The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the priority level of the roles and responsibilities of the superintendent/principal in Illinois as perceived by board of education presidents, teachers' union presidents, and practicing superintendent/principals in the 102 Illinois school districts utilizing the superintendent/principal model.…

This case study analyzes controversial teacher evaluation policies in the context of collective bargaining. Dr. Jill Abrams, a new superintendent in a struggling school district, is at the center of the case. Her school board demands a form of teacher evaluation she finds problematic because it includes value-added modeling. Moreover, the board…

School districts have two general courses of action to maintain fiscal solvency and raise student achievement in the face of drastic funding cuts. They can reduce spending on teachers, a strategy opposed by many teachers' unions because it threatens teacher job security. They can also cut expenditures in other areas such as instructional…

A substantial amount of school district policy is set in the collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) negotiated between teachers' unions and districts. Although previous studies have assumed that CBA provisions bargained by unions are a primary mechanism connecting union strength to outcomes for teachers and students, research has not yet…

Teacher control of public education is a possibility. If it eventuates, the concept of local, lay, public control of the schools is going to be severely shaken. (Author/WM)

School boards, who have been regarded as the keystone that links public education to ordinary citizens, are normally elected. However, these elections are usually low-turnout, low-interest affairs in which the vast majority of ordinary citizens play no role at all. In school board elections, the incentives of the teacher unions are strong 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…

In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) takes a close look at the governance of the teaching profession and finds that state legislators and other state-level policymakers crafting state laws and regulation, not those bargaining at the local level, decide some of the most important rules governing the teaching profession.…

A survey of the broad policy community rates the governor, Democratic and Republican lawmakers, mayor, Chicago Board of Education, district central office, and the Chicago Teachers union in their work of Chicago school governance before and after the July 1995 restructuring. Preliminary results suggest improvement in school governance following…

For colleges and universities, faculty unionism has evidenced the potential to change significantly the nature of institutional relationships. Collective bargaining has brought into the system a different philosophy than the traditional scholarly one of shared authority. As a result, collective bargaining has created a new dimension for governing…

An October 1981 Wingspread conference is reported that centered on four topics: tendencies in governance since the 1966 "Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities"; the faculty role in the budgeting process; the relation between academic governance and collective bargaining; the impact of statewide boards and systems. (MLW)

Discussions at the 1981 Wingspread Governance Conference focused on four topics: the current state of faculty governance; the faculty role in budgetary decisions; collective bargaining and academic governance; statewide boards and the alienation of governance from the campus. Summaries of the presentations on each issue are presented. (MLW)

The major focus of this study is on altering the current structure of collective bargaining in public education to provide for adequate community participation. Concentrating on big city school systems where minorities and the poor have historically been apart from the educational policy-making process, the study finds that the scope of bargaining…

Drawing on survey data from 83 New York school districts and case studies of 6 districts, the project reported here explores several aspects of schools and districts as organizations. The conceptual framework guiding the study emphasizes that educational organizations are not governed either by their structure or by the reactions of individuals,…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This February 6, 2004 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "The Academic Job Forum"; (2) "Should Your Private Life Be Public…