Teachers Unions: A Help or Hindrance in Diminishing Income Achievement Gap

Abstract

A reform of the seniority rule, teacher tenure, teacher compensation, and working conditions is imperative for recruiting and retaining high quality teachers in high poverty schools. While teachers unions promote a reform of working conditions, and are beginning to collaborate with school districts on a reform of teacher pay, they stand in the way of educational reform in the cases of seniority and tenure. In order to eliminate the gap in achievement scores for low-income students, and thus to eliminate the educational attainment gap, teachers unions must abolish polices that keep ineffective teachers in the classrooms. [From Conclusion]