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Chicago to target absent teachers
Chicago Tribune ^ | February 4, 2006 | Tracy Dell'Angela and Darnell Little

Posted on 02/04/2006 8:54:24 PM PST by george76

$10 million spent annually by district for classroom subs...

Driven by parental concerns about teacher absenteeism, the Chicago Public Schools for the first time will start scrutinizing schools with high numbers of teachers taking sick days.

On any given school day in Chicago, an average of 1,500 teachers, about 6 percent of the teaching staff, call in sick or take a personal day, according to a Tribune analysis of teacher payroll records.

The absentee rate is highest on Fridays, when an average of 1,800 teachers don't show...

For each of the last six school years, Chicago teachers missed an average of 12 unscheduled days in their 39-week work year. Their current contract calls for 10 sick days and three personal days.

By comparison, salaried employees nationwide take an average of five sick and personal days during their 50-week work year...

Last school year, the district tapped 280,000 substitutes, with the peak coming in February, when demand for substitutes topped 47,000--or about 2,350 each day.

The demand for subs in the 2005-06 school year is even higher, up about 27 percent for the first five months of this school year compared with the same period the year before...

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: absenteeism; chicago; chicagoschools; choice; educashun; education; educrats; forgetthestudents; freedom; freemarket; freetochoose; friedman; g76; governmentschools; govwatch; highestfridays; homeschooling; hoover; hooverinstitute; liberty; miltonfriedman; nea; ponzi; private; privateschool; privateschools; prochoice; pspl; publicschools; school; schoolchoice; schools; schoolvouchers; socialsecurity; stossel; taxes; taxreform; teacher; teacherabsenteeism; teacherunion; tradeunion; union; unions; urban; urbaneducation; vouchers
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To: moog
One of my students went on vacation for two weeks and then we had a three week break. She came back for 3 days and then her family was off on vacation again for 2 more weeks. It took her about a month to get back to where she had been....The trouble is that some parents expect you to provide every assignment for the time gone.

In our district, those would have been unexcused absences, she wouldn't have been allowed to make up the work, and she'd have been denied credit for the year.

101 posted on 02/06/2006 2:34:46 PM PST by Amelia (Education exists to overcome ignorance, not validate it.)
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To: pageonetoo
Most of the "learning" these days is all about feelings, rather than facts and figures. Instead of the 3 R's, we have banana demonstrations of condoms, and lockdowns in the halls. My younger son is a teacher.

Does your younger son teach about feelings and do banana demonstrations of condoms?

102 posted on 02/06/2006 2:39:13 PM PST by Amelia (Education exists to overcome ignorance, not validate it.)
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To: Amelia
Last year I missed 4 days for jury duty, 3 days taking care of a sick family member, and 2 part days for doctor appointments I was unable to schedule after school hours. Some doctors won't schedule appointments after 3 p.m.

I'm usually pretty sympathetic on doctor and dentist appointments. My dentist has a lot of teachers as patients so he usually works around my schedule luckily. I've never been called to jury duty, though I almost think I may be too opinionated if I ever was:).

I had kind of a weird thing happen the other day. This kid in my class has a fake eye (he was born with one of his eyes that didn't form completely). The fake eye fell out and so he hurried and put on his eye patch. His mom had given explicit instructions to me not to draw attention to it and so I didn't. I called his mom (per her instructions) who came and put it back in. The kid was a trooper and acted great.

Most teachers here miss about 9-10 days or so, most for the reasons you describe, not to mention special conferences. We do have one pregnant teacher who will miss a few weeks too. I'm sure that drives the averages up. Very rarely do teachers miss here for vacations and such. Who knows about other places?

Most kids miss about 9 or 10 days too, often for sickness, vacation, appointments, etc. (though with some "other" reasons thrown in-hehe). I take it in stride because there's really not much I can do about it. One year, I had 450 absences (this is for first grade) total. One girl missed 65 days because her mom's life made General Hostpital seem like a kid's show. By some miracle of the man upstairs, she ended the year reading on grade level.

You're a trooper, keep it up.:)

103 posted on 02/06/2006 2:44:41 PM PST by moog
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To: Amelia

In our district, those would have been unexcused absences, she wouldn't have been allowed to make up the work, and she'd have been denied credit for the year.

Maybe in the secondary schools here, not sure. But then something like that can get people's hair tied up in a knot too.


104 posted on 02/06/2006 3:41:47 PM PST by moog
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To: Amelia
Does your younger son teach about feelings and do banana demonstrations of condoms?

No. He is a music teacher. He knows a lot about feelings...

The purpose of my post was intentionally biased to show my feelings bout modern education. Isn't yours?

Good teachers are a blessing. We need more of them, and less of the idiots sitting in too many classrooms, wasting our childrens futures. We need to get rid of the myriad of people whose sole purpoe is not education, but instead are trying to deal with things not within their purview, or mandate, IMHO.

It's gottne to the point where the unions have ruined our public education by requiring money to be spent on their pet theories... and the children languish!

105 posted on 02/06/2006 5:07:34 PM PST by pageonetoo (email for Celebrity Cruises (and more)- www.acorntogo.com -Acorn Travel)
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To: pageonetoo
The purpose of my post was intentionally biased to show my feelings bout modern education. Isn't yours?

I just get really tired of the condom-on-the-banana cliche. From the postings on these education threads, you'd think that's all we do in schools.

The only time I've ever had a condom in my classroom was when some goofball teenager dropped one (still the package, thankfully) out of his pocket, and I picked it up off the floor as part of the regaining control thing.

Yes, there are teachers who are immoral, lazy, incompetent, etc., just as there are good and bad, competent and incompetent in all professions.

I just don't think the broad-brush, stereotypical snap comments add anything to the discussion.

106 posted on 02/06/2006 6:27:17 PM PST by Amelia (Education exists to overcome ignorance, not validate it.)
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To: Amelia
I just don't think the broad-brush, stereotypical snap comments add anything to the discussion.

I made the point I wished to make in my "discussion". That is what we do on FreeRepublic. You made your points, and they are equally broad-brushed. What makes the difference is that you are coming from a defensive position, while I have no axe to grind, just a valid complaint.

I am a taxpayer. I see $15k per student being spend in nearby DC. I know the average quality of teachers in DC, and they are below average, overall. Utah spends a third of that amount. The problem stems from union and government interference in the education system.

Yes, there are teachers who are immoral, lazy, incompetent, etc., just as there are good and bad, competent and incompetent in all professions.

Yes, but they don't get tenure, nor do they get to dictate conditions to their employers. If they take too many sick days, they are fired. Teachers get employment benefits far beyond what most people receive, and have more time off. I think most are way over paid, for the benefit we receive from their (lack of) efforts.

Teachers are important. I wish we had more of them, and less of the dregs... and far less of the "administrative" personnel!

107 posted on 02/06/2006 6:47:17 PM PST by pageonetoo (email for Celebrity Cruises (and more)- www.acorntogo.com -Acorn Travel)
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To: Amelia; pageonetoo
I just get really tired of the condom-on-the-banana cliche. From the postings on these education threads, you'd think that's all we do in schools.

Yeah.
What about teaching tolerance and diversity, eh?
And that homosexuality is perfectly acceptable and to be celebrated.
And, God forbid you should be able to quote the Bible or teach about the Prince of Peace - or alternatives to the theory of evolution.

108 posted on 02/08/2006 12:18:39 AM PST by XR7
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To: XR7
What about teaching tolerance and diversity, eh?
And that homosexuality is perfectly acceptable and to be celebrated.
And, God forbid you should be able to quote the Bible or teach about the Prince of Peace - or alternatives to the theory of evolution.

Where exactly do you live? I suspect that either you don't live in a small town in the Bible Belt as I do, or you're basing your impressions on worst-case type stuff you've read in national papers and on FR.

109 posted on 02/08/2006 6:22:36 PM PST by Amelia (Education exists to overcome ignorance, not validate it.)
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