AFT Study Debunks 'Urban Legend' of Unions and Teacher Staffing
Collective bargaining associated with a more stable teacher workforce,
fewer transfers out of high-poverty urban public schools

WASHINGTON, D.C– Teacher union contracts are a stabilizing force in public schools, associated with lower teacher turnover and fewer transfers, particularly in high-poverty urban schools, says a groundbreaking study by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The findings strongly contradict the conventional wisdom that "seniority rights" provisions in teacher contracts encourage experienced teachers to leave disadvantaged schools in favor of more-affluent schools in the same district.

"The data turn traditional assumptions on their head, revealing that many are, literally, urban legends," said F. Howard Nelson, the report's author and a senior researcher at the AFT.  "Within-district transfers are very rare in all districts, and even rarer in districts with collective bargaining.  In fact, collective bargaining appears to bring stability to the workforce in high-poverty schools, where experienced teachers are needed most."

The AFT study draws on national data from the School and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the related Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS), both sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, to analyze the turnover, transfer rates and other characteristics of more than 40,000 teachers in schools with and without collective bargaining. Among the findings, the AFT study shows that schools with collective bargaining:

• Have lower teacher turnover.  For example, 13.6 percent of teachers in schools with collective bargaining left teaching or transferred after the 1999-2000 school year (the most recent year for which there are data) compared to 18.7 percent of teachers in schools without collective bargaining.
  
• Experience fewer teacher transfers.  The gap is most pronounced in high-poverty urban schools, where the total transfer rate (both within-district and out-of-district) is 8.4 percent among teachers with collective bargaining versus 13 percent among teachers without collective bargaining.  When only within-district transfers—the kind that would be influenced by teacher contracts—are examined for high-poverty schools, the transfer rate is 4 percent among teachers with collective bargaining versus 5.6 percent among teachers without collective bargaining.
  
• Better distribute first-year teachers.  In urban districts with collective bargaining, first-year teachers are evenly distributed between high- and low-poverty schools (5.7 percent versus 6.1 percent). In contrast, in urban districts without collective bargaining, high-poverty schools hire first-year teachers at three times the rate of low-poverty schools (10.1 percent versus 3.3 percent).

In light of these and other findings, the AFT encourages policymakers to look beyond teacher-transfer provisions in union contracts as a reason for the gap in teacher experience between low- and high-poverty schools.

"High-poverty urban schools have a harder time attracting and keeping experienced teachers, but this has almost nothing to do with teacher-transfer contract provisions," said Antonia Cortese, executive vice president of the AFT.  "Instead of being distracted by that straw man, we need to focus on what really works to attract and retain qualified teachers in high-poverty schools. We know what these solutions are, and some enterprising districts have already adopted them.  For the others, it's time to get down to business." 

The winter issue of AFT’s quarterly magazine, American Educator, will look at how teacher unions in several cities are cultivating solutions at the bargaining table to close the experience gap. According to the magazine, the best remedies often feature innovative contracts and center on creating conditions in high-poverty schools that support effective teaching, such as a safe and orderly environment, well-maintained facilities, smaller classes, mentoring and induction programs for new teachers, the expertise and resources to provide intensive early intervention to struggling students, and incentive pay. 

The complete AFT report, "The Impact of Collective Bargaining on Teacher Transfer Rates in Urban High-Poverty Schools," can be found on the AFT Web site at
www.aft.org/topics/teacher-quality/downloads/Teacher_Transfer_Rates.pdf.  A commentary on the report co-written by Nelson and Cortese will be published in the
Dec. 13 edition of Education Week.

The winter issue of American Educator will be available shortly on the AFT Web site at www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/index.htm.

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