Public schools must prepare students to live and work in a world that is constantly changing. To do this well, students and teachers alike need modern classrooms that are flexible, iterative, individualized, and constantly improving. Teacher contracts are a frequently overlooked yet essential lever for achieving the transformation we need to do that.
Designing Contracts for a Modern Classroom: The ABCs of CBAs, a new report by the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University and Educators for Excellence (E4E), examines the challenges created by current contracting processes and explores approaches for enabling contract innovation that can lead to improved learning experiences and a stronger profession.
"Contracts, both what they say and the ways they are built, are ripe with opportunity for positive change,” said CPRL Senior Director Molly Gurny, one of the report’s authors. The research report sets a vision for how school systems can design student-centered, flexible, transparent, and inclusive contracts and collective bargaining processes as tools for transformational change. E4E has also created a website with examples of contract language and case studies.
Read the report.