For additional information, please contact Rudy Careaga, Asst. Director of Programs at rcareaga@nea.org

NEA Foundation Reports

District-Union Collaboration:

A report by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) explored the power of collaboration between local unions’ and districts’ efforts to close the achievement gaps. Their report highlights the progress, challenges and lessons learned from two districts at the forefront of addressing achievement gaps through collaboration: Hamilton County, TN and Clark County, NV. The strategies employed by these two collaborations and outlined in the report help to ensure that educators remain at the center of reform efforts in their districts and schools.

Utilizing a powerful tool to build and sustain collaboration, Interest Based Bargaining (IBB), both districts employed a set of strategies aimed to close the achievement gaps through empowering educators. Strategies targeted schools with low levels of student achievement. They included providing mentoring supports to new teachers and embedded professional development and professional learning communities within schools for all teachers; listening to educators’ ideas and building a shared vision and collective action through surveys, focus groups, and school-based leadership teams; and providing financial incentives to teachers. The report includes strategies and tips for other union leaders, district officials, policy makers, and stakeholders.

Funding for this effort was provided by the NEA Foundation.

• Full Report
• Report Summary

Publications

• Connecting the Bits provides information for integrating technology into teaching and learning in K-12 schools.
• Creating a Teacher Mentoring Program outlines issues and questions that school districts, teacher associations, and universities should consider when developing mentor programs.
• Creating Teacher-Led Professional Development Centers identifies guiding questions and issues to consider when designing teacher-led professional development centers.
• Engaging Public Support for Teachers' Professional Development outlines issues that education employees and advocates should consider when preparing a public engagement effort.
• Using Data about Classroom Practice and Student Work to Improve Professional Development for Educators examines how data analysis can be the focus of teacher learning and how it can help guide sound decision-making about professional development.
• Using Data to Improve Teacher Induction Programs investigates an essential, yet often overlooked, aspect of teacher induction: data collection and analysis to determine results. It also examines the roles that unions, together with school districts and their partners, can play to improve induction programs through better use of data and other strategies.