Article New Focus on Collective Bargaining

Increasingly, policy makers aiming to raise student achieve-ment have turned their attention to issues of teacher quality. The focus on teachers—and in particular on the variation in effectiveness of the teacher workforce—is driven by a grow-ing body of research that shows teacher quality to be the most important schooling factor in students ’ academic suc-cess (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005; Rockoff, 2004). While prominent in policy debates, less empirical attention has been paid to the governing mech-anisms that may influence the quality and distribution of teachers within school districts.1 Chief among these mecha-nisms are collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). It is surprising that few empirical studies have focused on CBAs given that it is quite common for policy makers and pundits alike to point to CBAs, and some CBA provisions in particular (e.g., seniority-based job protections), as key inhibitors to effective school district operation and studen