Education, Teacher | featured news

The confrontation between Chicago teachers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel escalated on Sunday when their union extended a strike and the mayor said he would go to court to block the walkout, risking more friction within President Barack Obama's political coalition as the November 6 election nears.

Thousands of striking Chicago teachers will march again on Saturday to keep the pressure on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to wrap up an agreement with their union so they can end a strike that has closed the nation's third largest school district for a week.

The city's nearly weeklong teachers strike appeared headed toward a resolution Friday after negotiators emerged from marathon talks to say they had achieved a "framework" that could end the walkout in time for students to return to class Monday.

Chicago teachers were resigned to finishing this school week still on strike, but both sides in the labor dispute were pushing hard to reach a deal by Friday afternoon in hopes that more than 350,000 students could return to class on Monday.

Teachers unions argue that doing so ignores too many things that can affect a student’s performance, such as poverty, the ability to speak English or even a school’s lack of air conditioning. Or as said by an incredulous Dean Refakes, a physical education teacher in Chicago, ‘‘You are going to judge me on the results of the tests where there could be some extenuating circumstances that are beyond my control?’’

The public teachers' strike that has halted classwork and upset family routines across Chicago ground into a third day Wednesday with some movement reported by union and school board negotiators but no sign of an imminent deal....

Teachers in Chicago went on strike for the first time in 25 years on Monday in a bitter dispute with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that is reverberating across the country as the issues at the core of the conflict — teacher evaluations tied to student test scores, a longer school day and other education policy changes — are being hotly debated from Hawaii to Maine.

The education reform movement, slow economies and federal grant competitions have led lawmakers to tighten the requirements for earning and keeping tenure.

A former Texas high school teacher was convicted Friday after having sex with five 18-year-old students at her home. It took the jury less than an hour to conclude that Brittni Nicole Colleps, 28, of Arlington, was guilty of 16 counts of having an inappropriate relationship between a student and teacher. The second-degree felony is punishable by two to 20 years in prison per count.

A former Texas high school English teacher and mother of three is on trial, accused of having sex with five male students. The evidence against Brittni Colleps, 28, includes cell phone video that allegedly shows group sex between her and four students at her home. Prosecutors say it happened while her children and husband, who is an Army specialist stationed out-of-state, were away. The graphic video was shown to the jury this week.