"Advice from the Principal's Desk: 5 Pillars of School Leadership" is a fresh, new take on school leadership from award-winning former school administrator and professor of education Dr. David Franklin. In the book, you'll find the tools and strategies that veteran school administrators need to succeed in their roles. You'll learn how to…

This guide proposes a framework for engaging teachers in evaluation reforms and proposes new roles that State and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs) and State and local union affiliates can play to support their engagement.

The National Education Association (NEA) is America's oldest education association, and it has become one of America's most powerful unions. It boasts 3.2 million members nationwide and is comprised of more than half of the public school teachers in the United States. Its annual reported receipts in 2009 totaled more than $377 million. The NEA's…

No one stakeholder group can realize lasting change on their own; nor can any reform initiative focusing on just one type of strategy create the workplace conditions needed to truly build capacity within the education profession. Rather, stakeholders must focus on collaborating, reaching common understanding, and prioritizing for ultimate impact…

Skilled teachers who assess students using high quality, relevant and timely assessments can use the results to modify, refine and individualize instruction. Student assessments should be a reflection of what is taught in the classroom. As more accountability provisions have been implemented at the national, state and district levels, the focus on…

The loss of full-time tenure faculty positions along with the overuse and financial exploitation of contingent faculty (part-time, full-time nontenure track and graduate employees) are roiling higher education around the country. This is called the academic staffing crisis. Many are undoubtedly working through the bargaining process to improve the…

Schools remain one of the safest environments for children. However, in far too many schools, a lack of respect for the authority of teachers and other school employees, as well as for the rights of other students, is undermining the ability of schools to provide students with a quality education. Even in the best schools, employees often…

School buses are the safest form of mass transit in America. Every day, school buses travel through congested city traffic and on isolated country roads in all types of weather, safely transporting millions of children to and from school and school-related activities. Federal and state standards for school bus construction and maintenance and…

The Supreme Court in "Ellis vs. Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks" has provided a systematic process for determining what constitutes union expenses properly charged to objecting nonmembers. (MLF)

In "Ellis vs. Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks," the Supreme Court clarified the line between permissible and nonpermissible expenses and what procedures must be available to prevent compulsory subsidization of ideological activity by objecting employees. This article also describes the Court's decisions subsequent to…

Following introductory sections concerning the history of collective bargaining and the distinctions between the public and private sectors that affect labor relations, this document presents approaches that managers in the public sector can take when dealing with employees. The author notes the government's responsibility in the growth of…

Offers advice to school board members who might seek a teachers' union endorsement in their reelection campaigns. Includes hypothetical questions and answers that might be given in a candidates' forum. (WD)

Unions and their membership are listening and yielding to economic realities. This article examines the process of concession bargaining and its likely outcomes. The process includes establishing the rationale for reopening the current agreement, timing, special proposals, unions' concerns, and areas for mutual agreement. (Author/MLF)

Offers guidelines for school districts interested in using win-win negotiation in which both sides come away as winners through a collaborative, problem-solving process. Both sides set the ground rules for successful negotiating. (MLF)

This guide is intended as a brief primer for the employer or employee new to public sector labor relations. A simple step-by-step approach to labor relations includes techniques for analysis of state enabling legislation, union self-perpetuation, scope of bargaining, preparing for and winning bargaining, settling disputes, solving contract…