dakota excluded 44 percent of students while Ohio excluded 40 percent of its ELL and Special Ed students from NAEP. Certainly this dishonor role deserves much in the way of scorn; it also offers more ammunition to opponents of Common Core State Standards and other attempts at putting the nation under one national curricula standard.
  4. Speaking of scorn, two more deserving of it are the American Federation of Teachers’ New York City local and the Big Apple branch of the NAACP. They succeeded in convincing one judge to halt the shutdown of 19 of the city’s worst-performing schools and their replacement with higher-quality options. As Chancellor Joel Klein rightly notes: ““My view is that you don’t send students to failing schools, schools that can’t provide them what they need. The sad thing is that the union would bring a lawsuit to resign kids to failing schools in order to save jobs. And ultimately, that is what this is about.” Exactly. Shame on the two groups and those who support their position.
  5. Tom Vander Ark offers some thoughts on how to develop high-quality urban schools through a portfolio approach.
  6. Meanwhile in Chicago, the Black Star Project is looking for 1,000 men to help mentor the city’s children and keep them out of violence. Given that 143 Chicago Public School students have been shot during the 2009-2010 school year (and 20 slain), the need for adults to take to the schools and take action is greater than ever. Do your part.

Check out this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, this time a part two of my focus steps needed to improve teacher quality. More will be coming down the pipe later this week.

And finally, to start off your Monday, here’s a little Tower of Power. Enjoy.


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Do You Know Where They’re Going To? Boys Off Track in Chicago Public Schools


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A Chicago Public Schools freshman performing well academically and with good attendance is more likely to gain the credits needed to be promoted to the next grade. This in turn,…

Source: Consortium on Chicago School Research

A Chicago Public Schools freshman performing well academically and with good attendance is more likely to gain the credits needed to be promoted to the next grade. This in turn, means that they will graduate; 81 percent of Chicago freshmen promoted on time made it to graduation in four years while just three in 10 students graduated, according to the Consortium on Chicago School Research.

Source: Consortium on Chicago School Research

On-time graduation rarely happens in Chicago Public Schools. A mere 64 percent of the freshmen who made up the district’s Class of 2012 had attained the credits needed for promotion to the next grade. It is even worse for the district’s young men, especially the ones attending George Washington High School, one of the district’s poor-performing schools. Just 57 percent of male freshmen were on the path to graduation versus 71 percent of their female classmates. At George Washington, only 48 percent of freshmen males were on path to graduation; 73 percent of females were likely to graduate on time.

The problems are longstanding. Seven years ago, just 49 percent of freshmen males attending Washington were on the path to graduating on time. More importantly, the problems begin long before children reach high school. The dropout crisis begins in elementary school with poor academic instruction along with the lack of focus on addressing deficiencies in reading. An overdiagnosis of learning disabilities — generated in part by the tendency of boys to be boisterous along with a lack of strong parental discipline — means that young boys are relegated to special ed without their issues being addressed through other means. By the time the boys are in sixth grade, the problems have festered. After all, a student failing in math and missing more than 10 days of school a year has just a one-in-six chance of graduating from high school.

These stats can be seen throughout the nation. Over a period of four years, the enrollment of males versus females can reverse, from majority young men to majority female by senior year. The impact of this can be seen on America’s college campuses where young women are now outnumbering men — and in society at large.

All the young men — black, white, Latino, rich or poor — need to graduate. Addressing these academic failures will not only stem the dropout crisis, but also improve the lives of young women and society overall.

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Dropout Nation on Twitter for Feb. 13


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Keep up with up-to-the-minute happenings by subscribing to Dropout Nation’s Twtter feed. Here are some of yesterday’s tweets: RT @Eduflack: Bill would strip powers from local school councils This suggests…

Keep up with up-to-the-minute happenings by subscribing to Dropout Nation’s Twtter feed. Here are some of yesterday’s tweets:

  • RT @Eduflack: Bill would strip powers from local school councils This suggests that perhaps Chicago should go all… #
  • charter or fully consolidate mayoral control. #
  • RT @oklahomanews: In OK, plan may expand #charterschools Mayors of Tulsa, OK City/indian tribes may get auth. #edreform #
  • RT @bigswifty: To testing critics who criticize it on basis of some cheating http://nyti.ms/96HsJj Do we ban grades 2? #
  • @bigswifty The answer to your question is “yes.” It’s not as if #FairTest care about rigor, standards or accountability. in reply to bigswifty #
  • @KevinCarey focuses on Trinity Washington University and its mission of serving poor black/minority women on a modest budget #highered #
  • U.S. News & World Report also gets a mention in Carey’s post. Just not a positive one. #
  • RT @meristemstudio: RT @UrbanEducation: I invite ALL educators, parents to participate in #BlackEd on Thurs. @9pm. #edreform #

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Voices of the Dropout Nation: Walter Dozier On Education and Violence


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One man’s call for using education to end violence.

Killing our seeds before they grow: Black America must stop this.

Killing our seeds before they grow: Black America must stop this.

As an applied anthropologist in the D.C. suburb of Prince George’s County, Walter Dozier has spent much of his time addressing the high levels of underachievement and crime that have plagued that community’s neighborhoods. But after watching the spate of teen-on-teeen murders that have bloodied Chicago’s streets, Dozier wonders whether black communities in that city — and elsewhere — are ready to embrace education as the solution to ending such carnage. Here are his thoughts (thanks to Phillip Jackson of the Black Star Project):

It has been two months since the murder and funeral of Chicago teenager Derrion Albert. His violent death sparked a national outrage and generated intense international media attention. Albert is one of thousands of young black males whose loss of life has gone largely unchecked within the black community. Yet black youth violence alarm bells have been sounding for decades.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, homicide is the leading cause of death for the majority of black Americans between the ages of 10 and 24 years old. Further, research by Northeastern University shows that the number of homicides involving black male youth as perpetrators increased 43 percent between 2002 and 2007. Just as important, the number of black male youth involved as homicide victims increased 31 percent.For gun killings, the increase was even greater with a 54 percent increase for young black male victims and 47 percent increase for young black male perpetrators.

In Chicago, almost 70 students have been murdered in black communities, since the beginning of the 2007 school year. But this is not just a Chicago problem Two weeks after Albert’s death, in the Washington D.C. area, where I live, seventeen year-old Kenyetta D. Nicholson-Stanley was killed during an exchange of gunfire at the Edgewood Terrace housing complex while she sat on a bench. A week later, 15-year-old Davonta Artis and 18-year-old Daquan Tibbs, were gunned down not far away from where Nicholson-Stanley was killed. Artis was on his way home from a local middle school where he was reportedly an A-student. Three other teens were also wounded in what community members called a war-like shootout between rival neighborhood gangs.

In all three incidents, law enforcement officials and family members publicly pleaded for community assistance in identifying the attackers so they apprehended and brought to justice. In all three incidents police struggled to get witness support as community members refused to take a stand against the epidemic violence – in their own communities. Had it not been for the technological advances in visual media – cell phone cameras — Albert’s killers might still be unidentified.

So, with a generation of black youths attending candlelight vigils as a cultural way of life and make shift memorials unexceptional landmarks throughout many black communities, there is a disquieting absence of community call-to-action, a disquieting lack of effort to address the killing of young black males – unless the assailant is white. Then the call to unify against racism is unyielding.

Some community watchers say the complacency is a problematical mix of family breakdown and an engrained sense of hopelessness fueling violent episodes of self hatred. Still others cite a concentrated and misdirected focus on materialism and consumerism rather than on educational excellence. Education advocates say the failure to provide black children with a 21st Century education will only increase the rate of terror within black communities. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 90 percent of new high-growth, high-wage jobs will require some level of postsecondary education.

Children without a quality high school education are hopelessly destined to the lowest possible quality of life imaginable in the United States. According to a recent report by Columbia University’s Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education at Teachers College, reducing the high school dropout rate in half would yield $45 billion annually in new federal tax revenues or cost savings.

So we have now reached the “what now?” stage of the Derrion Albert tragedy. The media attention is fading, the family will be left to grieve alone and young black males continue to terrorize our communities while self-annihilating each other. The status quo approach to solving problems is not, and has not worked for years. Since the arrested development of thousands of young black males can no longer be singularly attributed to racism, new community survival strategies are critical to our survival. Blaming and complaining are not strategies; they are excuses. It is now time for a moratorium on excuses and a fundamental shift in thinking and action.

The problems of under-and unemployment are clearly related to educational deficits and too many black youths are turning to the criminal enterprise. In majority black communities across the nations the governance of school systems has rested in the hands of black leadership for years. Yet, the quality and direction of education remains in question as political, faith-based, business and community leaders are for the most part hopelessly uninvolved, uninformed and uncommitted to saving our children.

Our communities have gotten too comfortable with violence and underachievement.Without a committed and sustained effort to educate our children and rebuild our families, the permanent destruction of the black community is simply a matter of time.

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Voices of the Dropout Nation: Youth Violence Isn’t Just a Chicago Concern


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Phillip Jackson on youth violence.

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As head of the Black Star Project, Phillip Jackson is often fighting a lonely battle to keep America’s black children in school and out of prison and trouble. These days, in his hometown of Chicago, it has become even harder. The city where “diploma dreams go to die”, has also seen hundreds of young students die inside and out of its public schools. In this piece, Jackson offers his own solutions for stemming youth violence for the long run.

Youth violence is a national issue. Since we began the Iraq war in 2003, an estimated 32,000 American youths lost their lives to violence — far more than the 4,349 U.S. soldiers who died in battle. Yet the United States treats youth violence as a nuisance, not as a war it wants to win.

We cannot fix the problems of children or schools in America without first fixing the problems of the adults in their lives and of the communities in which the children live. Anything else is pretending to fix the problem and is a community disservice!

So far, the most popular approaches to address youth violence have not made any significant nor long-term impact. More police merely militarizes and destabilizes communities. The other offering that haven’t worked includes: Stiffer sentencing for young offenders; direct intervention at the point of impending violence; vigils, peace rallies and peace marches through communities;  and prayers without concrete, supportive actions.

Meanwhile there are effective approaches cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that have been shown to reduce youth violence over time and produce long-term, lasting, positive results. Build strong families and communities and employ good parents as the chief agents to reduce youth violence. Teach young children ways to resolve conflict peacefully. Provide mentors to serve as guides and role models for positive youth behavior. Reduce social and economic causes of violence in young people’s environments. And ensure spiritual or character-based training for young children and reinforce that training throughout their early teen years.

In Chicago, the youth, themselves, are asking for more mentors, more parent involvement in their lives and more job and economic opportunities. Their requests parallel CDC’s recommendations to reduce violence. But these requests – and the solutions – are ignored. While government attempts to study, analyze and understand youth violence, the Black Star Project is implementing workable solutions in Chicago — ground zero for the war against youth violence.

Each day, the Black Star Project has 250 male and female volunteers who mentor youth on school days.  Since 1996, the Black Star Project has provided classroom-based mentoring to nearly 200,000 Chicago-area students. We also have 100 Peace Walkers who patrolled high-risk neighborhoods in Chicago this summer; 70 Parent University professors who have taught thousands of parents to be great parents since 2004 and 25 college coaches who have helped prepare thousands of elementary school students for college.

Through our Million Father March 2009, we organized 625,000 fathers in 500 cities across America to take their children back to school on the first day. These are the kinds of “armies of hope” that the federal government needs to win this war.

If we continue to address this problem with the current lack of resolve, including misdirected, piece-meal efforts with too-few resources — just as we lost the war in Vietnam, then we are destined for a resounding defeat in the war against youth violence on the streets of America.

The effort to eliminate youth violence commands a national response that includes national resources, a national infrastructure and national leadership. This effort must be comprehensive and coordinated across foundation, government, faith-based and community-based organizational lines. Many organizations such as The Black Star Project are working to restore order in chaotic and violence-ridden neighborhoods.  Our efforts are essential to eliminate violence, restore hope and reduce the need for militarizing our many troubled communities.

Our war to save the minds and spirits of our children is the most important war that America will ever fight.  Saving our children is difficult because of the “No Snitching” code-of-silence among our American youth, which has proved devastating and unacceptable in this war.  Yet our government’s “No Support” policy for organizations that work for long-term solutions to fix this problem of youth violence in American communities is inexcusable.  In fact, “No Support” is far, far worse than “No Snitching,” and our children know it!

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