Why Support Teachers’ Unions:
What Does the Research Say?
AFT - Indiana
Rob Weil
Director of Field Programs, Educational Issues
May 2, 2015
• The Current Education Debate in Context
• The Reformers’ Agenda
• What Research Says
• The Importance of Equity in Education
• Why Join a Union
• Professional Issues
• Political Issues
• The Impacts of Unions
• On Students
• On Teachers
• On the Economy
• Q&A
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“U.S. 15-year-olds made no progress on
recent international achievement exams
and fell further in the rankings, reviving a
debate about America's ability to compete
in a global economy.”
- Wall Street Journal, 12/3/13
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From:
PISA: It’s Poverty Not Stupid
Mel Riddile – NASSP
2010 Findings
4
Note: The child poverty rate
is the share of children living
in households with income
below half of household-sizeadjusted median income.
Source: “Measuring Child
Poverty: New League Tables
of Child Poverty in the
World’s Rich Countries,”
Adamson (2012, Figure 1b)
2009 Data
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Mean Math Score
Allocation of Educational Resources and Math Performance
“You can’t have
an excellent
school system
that is not also
an equitable
school system.”
USA
- Andreas Schleicher, OECD
Less Equity
More Equity
- PISA 2012 Results in Focus, page 28
6
GEM
Global PISA
Entrepreneurship
Monitor
Negative correlation between PISA and GEM scores
7
2008
8
2010
2014
Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies
Math scores of adults in Finland
Finland
Finnish Teachers
Math scores of adults in United States
United States
Note: Scale has
been aligned for
clarity
Overlap
American Teachers
Note: AllSource:
Finnish
teachers must have a Master’s
OECD PIAAC Study, October 2013
degree before they can enter the classroom.
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Evaluation
Leads to
Dismissal
Teachers
with
Tenure
Work in
High
Needs
Schools
USA
TALIS World Average
USA
TALIS World Average
20%
USA
USA
40%
TALIS World Average
60%
TALIS World Average
80%
Experienced
Teachers in
High-needs
Schools
USA
USA
Created by
oBizMedia.com
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“…school begins at 8:35 a.m. and runs to 4:30 p.m., during which he typically teaches three 35-minute
lessons (a day)...The rest of his day is spent on lesson planning, training online or with his team, having other
teachers watch his class and tell him how to improve and observing the classrooms of master teachers
This is a lesson high-performing
systems learned years ago.
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“Student scores on key indicators showed a movement
forward, even if there was still plenty of room for
improvement. The advancement was especially true for
poor and minority students, the very ones the
accountability movement was given birth to benefit.”
- George W. Bush Institute, 2/6/15
13
Washington, DC Facts:
• Since the test-based teacher evaluation system (IMPACT) has
been in place (2009), the district has hired almost 3,300 new
teachers—in a system that only employs a total of 4,000.
• “the combined poverty gap for the District of
Columbia expanded by 44 scale-score
points, indicating that its poor students are
now much more further behind their more
affluent peers” – Ed Week 2014
Note: The average in the U.S.
was less than 1 scale point.
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“While there is evidence of modest
improvement in our elementary and middle
schools during the period since the passage
of NCLB, the rate of improvement, for
the student body as a whole and for
disadvantaged students in particular,
was greater in the period before NCLB
became law than afterwards.”
- NCEE, Tucker, 2015
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SNP
POL UK CAN
BEL
IRL
SVK
FIN
NOR
ESP
NLD
AUT ITA
RUS DNK ISL
CZE
KOR
JPN CHN
NZL
ISR
EST SWE
CHE
AUS
USA
SVN
FRA
Yes
No
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SNP
POL UK CAN
BEL
IRL
SVK
FIN
NOR
ESP
NLD
AUT ITA
RUS DNK ISL
CZE
KOR
JPN CHN
NZL
ISR
EST SWE
CHE
AUS
SVN
USA
FRA
No
Yes
Note: There are too many countries to
put in the circle; this is a partial list.
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“Private school choice policies like vouchers,
scholarships, or education tax credits help parents to
enroll their children in a private school of choice.”
“Public School Choice allows parents more opportunity
to choose the best public school for their children by
offering open enrollment within the public education
system.”
- Heritage Foundation, 2015
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From “PISA 2009 Results: What Makes a School Successful?” – OECD 2010 (Volume IV; pgs. 42-43)
“The degree of competition among schools is one way to measure school choice.
Competition among schools is intended to provide incentives for schools to
innovate and create more effective learning environments. However, crosscountry correlations of PISA do not show a relationship between the
degree of competition and student performance.”
“All this said, even though there may be no performance advantage for
private schools after accounting for socio-economic background, private
schools may still be an attractive alternative for parents who want to capitalize on
the socio-economic advantages that these schools offer…”
“The relationship between school choice
and student performance is weak.”
PISA in Focus #42, OECD (August, 2014)
Here
There
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All Charter Schools
Better
than
Public
Schools
Same as Public Schools
Worse than Public
Schools
Stanford’s CREDO Study
“The bottom line appears to be that, once again, it has been
found that, in aggregate, charter schools are basically
indistinguishable from traditional public schools in terms of
their impact on academic test performance.”
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A Market-based System
PISA
2000
Reading
PISA
2003
Reading
PISA
2006
Reading
PISA
2009
Reading
PISA
2012
Reading
(OECD 2013)
516
514
507
497
483
9%
Rank
10/41
8/40
10/56
19/74
36/65
USA
504
495
N/A
500
498
Rank
16/41
18/40
N/A
17/74
24/65
Sweden
Poverty
Rate
16%
OECD: Sweden’s academic performance has significantly and
continually dropped since 2000. When asked about Sweden’s
academic struggles, there are some who blame the market-based
reforms while others do not.
Regardless of these results, market-based education and
the inequity it brings is on the rise in Sweden.
21
A Voucher-based System
PISA
2000
Reading
PISA
2003
Reading
PISA
2006
Reading
PISA
2009
Reading
PISA
2012
Reading
(OECD 2013)
Chile
410
N/A
442
449
441
17%
Rank
36/41
N/A
38/56
43/74
47/65
USA
504
477
N/A
500
498
Rank
16/41
18/40
N/A
17/74
24/65
Poverty
Rate
16%
OECD: Chile’s public school system is the most economically
segregated in the world. When asked about Chile’s academic
performance, Andreas Schleicher defined it as “chronically
underperforming.”
After years of students and parents protesting inequity in the schools,
Chile’s parliament finally began a system of reforms to create more equity
and to move away from its market-based school system – Winter 2014
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The “no-excuses” school reform movement
is famous for giving short shrift to how
students are affected by living in poverty
and expecting teachers to be able to
overcome the consequences.
- Washington Post 10/31/2013
23
Source: Southern Education Foundation.
The Washington Post. Published on October 16, 2013.
2001 - 2012
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Variance in Achievement
(10th
grade–Mathematics)
Teacher
1%
14% School
Teacher
School8%
5.5%
Other
Teacher >7.5%
10%
20%
Unexplained, 19.0%
Dr. Dan
Home
Goldhaber
–
Education
12%
Teacher factors,
Economics; Dec
8.5%
1999 and again
in Education
Student background Next, Spring
factors, 60.0%
2002
Classroom level
Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement
SES
Eric
A.
Hanushek,
John
F.
Kain,
Steven
G.
Rivkin
“The
Mystery
factors, 4.2%
NBER Working
Paper
No.
6691,
1998
of Good
50%
Teaching”
School level factors,
Other 32%
SES 55%
Non Teacher Factors
8.6%
*Estimations from Linda Darling-Hammond
In 2014, the American Statistical Association said that teachers only account
for 1% to 14% of the variability in test scores.
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I am not saying American schools
are good enough—they are not.
What we are saying is that we need
to be honest about the real drivers
of performance if we are ever going
to make the right choices for our
students.
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Despite claims that the jump in Indiana’s 2013 NAEP
results were due to state-level policy changes, the
data show that the gains are not that much different
from those of past years…Rather than recent changes
in state policy, it is likely that teachers, parents,
better curricula, and higher standards…are the
drivers of these trends.
- 2013 NAEP: How Does Indiana Compare?
Michael Roach and Peter Kloosterman
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1, WINTER 2014
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2000-2013
NAEP 4th Grade Math: 51.8
Rank: 5th in the Nation
Average Indiana Teacher Salary: $51,456
Rank: 26th in the Nation
- NCES 2013 data
With the current movement in Indiana towards more
school choice and weakening of teacher unions,
research findings would predict a drop in both
student achievement and teacher pay.
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2012
2000
Poverty Rate
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Work on Instructional Improvement
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
AFT Professional Development Programs
Share My Lesson
Teaching ELL and SPED (RTI)
Field Services (“Backyard Programs”)
TEACH Conference
Colorín Colorado
Outreach Programs (First Book, Safe
Buildings)
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Advocacy for Teachers and Children
• Active Support for Public Education
• Work on Local, State, Federal and International
Policy
• Research on Key Educational Topics
• General Information and Resources
• Community Outreach and Schools
• Targeted Work on Special Populations
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Work on Legislation that Matters
In partnership with local and state leaders, AFT was
able to secure major changes in the Senate’s version
of the ESEA reauthorization (No Child Left Behind).
• Restore ESEA to its original purpose of
addressing poverty and inequality
• Steps toward smarter assessments and
accountability
• Eliminates federal role in teacher
evaluations
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Why Be a Member of the Union Series
The question of whether unions help kids learn more
is often debated, but the data speak for itself.
The positive relationship between strong unions and
student performance is seen around the world.
“Critics of American education are sometimes disapproving
of the teachers’ unions and of how they perceive these
unions as interfering with promising school reform
programs…But the fact is that many of the countries
with the strongest student performance also have the
strongest teachers’ unions, beginning with Japan and
Finland” - OECD, 2010
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Why Be a Member of the Union Series
Every year, Ed Week ranks the states’ educational
systems based on multiple measures.
• The top 10 states have an average Union density of: 87%
• The bottom 10 states have an average Union density
of: 58%
In other words, the higher performing
states have 50% more union density
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This is the only slide with AFT data
Question: What is the effect of teacher unions
on student achievement?
Answer:
The stronger a teachers’ union, the higher student
achievement (NAEP)
2013 NAEP Math 4th 2013 NAEP Math 8th 2013 NAEP Reading 2013 NAEP Reading
Percent Proficient
Percent Proficient
4th Percent Proficient 8th Percent Proficient
Fordham's Power
Fordham's Resources
EPI CB Percentage
SASS Union %
Average =
0.26
0.39
0.42
0.33
0.35
0.34
0.42
0.47
0.38
0.40
0.25
0.39
0.42
0.38
0.36
0.38
0.44
0.50
0.43
0.44
An average correlation coefficient of 0.39
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Why Be a Member of the Union Series
• The ten states with the highest average teacher salary
($68,493) have an average union strength of: 93%
• The ten states with the lowest average teacher salary
($45,301) have an average union strength of: 53%
In other words, teachers who work in states with
strong teacher unions earn 52% ($23,192) more
than teachers in states with weaker unions.
So when business-types tell teachers to give themselves a $600 raise
by dropping the union, they should consider another option—giving
themselves a $20K raise by working to strengthen their union.
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Why Be a Member of the Union Series
The Economic Policy Institute found (2011):
• Right-to-work states have less
employer-sponsored healthcare.
• Right-to-work states have less employersponsored pension plans.
37
Why Be a Member of the Union Series
Bottom Line:
1. Strong teachers’ unions help kids learn more
2. Strong teachers’ unions help teachers earn
more
3. Strong teachers’ unions help teachers and
their families live better lives
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Unions start work
on financials
Reagan ended
PATCO, blueprint
for union busting
Unions are their
strongest
Unions start
to decline
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Contact Information
Rob Weil
Director of Field Programs
Educational Issues
rweil@aft.org
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