Last spring, teachers in San Francisco and Oakland threatened their first strike since 1979. In Detroit, 1,500 teachers in more than 50 schools participated in an unofficial “sickout” over salary issues. In a climate of financial constraint and escalating pressure to meet the federal mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), tensions between school district management and teachers unions appear to be rising nationwide.

But at the same time, in districts across the country, these traditional foes have been working together to implement collaborative reforms. From merit pay systems to peer review programs, innovations designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms have been introduced into today’s collective bargaining agreements.