The United States is rare among nations in its highly decentralized process for negotiating collective bargaining agreements with local teachers' unions. To determine whether partisanship can predict these highly localized decisions, I construct an original database of Pennsylvania collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) merged with publicly…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented economic and policy challenges to the United States and other countries. Navigating out of the pandemic slowdown is another novel experience, which makes it more difficult to answer the question addressed each year in the "State of Working Pennsylvania": How is the Pennsylvania economy…

Charter schools see as many as one in four teachers leave annually, and recent evidence attributes much of this turnover to provisions affected by collective bargaining processes and state laws such as salary, benefits, job security, and working hours. There have been many recent efforts to improve teacher voice in charter schools (Kahlenberg…

In light of the Pennsylvania's most recent pension cuts and the challenges the state faces in attracting and retaining qualified teachers, this report asks two primary questions in this study: (1) How does teacher pay compare with the pay of other comparable workers in Pennsylvania--that is, are Pennsylvania public school teachers underpaid (which…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the typical terms and conditions of employment in 2012-2013 negotiated agreements in Pennsylvania school districts, and to determine if there was a relationship between enrollment size and 5 selected terms and conditions of employment: base salary; highest salary; teacher contribution for one…

A growing number of American school systems are experimenting with innovative and varied methods of tying educators' salaries more closely to their work through differential pay. Differential pay means paying teachers differently based on their performance, their responsibilities, and/or their teaching assignments. For instance, it can mean…

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…

In the era of No Child Left Behind, principals are increasingly held accountable for student performance. But are teacher labor agreements giving them enough flexibility to manage effectively? This study answers this question and others. It examines how much flexibility school leaders enjoy on key dimensions of management in America's fifty…

Analysis of data on collective bargaining outcomes in Pennsylvania schools (1983-89) showed that the higher the median level of teacher tenure in a district, the greater the pay gap between high- and low-tenured teachers. (SK)

Once as familiar in the back-to-school ritual as falling leaves, teacher strikes seem headed for a winter freeze. According to the nation's largest teacher's union, about 15 of the National Education Association's (NEA) 14,000 local affiliates have gone on strike since the start of this school year. In Pennsylvania--a traditional union…

This study analyzed trends from 1971 to 1989 in academic ranks and salaries of women faculty as compared to men faculty in Pennsylvania's higher education institutions. The data for the study were culled from public documents published yearly from 1971-72 to 1989-90 by the Division of Educational Statistics, the Pennsylvania Department of…

This collection of collective bargaining agreements contains one- to three-year contracts for four two-year institutions in Pennsylvania. The agreements are between the Board of Trustees of Reading Area Community College and the Federation of Reading Area Community College, Local 3137, American Federation of Teachers bargaining unit; between…

As faculty and other public sector unions become more sophisticated in collective bargaining, they tend to lay a greater variety of demands on the table. This, in turn, forces the employer to ask, Do I really have to bargain about these subjects? As more employers refuse to bargain, more unions charge them with failing to bargain in good faith,…

Collective bargaining agreements between the boards of trustees and faculty associations of nine selected community colleges in Pennsylvania are presented, representing contracts in effect in 1987. Contracts for the following colleges are presented: Community College of Allegheny County; Community College of Philadelphia; Delaware County Community…

The collective bargaining agreement between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF; 4,200 members) covering the period July 1, 1981 to June 30, 1984 is presented. Also included for this American Association of University Professors affiliated union is the reopener and…