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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Public Education Needs Teachers Unions
http://www.alternet.org/education/why-public-education-needs-teachers-unionsThere have been many assertions made over time about the negative effects of teachers unions on student performance. A number of states have moved legislatively to curtail the collective bargaining rights of teachers and, indeed, some states have never allowed teachers collective bargaining.
Conservative critics of teachers unions the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, for example claim there is no relationship between high levels of union membership and high levels of student achievement. There are 10 states where there is little or no collective bargaining by teachers. If Fordham and other teachers union critics are right, these states should demonstrate student achievement that ranks very high, or at least above the national average, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). According to commentary in the Washington Post by Matthew Di Carlo, senior fellow at the Albert Shanker Institute, out of the ten [non-union] states only one (Virginia) has an average rank above the median, while four are in the bottom ten and seven are in the bottom fifteen. The article concludes that states without binding teacher contracts are not doing better, and the majority are actually among the lowest performers in the nation.
There are studies that refute the position of the conservatives and assert that teachers unions have a positive effect on student achievement. These include work done by researchers Brian Powell, Lala Carr Steelman and Robert Carini, Do Teacher Unions Hinder Educational Performance? Lessons learned from State SAT and ACT Scores, published in the Harvard Educational Review (Winter 2000), as well as Teachers Unions and Collective Bargaining Agreements: Roadblocks to Student Achievement & Teacher Quality or Educational Imperatives? The study concludes that excluding teachers from policy-making is dangerous because teachers have vital experience and knowledge and should play a prominent role in policy-making. Teachers are also essential advocates for their students because their needs are bound up with the needs of their students to the extent that concessions for teachers benefit students and enhance teacher quality and student achievement.
Many argue that, regardless of the number of studies pro or con on the teachers union/student achievement question, it is difficult to draw more than correlational relationships, not causal ones, on the issues. They argue that student demographics, state spending and other policies, as well as the economic status of the states are more important drivers of student achievement. What can be concluded looking at NAEP, ACT and SAT scores state by state, though, is that teacher unionization does not guarantee low student achievement and a lack of unionization does not guarantee high achievement. Teacher unionization does allow for teachers to have a stronger voice in professional matters and also allows them to secure their influence in the political field. State education funding per student tends to be higher in unionized, higher achieving states.
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Why Public Education Needs Teachers Unions (Original Post)
xchrom
Oct 2014
OP
Without checking the Gates website... Fordham Institute is up to its eyeballs in Gates $$$.
Smarmie Doofus
Oct 2014
#1
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)1. Without checking the Gates website... Fordham Institute is up to its eyeballs in Gates $$$.
If memory serves. And other foundation and corporate cash . No one serious takes anything they say seriously.
This topic is getting threadbare (for me at least) but at this point, imo, anyone who goes into the profession WITHOUT a union isn't intelligent enough to stand in front of a classroom.
K and R