Massachussetts
National Council on Teacher Quality Report Card: Massachussetts Teacher Policy
Legend
 | Best practices. |
 | State meets goal. |
 | State nearly meets goal. |
 | State partially meets goal. |
 | State meets a small part of goal. |
 | State does not meet goal. |
| Full Report – National Council on Teacher Quality | |
Meeting NCLB Teacher Quality Objectives: B
| Goal A Equitable Distribution of Teachers |
| Goal B Elementary Teacher Preparation |
| Goal C Secondary Teacher Preparation |
| Goal D Veteran Teachers Path to HQT |
| Goal E Standardizing Credentials |
| Goal A Defining Professional Knowledge |
| Goal B Meaningful Licenses |
| Goal C Interstate Portability |
| Goal D Teacher Prep in Reading Instruction |
| Goal E Distinguishing Promising Teachers |
Teacher Evaluation and Compensation: D
| Goal A Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness |
| Goal B Using Value-Added |
| Goal C Teacher Evaluation |
| Goal D Compensation Reform |
| Goal E Tenure |
State Approval of Teacher Preparation Programs: D
| Goal A Entry Into Preparation Programs |
| Goal B Program Accountability |
| Goal C Program Approval and Accreditation |
| Goal D Controlling Coursework Creep |
Alternate Routes to Certification: C
| Goal A Genuine Alternatives |
| Goal B Limiting Alternate Routes to Teachers with Strong Credentials |
| Goal C Program Accountability |
| Goal D Interstate Portability |
Preparation of Special Education Teachers: C
| Goal A Special Education Teacher Preparation |
| Goal B Elementary Special Education Teachers |
| Goal C Secondary Special Education Teachers |
| Goal D Special Education Teacher and HQT |
Political contribution statistics from 2004 political cycle.
Union Political Contribution Totals
| Amount | Union |
| $ 48,785 | Massachusetts Federation Of Teachers/mft |
| $ 28,500 | Boston Teachers Union |
| $ 19,831 | Massachusetts Teachers Assoc/vote |
| 0.23% experienced (3+ years) teacher firing rate |
2.43% teacher firing rate |
9.8% |
Statewide Unions
Massachusetts Teachers Association
Total Revenue: $ 30,967,958
Total Expenses: $ 30,767,542
Total Assets: $ 20,081,031
Massachusetts Federation of Teachers
Total Revenue: $ 3,320,527
Total Expenses: $ 3,132,223
Total Assets: $ 1,488,701
Largest Non-Statewide Unions
| Union Name / District | Affiliation | Total Rev. | Total Exp. | Total Assets |
| Boston Teachers Union Boston Public Schools |
AFT | $ 5,054,083 | $ 5,294,020 | $ 3,237,533 |
Other Unions
| Name | City | Total Rev. | Tax Period |
| Massachusetts Teachers Association | Boston | $ 30,967,958 | 2003 |
| American Federation Of Teachers Boston 66 | Boston | $ 5,054,083 | 2004 |
| American Federation Of Teachers | Boston | $ 3,320,527 | 2004 |
| Massachusetts Teachers Association | Bridgewater | $ 1,430,006 | 2004 |
| Massachusetts Teachers Association | Worcester | $ 868,982 | 2003 |
| American Federation Of Teachers | Lowell | $ 823,300 | 2003 |
| American Federation Of Teachers | Lynn | $ 714,620 | 2004 |
| American Federation Of Teachers | Lawrence | $ 497,749 | 2003 |
| Massachusetts Teachers Association | Haverill | $ 443,286 | 2004 |
| Massachusetts Teachers Association | Springfield | $ 434,669 | 2004 |
For this massive new project, the Center for Union Facts filed freedom of information requests with dozens of America’s major school districts.
From the stacks of paperwork that ensued, we have calculated a variety of statistics that document how teachers unions – and the laws and policies they defend – keep bad teachers in classrooms. Read on to discover just what all that dues money pays for in many cities around the country.
Boston Teachers Union: Protecting Bad Teachers
How We Discovered These Facts
This information comes from the Boston Public Schools response to a public information request filed by the Center for Union Facts, which asked for teachers who were terminated, as well as those who resigned or retired in lieu of termination. The request also asked for any settlements between the district and teachers facing termination.Click here to read our full letter to Boston Public Schools.
Click here to see the documents produced by Boston Public Schools.
The Boston Teachers Union (BTU) is the exclusive bargaining agent for teachers from the Boston Public Schools district. According to district records, however, policies defended by BTU and its parent unions (AFT Massachusetts and the American Federation of Teachers) mean that practically no teachers are ever fired by the school system after they work for three years and thus acquire tenure.
In Boston, there are approximately 3,652 teachers with tenure. Original research by the Center for Union Facts into school district records indicates that, between the 2002-03 and the 2006-07 school years, only twenty-five tenured teachers were fired by the district. That means that Boston Public Schools fires about 0.14 percent of its tenured teachers annually.
The typical union response to such abysmally low statistics is that tenured teachers are commonly "counseled out" of their jobs if they're not fit to teach. But a look at the records of the quasi-judicial proceedings the district must use with teachers it wants to get rid of suggests that it's not very common at all. In the span of five years, thirty-four tenured teachers signed settlements agreeing to leave their jobs. Again, that's only about 0.19 percent of tenured teachers a year. So the union argument that tenured teachers get "counseled out" at significant rates doesn't hold water -- out of more than 3,600 tenured teachers, that's less than seven a year.
Shockingly, several of these union-negotiated settlements -- 24 out of the 34 in the years studied -- contain clauses where the district has been made to promise that it won't give future employers any indication as to why a teacher left. This can be the case even if a teacher is being paid to simply stay home and away from school! Several settlements contain further disturbing language, such as provisions that require teachers' performance evaluations to be removed from their personnel files.
These settlements also contain disturbing allegations that suggest why the district wanted these teachers to leave. Some actual quotes from settlements:
- "inappropriate touching of a female student"
- "used inappropriate and excessive force on a student"
- "directing profane and otherwise inappropriate language toward students, making threatening statements to students, engaging in corporal punishment, and collecting unemployment benefits while working for the Boston Public Schools"
It's easy to believe that the vast majority of Boston's public schoolteachers are doing a good job, but it's a near-impossibility that fully 99.67 percent of its tenured teachers deserve to be in front of kids; any group of people that size is bound to have at least a few more bad apples than the ones noted above. The best explanation, in our opinion, is that by protecting an outmoded employment system in the legislature and by turning tenured teacher termination cases into equivalents of a criminal trial, the Boston Teachers Union and its affiliates have made it nearly impossible to fire bad teachers.
Source: Boston Public Schools
Data current as of November 27, 2007
© 2010 Center for Union Facts