Are teachers unions good or bad for public education in the United States? A century after the first teachers union was formed in Chicago, teachers unions have gained a stronghold in the ranks of organized labor in the United States. However, there is still a relatively small body of literature on the effects of teachers unions, and whether teachers unions should be demonized or canonized remains a question of dispute. What is clear is that more research on the compatibility of teachers unions and educational reform is needed.

Tom Loveless, editor of Conflicting Missions? Teachers Unions and Educational Reform, contends that a "serious gap exists between what we think we know about teachers unions and what we really know" (p. 2). In an effort to close this gap between opinion and research, Loveless invited papers from researchers who represent a variety of disciplines and employ different methodologies to "inventory what is known about the impact of teachers unions on educational reform; to analyze the quality of that knowledge . . . and to identify questions on which future investigations would be fruitful" (p. 2). The result, Conflicting Missions? is a compilation of research on the history, effects, and future of teachers unions and educational reform. Although Loveless warns that "ideologues who are searching for unequivocal evidence that teachers unions either wear halos from heaven or horns from hell will not find what they are looking for in this volume" (p. 6), readers who are interested in the complex issues of teachers unions and educational reform and who seek detailed descriptions and evidence of the complicated tensions will find this book invaluable.

The book is made up of nine chapters that address a range of issues, including a comparative analysis of teachers’ contracts, case studies of state and local policy changes, analysis of union positions on school choice, discussion of threats to union efficacy in the current political climate, history of research and development in unions, an international view of unions, and forecasts for the "frontiers" of unionism. The researchers’ ideologies are as varied as the content. While readers will not find diatribes against teachers unions, they will find disagreement about the influence of teachers unions and their future in educational reform.

Contributors Susan Moore Johnson and Susan M. Kardos begin the book with the question, What role should unions and collective bargaining play in school reform? They examine eleven district contracts from a national sample, comparing pre-1986 contracts with contracts from the 1990s. They observe that collective bargaining has changed over time, and that negotiated agreements now reflect two different approaches to bargaining, which they label "industrial bargaining" and "reform bargaining" (p. 8). They conclude that the role of collective bargaining should be enlarged in order to promote reform bargaining and student success.

In the second chapter, Joe Stone continues with an analysis of the effects of collective bargaining on schools. Stone investigates whether unions are culpable for the perceived failures of public schools by assessing the evidence on the range of possible effects of collective bargaining. Stone concludes that there is "little evidence" of the relationship between collective bargaining and lowered student achievement, while more evidence suggests that collective bargaining has had "powerful effects" on traditional bargaining items, such as pay, benefits, working conditions, and the total costs of schools. Stone maintains that the union has been the scapegoat in public discourse about the perceived failure of public education.

Dale Ballou and Michael Podgursky, proponents of deregulating school licensure, take up the issue of "gaining control of professional licensing and advancement" (p. 69) in chapter three. They suggest that the "monopoly" of public education gives unions market power that is not enjoyed by other unions or by producers in other industries.

James G. Cibulka takes on the contentious issue of school choice and teachers unions with a chapter on the National Education Association (NEA) and school choice. Cibulka observes that unions have become an important stakeholder in the national debate on this issue. He studied the history of the NEA’s position and observed that the nuance of its position is best explained by two analytical perspectives, an institutional perspective and a leadership regime perspective. Cibulka concludes that the likelihood of the NEA advocating for school choice (including charter schools) is slight, though the NEA will continue to stake its claim as a player in the political debate.

William Lowe Boyd, David N. Plank, and Gary Sykes continue to examine market-based education policy and politics in a case study of Pennsylvania and Michigan. They declare that teachers unions have fallen onto "hard times" with increasingly limited power in those two states, and they attribute this constraint to political events and state politicians, specifically Governors Engler (Michigan) and Ridge (Pennsylvania). The authors assert that the future of teachers unions in these states is uncertain. They herald individual teacher response to the decline of unions and their loss of voice in policy debates as the critical issues for future reformers.

While much of the book calls for further research, Maris A. Vinovskis’s chapter is devoted to a chronological review of teachers unions and educational research and development. Vinovskis explains the past contributions of educational research from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the NEA and follows changes in this research over time. At the end of the chapter, Vinovskis poses a challenge to the unions, questioning whether unions should simultaneously sponsor research and use that same research to further their policy agenda. Vinovskis urges further discussion on this topic.

Bruce S. Cooper provides an international perspective and comparative analysis in chapter eight, arguing that teachers unions have succeeded in raising wages and improving labor conditions in the United States and internationally. Cooper investigates teachers unions in fifteen countries and examines their adaptation to international political change. He finds that four characteristics shape the unions’ functions: funding sources, political controls, union affiliations, and professional rights and responsibilities.

What is the future for teachers unions and educational reform in the United States? Charles Taylor Kerchner and Julia E. Koppich complete the book with a forecaster’s eye in "Organizing around Quality: The Frontiers of Teacher Unionism," focusing their attention on pioneering, reform-oriented unions: Minneapolis, Minnesota; Rochester, New York; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Seattle, Washington. Kerchner and Koppich pose three fundamental questions: Can teachers unions successfully organize around quality teaching and standards for students? Are there substantial barriers to the spread of reform unionism? What statutory and structural choices would be necessary if a state were to decide to provide incentives for teachers to organize around quality? (pp. 282–283). The answers they offer suggest that unions can organize around quality teaching, though it will be difficult, will meet with resistance, and requires an examination of state statutes. Kerchner and Koppich urge teachers unions to move away from the industrial unionism of the past and call for state labor laws that would encourage union organization around teaching quality.

For the reader interested in the intersections, possibilities, and future for teachers unions and school reform, Conflicting Missions? Teachers Unions and Educational Reform offers insightful analysis of the conflicts and proposals for unions and educational reform.

H.G.P.