Since the 1960s, teachers unions across the United States have used strikes or the threat of strikes to influence the terms of collective bargaining agreements with local school districts. In the spring of 2018, teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and elsewhere changed their tack, staging walkouts designed to secure salary hikes and…

Teacher strikes and walkouts in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and elsewhere grabbed public attention last spring, but these wildfires of statewide activism are unlikely to spread far. In most states, teachers have unique and powerful advantages in local politics--advantages they are unlikely to give up anytime soon--and they are already active…

Teachers unions have had a "muscular" presence in some states, but in others, especially in the South and Southwest, the unions have held little power in recent decades, and the growing dominance of conservative Republicans in state legislatures and statehouses was creating a hostile environment with right-to-work (RTW) laws. The…

Facing the typical challenges of urban schooling, including overcrowded schools, mediocre academic outcomes, and high dropout rates, the Los Angeles Unified School District has been at the epicenter of big-city education reform over the past decade. This article takes a look at the past 10 years of reform strategies in Los Angeles, and how…

When former U.S. congressman and Obama administration chief of staff Rahm Emanuel marched triumphantly into the Chicago mayor's office in 2011, he promised to revamp Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in ways that had barely been contemplated in 16 years of mayoral control over the city's sprawling public-school system. This article discusses and…

Four decades after collective bargaining came to public education, school boards and the superintendents they hire still routinely blame teacher unions for causing massive inefficiencies, stifling innovation, and preventing change designed to promote student learning. "Our hands are tied," school boards commonly complain when school…