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Why Here and Why Now? Emerging Charter School Unions in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Brian Beabout & Ivan GillUniversity of New Orleans

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Landscape of charter schools

Charter Non-charter Total

Public Schools (National) (2013-14)

6,440 (7%) 1 89,775 (93%) 1 96,215

Public Schools (Louisiana)(2013-14)

1171 (9%) 1,1862 (91%) 1,303

1 = http://www.publiccharters.org/dashboard/home2 = https://www.louisianabelieves.com/schools/public-schools

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Charter School Teachers UnionsMetrics (2009-10) Number PercentUnionized Charter Schools 604 12.3% (7% in 2012)*Non-Unionized Charter Schools 4,309 87.7%

Unionized Charter Schools, By State Law 388 64.2%

Unionized Charter Schools, Not By State Law 216 35.8%

NEA Union Affiliation 458 75.8%AFT Union Affiliation 68 11.3%NEA and AFT Union Affiliation 76 12.6%

AFSCME Union Affiliation 2 0.3%

Adapted from Public Charters Schools Dashboard, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools*Center for Ed. Reform (2014, p. 3)

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Questions

Despite the unions’ historically tepid views on charter schools (Cibulka, 2000), they have pursued organizing charters recently. Two urban charter schools in New Orleans have formed school-specific teachers unions.

What are the motivations and structures/process that support the creation of teachers unions charter schools in?

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Early Origins

• Reasons for original teachers unions in early 1900’s were material improvements to improve pay and status profession.

• Eventually sought through salary scales, to install experience/seniority as the important criterion for success (Urban, 1982)

• A “benefits-consciousness” and general political conservatism in these early groups.

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Rapid Expansion• Permitting of Public sector unions (under JFK)

led to rapid growth in teachers union membership in the 1960s-70’s

Approx. AFT Membership

Year

1920 10,000

1930 7,000

1960 60,000

1970 200,000

1990 700,000

2010 850,000

2014 1,600,000

http://www.aft.org/about/history

Approx. NEA Membership

Year

1907 5,044

1939 32,000

1961 766,000

1970 200,000

2007 3,200,000

2012 3,100,000

2014 2,900,00

http://www.nea.org/home/1704.htm

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Literature Review

• Post Nation at Risk (1983), unions, often sidelined or conceived as part of the problem facing K12 school improvement (Brimelow, 2003; Lieberman, 1997)

• Following 1983, calls for Post-industrial/New –Unionism/Reform Bargaining have become common (Kerchner, Koppich, Weeres, 1997; Kerchner & Mitchell, 1988; Loveless, 2000; Moore Johnson & Kardos, 2000)

• One salient aspect of post-industrial unions has been calls for school-specific, rather than district-wide unions (Kerchner, Koppich, Weeres, 1997)

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• “Collective bargaining legitimated teachers’ economic interests, but it never recognized them as experts about learning.” (Kerchner et al., 1997, p. 7)

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Morris Jeff Community School and Ben Franklin High School

Ben Franklin High School

Morris Jeff Community School

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Morris Jeff Community School2014-15

K-6 Students 482PreK students 60Total Students 522

Student Demographics 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14

Free/Reduced Lunch 70% 63% 65% 60%

Ethnicity African American 59% 55% 52% 54%Caucasian 36% 40% 37% 42%

Hispanic 3% 3% 6% 3%

Asian/Pacific Islander 2% 2% 2% 2%

Native American <1% <1% <1% <1%

Morris Jeff Community School Enrollment 2010-2014

English/Language Arts

Math Science Social Studies

Louisiana 77% 71% 67% 70%RSD-New Orleans

65% 64% 44% 52%

Morris Jeff 95% 83% 74% 83%

% of students testing at basic and higher on Spring 2013 4th Grade LEAP

2013-14 School Performance score:83.5 (C rating)

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Morris Jeff United Educators

Mission Statement:

Morris Jeff Association of Educators will offer a voice to our teachers and a vehicle for effective collaboration school-wide. Our organization and leadership will allow for the needs of our children to be met by empowering teachers with formal systems for effective communication and problem solving. We strive to develop a learning environment that encourages teachers to fully develop their talents and be active members of our school community. We acknowledge that teachers are more effective to their students when they work together and are able sustain their long term dedication to education. Together, we will excel as educators and be role models for our children.

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Morris Jeff United EducatorsVision:We are driven by two, unabiding goals: providing the highest quality education to ensure all children achieve their maximum potential and transforming the landscape for teacher organization and development in New Orleans.

Morris Jeff Association of Educators understands that to provide the highest quality education, we must strive towards excellence as educators every day. We collaborate, learn, plan, and support one another with the individual expertise each of us owns. We are stronger and more successful as a team than we ever could be alone.

We aim to provide a paradigm for communication between teachers and administrators in New Orleans and the world. We want to be a model in our city of how to give teachers the voice, structure, and inspiration that can make great educators, leading to the success of our students.

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Ben Franklin High School

Student Enrollment (2014-15) 894 (9-12)

Minority Enrollment 60%

Free and Reduced Lunch 31%

Graduation Rate >95%

Dropout Rate <1%

School Performance Score 140.1 (A rating)

Average ACT Score 28.6 (LA average 19.2)

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United Teachers of Franklin

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United Teachers of Franklin(excerpt from letter to charter board, May 2014)First and foremost, we need a system in place at Franklin to ensure that teachers’ issues are being dealt with in a transparent and fair manner; this includes a number of things that are important to Franklin’s teachers, including, but not limited to, the arbitrary and highly malleable salary scale. We would like to have a reasonable expectation of job security, so that we know if we will be employed each year before it is too late to find another job. We would also like more of a voice in the academic decision-making process at Franklin. These issues—transparency, fairness, security, and voice—encompass much more than can be put into this simple letter. The only way that we can begin to truly resolve these problems in any lasting way is through discussion and agreement among teachers, administration, and the Board that is binding. This is why we ask that you recognize our union—to begin collective bargaining.

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Methods

• Semi-structured interviews (Seidman, 1998) with principals, board members, and other school founders (in progress)

• transcribed, coded, and analyzed for emergent themes (van Manen, 1997) (in progress)

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Some outside support provided by union local affiliate

Expanding teacher voice and decision-making role important

Differences in school with union history (BFHS) and school without (MJCS)

Salary & Benefits not Primary Motivation for Teachers

Initial Findings

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Observed Charter Union Start-up Process

• quiet• small

Initial organizing

• recognition• Board

questioning

Public announcement • Union coaching

• Internal structure

Formalizing

• 2 small groups• Prioritizing

issues

Negotiation

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Implications

• Wide diversity within faculties and between schools on motivations for seeking union creation (see also Bascia, 1994)

• Significance of union history in teacher perceptions

• Challenges of researching union creation in at-will employment settings.

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Thank You!

• Brian Beabout: bbeabout@uno.edu• Ivan Gill: igill@uno.eduThe schools:http://www.morrisjeffschool.orghttp://www.plessyschool.org

The unions:https://www.facebook.com/unitedteachersoffranklinhttps://www.facebook.com/morrisjeffassociationofeducators