Since I have no context for comparing state associations I don't know what strong means, but number ten is in the Strongest Tier. One of the surprises for me was the low ranking (32nd) for Involvement In Politics as my perception has always been that WEA is deeply involved in the state's political landscape. Looking at the categories in this section shows that campaign donations in comparison to other donors is a big component of the rank, but what dropped them down is the percentage of delegates to the Democratic and Republican conventions where they rank 48th. Contrast this rank with one in the Perceived Influence where WEA was ranked as the most or second most influential in response to the following question. How do you rank the influence of teacher unions on education policy compared with other influential entities? I can't help but wonder if this rank would be the same if the study were conducted after next Tuesday and if the charter initiative were to pass.
Below are the ratings for categories in each area. I wonder how the "reformers" and policy makers will use this data to influence future public education policy and direction.
2 comments:
Very interesting. I would have made the same assumption. The WEAPAC numbers are getting higher with over 60% of TEA members contributing members to WEAPAC. I think that charters (lack there of) probably play a big part of our ranking in the policy portion of these ranks. We will see what happens on Tuesday.
Very enlightening post Mike.
I may very well be misinformed, but I have the impression that many of the lowest achieving states are also states on the lowest tier of union strength. Interesting.
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