MLB women
Patrick T. Reardon makes a strong case for admitting women to play Major League Baseball in “Who’s not on first?” (Perspective, April 4). An even stronger argument comes from Martha Ackmann’s book, “Curveball,” the story of Toni Stone, the first female pro baseball player in the Negro Leagues. Stone played sandlot ball in St. Paul, earned her way into barnstorming with the Colored Giants and joined the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953, filling a slot vacated when Hank Aaron was recruited to the Boston Braves’ Class C minor league team in Eau Claire, at the end of the 1952 season. She later played for the Kansas City Monarchs, competing in the company of Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Buck O’Neil and Satchel Paige.
Stone’s story captures truths of American history, not simply anecdotal baseball lore. It’s been nearly 60 years since Stone broke the gender barrier in the Negro Leagues. While young women still fight for opportunities in many fields, Stone’s journey can inspire their success.
And as Reardon argues, it is past time to let them compete in the major leagues.
— Nancy Slonim, Buffalo Grove
Lindbergh’s legacy
On April 15, 1926, an engineering school dropout loaded mail on a de Havilland DH-4 biplane and took off from Chicago to St. Louis. His name was Charles Lindbergh. The company for which he made that mail run would become known as American Airlines.
Ever since Lindbergh first fired up that plane, American has been a great economic and community partner for the Chicagoland area. American Airlines and its regional partner, American Eagle, support nearly 10,000 jobs and generate billions in economic activity for our region. Now American needs Chicago’s support as it works its way through restructuring.
A successful AA is critically important for the future of O’Hare International Airport. American’s ability to prosper can only happen if American is allowed to implement its business plan — a plan that calls for future growth at O’Hare.
This will be a challenging and difficult time for American and its employees. There will be plenty of critics and cynics during this process. But restructuring provides AA the opportunity to save tens of thousands of jobs that otherwise would have been lost.
Chicago is a world-class city and it depends on having world-class airlines. A successful restructuring will help American continue building on the legacy of Charles Lindbergh for another 80 years.
— Lester Crown, Chicago
Support teachers
The April 5 editorial “A report card for teachers” correctly asserts that the inclusion of multiple measures makes the new teacher evaluation system far more likely to lead to improved student learning then the current one. However, the Tribune wrongly criticizes the low percentage of student growth in the beginning of implementation. As teachers, we want to be held accountable for what our students learn, but learning is more than standardized tests.
Until Chicago Public Schools can demonstrate transparently that its student growth metrics are valid and reliable, the district is right to assign them a smaller percentage in the overall evaluation calculus. In the meantime, CPS should focus on supporting teachers with professional development and building trust in the system by incorporating teacher feedback to make improvements.
We are wary of suggestions that raise the stakes to play “gotcha” instead of truly supporting teaching and learning.
— Laura Meili and Alex Seeskin, Chicago Public Schools teachers, members of the Chicago Teachers Union teacher evaluation committee and Teach Plus Teaching Policy fellows
Educating a child
Consider the following questions:
* Since in most cases students are not held accountable for their own test scores, is it possible that some students may simply not try to do their best on standardized tests?
* Is it possible that family background and upbringing have a more powerful effect on student school performance than any teacher could ever have?
* Is it possible that serious emotional issues might cloud a student’s test performance?
* Is it possible that issues related to family poverty might affect a student’s test performance?
* Is it possible that unfamiliarity with the English language might affect a student’s test performance?
* Is it possible that administrative decisions force teachers to use materials and methods they know are ineffective?
If “yes” is the answer to any of the above questions, then using student test scores to judge teacher performance makes little sense.
Educating a child is not the same as manufacturing a product. Teachers should not be judged as if they were the sole influence on a child’s education.
— Keith Johnson, St. Charles
