In this article, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Lorretta Johnson reflects on her early work as a paraprofessional at Liberty Elementary School (Baltimore, Maryland) and what sparked her union activism nearly 50 years ago in 1966. It was that year that she and her colleagues joined the Baltimore Teachers Union…

The authors examine how the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiated between teachers' unions and districts is associated with schools' and districts' performance under accountability pressures in California. They find that CBA restrictiveness is associated with the increased likelihood that districts will be in Program Improvement (PI)…

This report contains case studies of international recruiters who help school districts in the United States acquire work visas and hire noncitizens. Recruiters sometimes use fees charged to workers to pay for U.S. school officials' overseas trips, where they stay in luxury hotels and handpick teachers at job fairs. Not surprisingly, some school…

Randall Eberts explores the role of teachers unions in public education. He focuses particularly on how collective bargaining agreements shape the delivery of educational services, how unions affect both student achievement and the cost of providing quality education, and how they support educational reform efforts. Eberts's synthesis of the…