YA THINK? Striking Chicago Teachers Flunk Sympathy Test. “Numerous studies have shown that top-quality teachers are the single most important factor in improving education. But for too many years in too many places, teacher evaluations have been a meaningless shambles. Harried principals conduct pre-arranged ‘drive-by’ observations. Teachers resist using student achievement on standardized tests to rate them. School boards and legislators, cowed by powerful unions, leave the flawed system in place. . . . According to a 2009 study, less than one-half of 1% of its teachers were rated unsatisfactory; 94% were rated superior or excellent. Yet with all these supposedly fabulous teachers, just 60.6% of its students graduated, a dismal percentage that is in line with New York and Los Angeles. On national reading and math tests, Chicago’s fourth- and eighth-graders lagged behind the national average and behind the average even for large urban districts.”