Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) is a local labor-management initiative designed to improve teacher quality. In PAR, expert "consulting teachers" mentor, support, and evaluate novice and underperforming veteran teachers. Evaluations under PAR can lead to dismissals. The authors examine the costs and benefits of PAR, both financial and…

In a global knowledge economy, filling in the bubbles on a standardized test isn't going to prepare children to succeed in life. This is the time to shed the old conflicts and come together. In this article, the author suggests a new path forward--toward a 21st-century education system, a serious and comprehensive reform plan to transform U.S.…

This publication explores the role of the state education agency (SEA) in school turnaround efforts. An emphasis is placed on practical application of research and best practices related to the SEA's critical leadership role in driving and supporting successful school turnaround efforts. The publication is organized around the four goals of…

Wrapping up a two-day conference in Denver designed to improve labor-management relations in school districts, sponsors and participants vowed to work at reforms that will be beneficial to teachers, students, and officials. Teams made up of a local superintendent, a school board representative, and the teachers' union leader descended on the Mile…

Two articles are presented in this column. "Life in an Auto Factory: Simulating how Labor and Management Interact" by Eric B. Freedman describes a classroom simulation of management and labor relations in an auto factory. Classroom handouts are included. The next article, "Women of Action and County Names: Mary Musgrove County--Why…

In many school districts, business managers--not superintendents--are the ones who deal with labor relations, negotiating or participating on the negotiations team. Business managers who oversee the human resources department may find themselves dealing with labor relations on a regular basis. In this article, the author discusses four labor…

A strike last week by some 29,000 teachers in Chicago pushed long-simmering tensions over deeply divisive school improvement ideas--including changes in teacher evaluation and the takeover or closure of underperforming schools--into the national spotlight. A framework for a tentative agreement emerged last Friday, and the union's house of…

In October 2012, Premier Christy Clark announced government would consult with the education partners for the purpose of reviewing teacher bargaining structures and processes with the goal of providing a more stable learning environment for British Columbia students. The review looked for opportunities to achieve two priorities: (1) Create…

In the vast majority of school districts, the collective-bargaining process has evolved little during the past few decades. Teachers unions have successfully represented teachers' economic and job security interests by linking them to collective bargaining and procedural due process rights, but district administrators continue to make the…

One of the author's enduring concerns about the concept of academic freedom is with semantics. It has seemed to him that one of the biggest difficulties with discussions of academic freedom (as with many conversations about "value-laden" terms such as "democracy," "equity," and "justice") is that people begin from different positions and with…

The organizational communication subdiscipline has made great strides in theory and research in recent years, but little is known about the workplace communication experiences of Latinas and Latinos in the United States. Even less is known about these sociocultural group members' experiences when they work in lower status, blue-collar roles in…

In recent years policymakers have seized on teacher evaluation as a primary lever for improving schools. Of all school factors--from expanded school calendars to smaller class sizes to community and family engagement programs--teachers contribute the most to student achievement. Policymakers reason that evaluating teachers based on their students'…

The purpose of this cross-sectional, comparison study attempted to investigate if a code of conduct existed in New Jersey teacher union contracts to nursing/hospital union contracts. Archived data of public school district and nursing/hospital union contracts held with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Committee (NJ PERC) and Health…

This study examined the degree to which blue- versus white-collar workers differentially conceptualize various job facets, namely the work itself, co-workers, supervisors, and pay. To examine these potential differences, we conducted a series of analyses on job satisfaction ratings from two samples of university workers. Consistent with the study…

For five decades, collective bargaining has been implemented in American public schools (Loveless, 2000). It has protected the rights of teachers; and teacher work conditions issues and compensation have improved (Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). However, improvements have created adversarial labor-management relationships, resulted in excessive…