Transforming Labor Management Relations in Education
Our Belief. If we are to meet the ultimate, school reform goal—improving students’ educational opportunities and achievement—professional relationships in the field must be fundamentally transformed.
The Challenge. New accountability requirements, coupled with increasing competition, make it imperative that professionals in school systems find new, more effective ways of collaborating to improve student achievement.
Our Strategy. We have launched a multiyear effort involving research, publications, public convening, and field work with district teams to transform professional relationships between teacher unions, superintendents and school committees.
Our Goal. We seek to improve student achievement by creating the opportunity for professionals to collaborate and innovate to meet challenges, respond to evidence, and put knowledge to work for the benefit of children.
Opportunities
for Change: Alignment of Incentives
Labor-management relations in public
education have a history fraught with tension and grievances. However,
conditions have changed in the
industry, and the current political and policy climate has created powerful
incentives for school managers and unions to collaborate more effectively
on reforming systems of teaching and learning. Real opportunities exist
to address limiting, stagnant labor-management relations by fundamentally
changing adult relationships and reorienting the educational enterprise
by placing student learning at its core.
• Public focus on increasing student achievement. At both state and federal levels, there has been high public demand for accountability and improved student achievement—especially in regards to finding strategies to raise performance of underperforming schools. In this era of public scrutiny, teachers and school districts have come under unprecedented pressure to enhance teaching and increase student learning.
• Increased focus on accountability. In the current policy climate, increased focus on data and measurement of progress has led to greater emphasis on accountability. In these new accountability systems, "success" has been redefined as student achievement. Amidst growing public scrutiny, measures of student achievement are increasingly consequential, and districts are facing increased challenge in meeting NCLB’s "adequate yearly progress" mandates. As a result, adult professionals within the education field have a clear interest in collaborating to improve student learning.
• Heightened competition from school choice alternatives. Heightened competitive pressure from charter schools, vouchers, and private sector educators is compelling key public education constituencies to come to the table, whereas previously they might not have been willing to engage one another in pursuit of more productive working relations.
• New visions of new teachers. Within the education field, a generational divide increasingly widens as younger educators are bringing new visions and expectations of their professional collaboration and relations with adult professionals. This generational shift is resulting in an increased demand for constructive collaboration within the field between adult professionals.
In combination, increased focus on student achievement, demands for accountability, and competition are challenging the survival of the current status of public education and the relationships between education professionals.
Initiative’s
Goals & Strategies
There are no easy answers or quick fixes that dramatically improve student
achievement, let alone reform the education industry by improving the
current state of narrow labor-management relations. However, addressing
these challenges must be directly at the heart of any strategy to realize
our national aspirations to provide all children with a quality education.
This is high-risk, highly sensitive, pioneering work that is at the core of successful education reform. The Rennie Center is addressing this situation head-on, providing key district participants with the resources, support and encouragement needed to develop the effective working relationships necessary to focus on student achievement and improve schools.
With district-level consulting, research and convening, we are working to improve student learning through transformed labor management relationships in education. Our work includes:
• Providing ongoing, intensive support, consulting and encouragement to district teams who are working creatively in new ways to meet significant challenges in their own environment;
• Conducting baseline research on the status of labor management relations in Massachusetts;
• Providing helpful tools and information to practitioners, seeking to improve labor management relations at the district level; and
• Elevating public and policymakers’ focus on transformed labor management relations.
Learn more about our district field work, research,
public convening, and advisory board. >
