The Chicago teachers strike that has shut out 350,000 children from their schools for a week will continue at least two more days, despite a tentative deal to end the strike.
Teachers union president Karen Lewis says members want more time to study the deal. That means students will not return to their classroooms until Wednesday at the earliest. Parents across the city have scrambled to find day care for their children or were forced to stay home from their jobs.
Public school teachers in the nation's third-biggest city walked off the job last Monday in a dispute with the city school board over a number of issues, including plans for a longer school day and how to evaluate job performance.
Many teachers in Chicago and other big American cities oppose tying performance with student standardized test scores. They say many students come from the poor inner cities and that standardized testing may not be fair.