This paper focuses on the analysis of determinants of public education spending in OECD countries. It starts out by reviewing and replicating the model presented by Castles (1989, 1998), finding that only a few of his explanatory variables remain significant in a pooled time-series framework. I present an alternative model that contains socio-economic, political, and institutional variables: the level of economic development, the magnitude of demographic demand, the constitutional veto structure, the level of public social expenditures, the degree of tax-revenue decentralization as well as government participation of conservative parties.

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Determinants of public education spending in 21 OECD democracies, 1980–2001

Effective schools variables identified in several literature reviews were collapsed into 6 constructs, and the independent effect of each construct was empirically tested on student achievement level. The data for this analysis were taken from the National Educational Longitudinal Study for the years 1988, 1990, and 1992. The regression analysis of the data indicates that the most important effective schools characteristics are an achievement-oriented school culture, principal autonomy in hiring and firing teachers, and high teacher morale. No evidence was found that teacher empowerment, teacher education level, most principal influences, and quality of relations between the administration and the school are related to student performance.

An Empirical Test of Conclusions from Effective Schools Research.

An examination of the research relating to school reform proposals. It features essays covering: early childhood education; class-size reduction in grades K-3; small schools; grouping students for instruction; public schools and their communities; teacher characteristics; and more.

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School reform proposals : the research evidence

Teacher unions have been demonized by their critics and canonized by their advocates for years, but the actual relationship between teacher unions and educational performance has received very little empirical scrutiny. In this article, Lala Carr Steelman, Brian Powell, and Robert Carini examine the question, "Do teacher unions hinder educational performance?" Focusing on two of the best-known standardized tests, the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT), the authors examine whether interstate variation in standardized test performance is negatively linked to interstate variation in teacher unions. They find a significant and positive relationship: that is, the presence of teacher unions appears to be linked to stronger state performance on these exams. These findings challenge the position that teacher unions depress student academic performance, and in so doing invite further empirical scholarship on this topic from a range of academic disciplines.

Do Teacher Unions Hinder Educational Performance?: Lessons Learned from State SAT and ACT Scores

Purpose: Teachers’ satisfaction with their jobs has reached the lowest point in 25 years. One contributing factor is when teachers experience information-poor hiring processes and do not obtain an accurate preview of their positions, their person–organization (P-O) fit, and person–job (P-J) fit. Sparked by a renewed focus on the variables that can influence teacher satisfaction, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among accurate job preview, P-O and P-J fit, and job satisfaction among teachers. Research Approach: Drawing on existing literature, a mediation model was hypothesized. Using existing data collected by the Center for Research, Evaluation, and Advancement of Teacher Education, a structural equation model was tested with a sample of 729 newly hired teachers. Specifically addressed was the extent to which P-O and P-J fit mediated the relationship between accurate job preview and satisfaction. Findings: Accurate job preview predicted future P-O and P-J fit. Higher levels of P-...

The Hiring Process Matters: The Role of Person-Job and Person-Organization Fit in Teacher Satisfaction.

In a recent article in this journal, Michael Kurth presented what he considered evidence that teachers’ unions impair educational achievement and that what they must do to increase teachers’ salaries is harmful to educational excellence. This comment critically examines Kurth’s misspecified model and the misleadingly defined variables that led to the erroneous empirical support for his conclusion. Our own estimates indicate that states with a high level of collective bargaining had higher SAT scores in 1982.

Teachers’ unions and excellence in education: Comment

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Teacher Salaries, Expenditures and Federal Revenue in School Districts Serving the Nation's Largest Cities, 1990-91 to 2000-01. Research Report.

Until recently , nearly everyone in the United States believed that the U .S . spent more on education than other nations no matter how you measured education spending . This notion persisted despite the absence of any study proving the point . The ideology of the American common school holding that all children had a right to an equal education at public expense through the age of 1 8 without early educational track­ ing , and a good shot at a college education without regard to parental income allowed no other ranking for the U .S . besides number 1 . In spite of some feel­ ings that teachers were more respected , better pre­ pared, and better paid in other countries (Barrow & Suter, 1988) , no politician, scholar, think tank, or educational interest group attacked the self-evidency of high American spending on education . The combi­ nation of apparently high spending with low scores on international tests for U.S. students served to rule out increasing or maintaining financial support for educa­ tion as a key component of educational reform. In early 1990, however, the Economic Policy Insti­ tute (EPI) (Mishel & Rasell , 1990) released a report contending that thirteen other industrialized countries invest more money , relative to their national . economy , on elementary and secondary education than the U .S . does . The EPI report warned that , we may , \"get what we pay for. Given the level of invest­ ment in our pre-primary , primary , and secondary schools , it is not surprising that we are slipping behind in comparative measures of performance as well . \" The U.S . Department of Education attacked the EPI report as mixing \"apples , oranges and moonbeams to produce on indigestible concoction\" (Education Daily, Jan . 17 , 1990) . The arguments of the department surfaced around the country in the conservative press, particularly conservative columnists . A year after the release of the EPI report, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) (Nelson , 1 99 1 ) released a study con­ firming the basic thrust of the EPI arguments even after making numerous comparisons suggested by the critics of the EPI report .

The Myth of High Public Spending on American Education.

Good working conditions for teachers make a vital contribution to the educational success of children, and poor working conditions create nearly insurmountable obstacles to student learning. In this article, I examine teachers' class sizes, workdays, workweeks, and work years as well as the broader conditions of employment such as benefits and issues of job security I rely here on various government and union surveys. International data come largely from an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) study (Nelson and O'Brien 1993) synthesizing international studies of teacher working conditions as well as data obtained by the AFT through foreign embassies here, U.S. embassies abroad, teacher unions in foreign countries, and foreign government education agencies responsible for collecting or distributing data. Because data for several years and different sources are synthesized, the information should be considered as generally applicable rather than definitive.

Conditions of Employment for Teachers in the United States.

It is commonly assumed that urban school districts hire teachers late due to issues related to district size and/or restrictions in collectively bargained teacher contracts affecting teacher hiring and transfers between schools. Our investigation of late teacher hiring and collective bargaining is based on a survey of 40 school districts that captured information about teacher transfer and hiring timelines. Findings indicate no differences between collective bargaining districts and non-bargaining districts in late teacher hiring. The findings confirm big differences in late hiring between suburbs and cities even when controlling for collective bargaining status and other contextual variables. Late school district budget action was also associated with late hiring.

F. Howard Nelson

Papers

Teachers’ unions and excellence in education: Comment

Teacher Salaries, Expenditures and Federal Revenue in School Districts Serving the Nation's Largest Cities, 1990-91 to 2000-01. Research Report.

The Myth of High Public Spending on American Education.

Conditions of Employment for Teachers in the United States.

The Impact of Collective Bargaining and Urbanicity on the Late Hiring of Teachers