Over the past weekend, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools announced that results from the NWEA assessment show that 60 percent of students are performing above the national average in reading and 50 percent in math. This is an improvement since last year and the best the district has done since it began using the NWEA in 2013. 

Mayor Emanuel said that teachers deserve some credit for the improvements and that they should get a raise. He pointed to a contract that gives teachers a pay raise, but that raise is countered by a requirement to pay 7 percent more into the pension fund. 

The teacher’s union says the four-year deal would result in most teachers breaking even and some ending up behind. The union says they will strike unless certain terms are changed.