Rauner email: Half of CPS teachers 'virtually illiterate'

www.chicagotribune.com...

Gov. Bruce Rauner once told some of Chicago's wealthiest and most influential civic leaders that half of Chicago Public Schools' teachers "are virtually illiterate" and half of the city's principals are "incompetent," according to emails Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration released Thursday under a court order.

Rauner made the assertion five years ago when he was a wealthy private equity executive and an active participant in Chicago school reform. His emails were part of a discussion with affluent education reform activists connected to the nonprofit Chicago Public Education Fund, including Penny Pritzker, now U.S. commerce secretary; billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin; Chicago investment executive Mellody Hobson; and Helen Zell, wife of billionaire real estate magnate Sam Zell.

"Teacher evaluation is critically important, but in a massive bureaucracy with a hostile union, where 50% of principals are managerially incompetent and half of teachers are virtually illiterate, a complete multi-dimensional evaluation system with huge subjectivity in it will be attacked, manipulated and marginalized — the status quo will prevail," Rauner wrote in a December 2011 email arguing for a strong system of teacher and principal evaluations in the district. "It's much more critical that we develop a consistent, rigorous, objective, understandable measure and reporting system for student growth upon which all further evaluation of performance will depend."

It would appear that this is a major issue with troubled schools in Chicago. I found this article and felt the need to share it, because time and time again, the wrong people are getting blamed for failing schools. When you have teachers who cannot teach effectively, it will produce students who will also not learn effectively, and this only sets them up for failure down the road.

He was right.

Good to see this exposed.

What does "virtually illiterate" even mean? Can they not read or write? No, that would be "literally illiterate". That's such an ambiguous term, it could mean any number of things if anything at all.

I wonder what race the illiterate teachers are? Or is this BS? Don't you need schooling to be a teacher?

This ..... says it all.
www.youtube.com...

Cool I can teach MATH!
Don't even know my times tables...

originally posted by: tinner07
I wonder what race the illiterate teachers are? Or is this BS? Don't you need schooling to be a teacher?

You do, but when your degree is a gift because the school dares not withhold it for fear of being accused of discrimination, even when the classes are dumbed down to less than a high school level, that's where you get this situation. Schools of "Education" are just about at the lowest ring of the ladder insofar as academic rigor is concerned. That's not to say there are not many intelligent, motivated teachers that come out of those schools, but it's easy to not be, especially if you are in a "protected class." The same goes for promotions in districts that have been run the same way for decades.

There's another unrelated issue here that may be part of this claim of "virtually illiterate," and that is what are the criteria for a career first or second grade teacher? How "literate" do they have to be? Our state developed a "teacher test" that freaked out the second grade teachers who had been talking second grade-ese for a couple of decades. I think it is fair to factor that issue in. I remember my mother being incensed that my first grade teacher, in 1955,, used the word "ain't" in her speech.

You want the Bottom Line? Basically it's a district of dummies teaching dummies. It doesn't matter what really caused this. The liberal point of view would have it that it is caused by poverty and discrimination, and you know what? That's probably true for the most part. But when you think about it, who but a dummy would want to teach there? You can't blame people for opting out. But the kids have no choice.

This is one city out of the nation, hardly relevant.

originally posted by: CB328
This is one city out of the nation, hardly relevant.

Unfortunately, it is typical of any big city. It is by no means unique.

originally posted by: CB328
This is one city out of the nation, hardly relevant.

I think it is relevant in a city with the worst crime rate. Do you think the ones doing the killing are educated? If they were educated, would they be doing all the killing? And this is hardly one city. The article is about one city yes.

I imagine that they have to keep their hiring standards low or they wouldn`t be able to find anyone to teach there.
They probably only have 1 criteria for being hired, if you`re willing to take the job, you`re hired.

originally posted by: CB328
This is one city out of the nation, hardly relevant.

You win ignorant comment of the week...

not a surprise.

I recently overheard a 16 year old girl I know to be a straight A student ask her dad where the pacific ocean was

our system is designed to produce short term memory results, not actual learning

originally posted by: CB328
This is one city out of the nation, hardly relevant.

Hardly relevant to what? What isn't relevant? The title of the thread is "Half of CPS teachers 'virtually illiterate'..." In case you didn't understand, CPS = Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago's an example of what unchecked rampant corruption and crime which goes all the way from the bottom to the top of society of a social cesspool. Greed is theme, and the pivotal point everything there revolves around. Throwing more money at it will only perpetuate the problems. It's time for everyone there to get involved to try and conquer the monsters but unfortunately it's a daunting task to turn things around, especially since opposition to the status quo goes against the majority, and it's hard to see the positive in doing so.

I went to Chicago public schools when I was young. Fortunately for me I got out and went to much better schools in the suburbs before the damage was irreparable.

I have seen first hand how bad some teachers are. Of course there are good teachers too. I am in no way saying otherwise. But one bad teacher does not equate to one failed student. It equates to thousands. And that is a serious problem that will never be resolved as long as the union exists.

I remember several years ago, when some teachers were picketing for a salary increase, there were CPS teachers with misspelled signs marching back and forth in front of city hall. It was pathetic.

I took algebra one year. The teacher would come in with a doughnut in each hand, take roll, and leave. She would come back five minutes before class ended, with a doughnut in each hand, take roll again to see who was still there, and wait for the next class to come in. (I had algebra first period.) This went on all semester. She gained 300 pounds and more than 90% of her class failed, including me. I took six semesters of algebra, with a different teacher, during summer school in 2 1/2 weeks and scored a cumulative 99.8% on the mid-term and final exams. It wasn't the students...

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

There have been pictures from teachers' protests before of teachers marching with mispelled hand lettered signs.

originally posted by: CB328
This is one city out of the nation, hardly relevant.

It's one of the largest cities in the nation. That means a lot of kids are trapped in those schools getting crap for education. If the teacher is unable to read, write and spell adequately, what do you think the kid is going to come out of that school being able to do?

And just because it's "one city" that makes it acceptable and not a huge problem?

Oh, well, we're just pretty much screwing over all the kids in one city, but it's just those kids, so no biggie?

What kind of attitude is that to have?

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
Cool I can teach MATH!
Don't even know my times tables...

We had a science teacher that showed up during a time when they said we really needed teachers more than qualifications...she once taught us that eclipses occurred when the Sun came between the Earth and the Moon.