In this brief, we set out to understand how unionization may or may not shape practices central to charter schools' ability to serve students. The study, an exploratory one, includes 29 interviews across eight schools that unionized four to six years ago. Our results point to areas of concern, optimism, and future research. We found: (1)…

We investigate the male-female gap in principal compensation in state and national data: detailed longitudinal personnel records from Missouri and repeated cross-sections from the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). In both data sets, we estimate substantively important compensation gaps for school leaders. In Missouri,…

This report describes the results of research into New Jersey public school teacher compensation. The research was initiated in response to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's attacks on New Jersey teachers' unions and his allegations that New Jersey public school teachers are overpaid. This analysis seeks to answer three questions about teacher…

Today, more than 60 percent of teachers in the United States work under a union contract. The rights of teachers to unionize and bargain together have expanded dramatically since the late 1950s, when states began passing "duty-to-bargain" (DTB) laws that required school districts to negotiate with teachers unions in good faith. Recently,…

For fiscal year 2010, Congress appropriated $14.5 billion for Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), which funds services to students in schools with high concentrations of students from low-income families. Title I, Part A includes several fiscal requirements, which are designed to prevent local school…

This study of negotiated wage determination among teachers in Ohio school districts finds evidence of pattern bargaining. A measure of pattern following is developed to investigate wage level in a given county. Pattern bargaining occurs, irrespective of district size over the 1987 to 1991 period. Wealthier districts and larger districts pay higher…

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)

Outlines five myths used as arguments against teacher merit pay. While teacher preparation, salaries, and evaluation are essential elements of performance pay plans, they should not be isolated from related issues. Includes a sidebar on problems the Fairfax County (Virginia) merit pay plan is encountering with the teacher union. (MD)

A salary-schedule compression is the process of reducing the number of salary schedule steps while still giving annual salary increases. Explains what school districts can do during negotiations to compress a schedule without awarding greater increases than originally intended. A sidebar shows a table for relating years of teaching experience to…

A 20-year study indicated that educational salaries at all levels have continuously declined relative to the average weekly earnings in Australia. Possible explanations are the role of government, the national teachers' union policy toward different payment systems, and the cultural attitude toward intellectual endeavor. (JOW)

Evidence for this paper is based on the application of cross-section wage level and change regressions to national samples of teachers in determining the impact of unionization on teacher salaries. The findings contradict most of the previous empirical research (supporting a weak union paradigm and finding only marginal wage effects for…

Examines effects of prevailing wage laws on school construction costs, using final cost data from six British Columbia school districts. When controlling for factors such as construction business cycle, number of competitors, and school type, there was no significant unit cost change following the Skill Development and Fair Wage Policy Act.…

Changes in the labor market in the last 20 years are evaluated in order to examine the impact of teacher unionization, the extent of teacher mobility and responsiveness to wage differentials, and the projected demand for teachers from 1980 to 2000. Using cross-section wage regressions and wage change regressions, the study shows that the…

Public employers, including school districts, are faced with unionized workers' demanding a larger share of public resources. The formation of regional bargaining associations for employers to counteract union demands is proposed. A case study of a successful association is provided. (MD)

Although teacher unions promote private means of resolving labor conflicts instead of using public courts, they are engaged in a war on privatization, especially contracting out. It is surprising that the media and higher education take seriously the contention that unions do not negatively affect educational achievement. Advocates of "the…