This document discusses the emergence of teachers unions in charter schools in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. It provides background on the charter school landscape in New Orleans and the US. Two charter schools, Morris Jeff Community School and Ben Franklin High School, formed school-specific unions. Interviews with school leaders explored the motivations for forming unions, which included a desire for more teacher voice and transparency. Initial findings showed differences between the schools in their union histories and that salary/benefits were not the primary motivations for teachers. The process of starting the unions was quiet at first before formalizing structures and priorities.
1. Why Here and Why Now? Emerging
Charter School Unions in Post-
Katrina New Orleans
Brian Beabout & Ivan Gill
University of New Orleans
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2. Landscape of charter schools
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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/home
2 = https://www.louisianabelieves.com/schools/public-schools
3. Charter School Teachers Unions
Metrics (2009-10) Number Percent
Unionized 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%
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Adapted from Public Charters Schools Dashboard, National Alliance for Public
Charter Schools
*Center for Ed. Reform (2014, p. 3)
4. 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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5. 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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6. Rapid Expansion
• Permitting of Public sector unions (under JFK)
led to rapid growth in teachers union
membership in the 1960s-70’s
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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
7. 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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8. • “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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9. Morris Jeff Community School and Ben
Franklin High School
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Ben Franklin High School
Morris Jeff Community School
10. Morris Jeff Community School
2014-15
K-6 Students 482
PreK students 60
Total 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/La
nguage
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
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2013-14 School Performance score:
83.5 (C rating)
11. 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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12. Morris Jeff United Educators
Vision:
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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14. Ben Franklin High School
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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)
16. 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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17. 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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18. 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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19. 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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20. 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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21. Thank You!
• Brian Beabout: bbeabout@uno.edu
• Ivan Gill: igill@uno.edu
The schools:
http://www.morrisjeffschool.org
http://www.plessyschool.org
The unions:
https://www.facebook.com/unitedteachersoffranklin
https://www.facebook.com/morrisjeffassociationofedu
cators
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