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The city's nearly weeklong teachers strike appeared headed toward a resolution Friday after negotiators emerged from marathon talks to say they had achieved a "framework" that could end the walkout in time for students to return to class Monday.

Chicago teachers were resigned to finishing this school week still on strike, but both sides in the labor dispute were pushing hard to reach a deal by Friday afternoon in hopes that more than 350,000 students could return to class on Monday.

Teachers unions argue that doing so ignores too many things that can affect a student’s performance, such as poverty, the ability to speak English or even a school’s lack of air conditioning. Or as said by an incredulous Dean Refakes, a physical education teacher in Chicago, ‘‘You are going to judge me on the results of the tests where there could be some extenuating circumstances that are beyond my control?’’

The public teachers' strike that has halted classwork and upset family routines across Chicago ground into a third day Wednesday with some movement reported by union and school board negotiators but no sign of an imminent deal....

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Teachers in Chicago went on strike for the first time in 25 years on Monday in a bitter dispute with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that is reverberating across the country as the issues at the core of the conflict — teacher evaluations tied to student test scores, a longer school day and other education policy changes — are being hotly debated from Hawaii to Maine.

Harlem parents have been expressing frustration at the still limited number of high-quality choices in the city’s push to add charter schools in the neighborhood.

Average scores on the ACT exam held steady for the high school class of 2012 but the results show modest progress in the number of students who appear ready for college-level work in math and science.

These days, President Obama is running as much against Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney. Having used the Medicare issue against Romney and his running mate Ryan -- who is chairman of the House Budget Committee -- Obama today zeroed in on education funding. "Putting a college education within reach for working families just doesn't seem to be a big priority for my opponent," Obama told supporters today in Columbus, Ohio.

The education reform movement, slow economies and federal grant competitions have led lawmakers to tighten the requirements for earning and keeping tenure.