Morning Bell: Chicago Roundup & Indiana’s ‘Distressed’ School Corporations

Chicago Students Returning To Class As Strike Ends – “Students prepared to return to class Wednesday after Chicago teachers voted to suspend their first strike in a quarter century, shutting 350,000 children out of school.” AP

Here’s the deal on the (potential) deal – “From our perspective, the proposed contract can be summed up as generally moving the district in the right direction — a few steps forward and a step back here and there. It does keep pace with national reforms.  On balance it is more positive than negative.” PDQ Blog

In Chicago — Phony Merit Pay is Dead, Long Live True Merit Pay – “It appears that the reforms the city were able to retain will result in a better ‘true’ merit pay system than the ‘phony’ merit pay plan they were forced to concede.” Jay P. Greene

Do Scores Go Up When Teachers Return Bonuses? – A story about a recent University of Chicago study that found a sort of ‘reverse merit pay’ for teachers does boost student test scores. NPR

State board gains new powers to help financially distressed schools, governments – “The state board that let Gary exceed Indiana’s property tax caps for three years to help straighten out the citys finances has a new mission. A reconstituted Distressed Unit Appeals Board will meet for the first time Thursday to review petitions from three central Indiana school corporations seeking to restructure their debts.” Times of Northwest Indiana