Friday, July 13, 2012

The Educated Reporter: In Sea of Reform, A Rising Tide For Teachers' Union Suppor

The Educated Reporter: In Sea of Reform, A Rising Tide For Teachers' Union Suppor:


In Sea of Reform, A Rising Tide For Teachers' Union Suppor

In a new survey, teachers say they rely on their unions to protect them from school politics and abuses of administrative power, but they also want the labor groups to do more about ineffective educators, either by guiding them to improve – or guiding them out the door.

For “Trending Toward Reform,” the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Education Sector surveyed more than 1,100 K-12 public schoolteachers from across the country, and asked them about key issues including the state of their labor unions, and revisions to evaluation systems and tenure.

Just over 80 percent of the teachers said they believed their union protected them from campus politics, and abuses of power at the administrative level. And the percentage of teachers who said they were involved in local