Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2024
Abstract
Although teacher contracts (commonly, collective bargaining agreements or CBAs) provide critical workforce protections for teachers and govern much of the profession, they remain an underutilized lever for enabling strong teaching and learning, elevating the teaching profession, and equipping school systems with tools and capacities to confront the challenges of a rapidly changing, increasingly uncertain world.
Drawing on research spanning states, school systems, and time periods, this report sets forth a conceptual framework that draws attention to teacher contracts — both what they say and the ways they are built — as a potentially powerful, already-embedded, forward-looking mechanism for professionalizing teaching and imbuing the profession with the flexibilities and collaboration needed to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
The report begins by explaining the “ABCs of CBAs:” the contractual A(greement), the formal and informal B(argaining) process, and the C(ollective) of people involved in public education. It explores the significance of each of these elements and how they interact. After that, the report introduces a set of cross-cutting design principles — shared, student-focused purpose; flexible, transparent design; and authentic participation — that each of the ABCs must follow to build teacher contracts for the modern classroom. Last, it explores what it might look like when these design principles are applied to the A(greement), the B(argaining), and the C(ollective) for the benefit of teachers, students, and families alike.
Recommended Citation
Elizabeth Chu, Molly Gurny, Tong Koh, Evan Stone, Chiara Grabill & Jill McLaughlin,
Designing Contracts for a Modern Classroom: The ABCs of CBAs,
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/public_research_leadership/17