Urban public schools and their teachers are under siege. From increased standardization, privatization and testing to a growing number of students whose needs are not being met by schools, urban public school teachers face a daunting task. Without a space in which to critically examine their daily experiences within schools, many well-intentioned…

This report describes major issues in teaching and current initiatives and proposals to strengthen teaching in New York State. An overview is presented of state action and local projects aimed at teacher improvement in the areas of: (1) recruitment and preservice teacher education; (2) teacher certification; (3) staff development and other…

An in-depth ethnographic study of an upstate New York Middle School in an ethnically polarized community investigated teacher and community response to multicultural literature initiatives. Most of the data for the study came from interviews with and observations of teachers in the school; it was collected mostly over the 1991-92 school year when…

Since the early 1980s, the New York State Board of Regents and the State Education Department have advanced a complex reform agenda centered around the development of curriculum and related standards. These reforms have considerable implications for the allocation and use of human resources within schooling systems. This paper reports on a series…

FOUR MAJOR AREAS OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR TEACHERS, BASED ON A REVIEW OF HISTORICAL RECORDS, A COMPARISON OF EXPERIENCES, A STUDY OF RELEVANT DOCUMENTS, AND INTERVIEWS WITH PERSONNEL DIRECTLY INVOLVED ARE DEFINED AND ANALYZED--(1) FACTORS GIVING RISE TO THE BILATERAL DETERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, (2) THE CHARACTER…

This report details a series of specific recommendations aimed at improving the conditions of learning and teaching, teacher preparation and licensure, recruitment and minority recruitment, and accountability in New York State. The necessity of restructuring schools in the state is first discussed. Recommendations are then made in the following…

Numerous years in several New York City elementary and nursery schools resulted in this article, which investigates teachers' emotions, specifically vulnerable feelings, related to their work. Often, teachers are quiet about their struggles, not wanting anyone else to know that they struggle, not wanting to expose their vulnerability. However,…

An intensive two-phase study of teachers' unions in three small school districts in southern New York State over a 10-year span investigates the changes within the union movement and assesses the impact of unionization on the school systems. The study discloses that teachers' organizations and the collective bargaining process are subject, over…

Adjunct faculty members teach a significant percentage of courses at the various colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY). Adjunct employment circumstances and workplace conditions often differ from those of full-time faculty, thus posing many challenges and impediments to facilitating instructional technology and information technology…

Conceptualizing stress as an interaction of organizational or work characteristics (stress stimuli) and individual characteristics (stress resistance), this paper reports a study of teacher stress in 42 elementary school organizations and 45 secondary school organizations. Organizational stress is operationalized as the aggregate average response…

This book documents the "brave new world" of teacher, administrator, school, and student accountability that has swept across the United States in recent years. Its particular vantage point is the perspective of dozens of new teachers trying to make their way through their first months and years working in schools in the New York City…

THIS VOLUME CONTAINS PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE ON EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, HELD JULY 14-15, 1966, AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS AND THE NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. THE PURPOSE OF THE CONFERENCE WAS THREEFOLD--(1) TO PROVIDE A FORUM WHERE…

This report provides teachers' views of unequal teaching and learning opportunities that are still common in many of America's public schools. It analyzes the responses of 3,336 public school teachers in California, Wisconsin, and New York who were surveyed by Lou Harris and the Peter Harris Research Group. The findings paint a chilling picture of…

Because of the increased interest in and current publicity given to the problems of agricultural migrant workers and their families, there has been a growing concern in the Nation regarding the lack of educational opportunities offered to migrant children. Since the programs for the education of children of migrant workers vary from State to…