Can a teachers' union successfully be both a hardball-playing defender of its rights and a collaborative force for the common good? It is both a question of philosophy and, increasingly, one of policy direction for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), whose biennial convention in Detroit showed delegates grappling with the tension between…

Faced with arguably the biggest crisis of its 155-year history--the loss of at least 100,000 full-time members--the nation's largest union plans to respond by organizing thousands of new members and transforming itself into an even more politically potent force. Whether the National Education Association (NEA) can accomplish those goals while…

Gov. Scott Walker's sweeping proposal to scale back collective bargaining rights for most public employees in Wisconsin has sparked a rancorous standoff with teachers across the state--and fueled speculation about whether similar plans will gain traction in other parts of the country. But as massive demonstrations played out in Madison--an…

Massive protests have been the norm in Wisconsin, since Gov. Scott Walker unveiled a plan to strip many collective bargaining rights from teachers and most other public employees. GOP elected officials are pursuing similar measures in Ohio and other states. But in the DeForest district, like some others around the state, collective bargaining,…

Wrapping up a two-day conference in Denver designed to improve labor-management relations in school districts, sponsors and participants vowed to work at reforms that will be beneficial to teachers, students, and officials. Teams made up of a local superintendent, a school board representative, and the teachers' union leader descended on the Mile…

A strike last week by some 29,000 teachers in Chicago pushed long-simmering tensions over deeply divisive school improvement ideas--including changes in teacher evaluation and the takeover or closure of underperforming schools--into the national spotlight. A framework for a tentative agreement emerged last Friday, and the union's house of…

Arlene C. Ackerman, who took the helm of Philadelphia's public schools a little more than a year ago, is pushing for changes that would upend how teachers are paid and assigned to schools. The veteran urban superintendent is battling tradition in the 167,000-student system, but insists that increasing the effectiveness of the city's nearly 10,700…