Every year, each Vermont Local Education Agency is required to submit an Annual Statistical Report to the Vermont Agency of Education providing an accounting of annual revenues and expenditures to the people of Vermont, their legislature, and the executive branch of government. The Vermont Agency of Education compiles the financial information…

This study explored how direct care workers in nursing homes conceptualize good care and how their conceptualizations are influenced by external factors surrounding their work environment and the relational dynamics between them and residents. Study participants were drawn from a local service employees' union, and in-depth interviews were…

According to the latest "Education Next" poll, public support for merit pay gained significant ground over the past year and now outdistances opposition by a 2:1 margin. Replacing the standardized salary schedule, where the only factors that determine teacher salaries are the number of years on the job and academic credentials, seems a…

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) would not be what it aimed to become without a strong emphasis on quality and quality assurance, as the latter can provide the basis for mutual trust--the prerequisite without which recognition, mobility and institutional cooperation could not function on a larger scale. The Standards and Guidelines for…

American teachers unions are increasingly the target of measures, authored by friends and foes alike, intended to limit their power or eviscerate them. One would never guess that the countries that are among the top 10 in student performance have some of the strongest teachers unions. Are those unions in some way different from American teachers…

This article presents a detailed example from the Albert Shanker Institute's report that shows the error of U.S. history textbooks and how it is distorting the historical record. One of the most glaring errors in textbooks is the treatment of the role that unions and labor activists played as key participants in the civil rights movement. The…

Striking for nine days in 2008, teachers in Bellevue carved a distinctive path through the contradictory movements for professional reform unionism and national accountability. In addition to compensation, Bellevue's teachers struck over the top-down prescriptive management epitomized by the Gates Foundation supported "Curriculum Web."…

Collective bargaining is common in American public education, but its consequences are poorly understood. We focus here on key contractual provisions--seniority-based transfer rights--that affect teacher assignments, and we show that these transfer rights operate to burden disadvantaged schools with higher percentages of inexperienced teachers. We…

This article briefly overviews the student movement working for political democratisation during the authoritarian governments in South Korea. The article focuses on how student activism has changed as a reflection of political developments from the dictatorship through to the civilian democratic governments. Further, it analyses how tuition-fee…

Together, a school district and a local union are working to ensure that educators are trained in restorative practices in order to improve school climates and keep students in school and learning. This article describes how, in recent years, administrators and teachers have shifted from traditional school punishments, such as suspension, to…

In this article, we examine the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as an example of a unique node within larger policy networks composed of new policy entrepreneurs (e.g., venture philanthropists, think tanks, private "edubusinesses" and their lobbyists, advocacy organizations, and social entrepreneurs). These new policy…

The last quarter century saw a restructuring of employment, production and trade and a dramatic decline in union membership and density levels. There are many explanations for this, including the hostile industrial relations framework imposed by many governments, but there have been other factors such as the growth of new non-unionized industries…

When the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted in many states, it was only one piece of the pie called Race to the Top (RttT). As states competed and clamored to win the Race to the Top dollars, they knew it came with strings attached. The biggest piece of string is called APPR, or Annual Professional Performance Review--and it is more…

The fundamental changes taking place in the global economy pose an existential threat for high-wage economies like the United States. Countries with high-wage economies will either figure out how to convert their mass education systems into systems that can educate virtually all their students to the standards formerly reserved for their elites,…

Between 2011 and 2013 lawmakers in every state proposed, and often enacted, laws intended to impact codified state provisions related to teachers and teachers' unions (author calculation). These new laws either worked against union interests (e.g., by prohibiting collective bargaining) or they aligned with union positions (e.g. by providing…