By Connie Harris

April 2007

FSU EDUCATION ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AWARDED SPENCER RESEARCH GRANT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida State University College of Education faculty member Lora Cohen-Vogel has been awarded a prestigious research grant worth nearly $40,000 by the Spencer Foundation to study school personnel policies.

Cohen-Vogel, an assistant professor in the department of educational leadership and policy studies, will conduct a research study titled "Teachers Unions, School Districts and Capacity Building for Teacher Assignment Reform in Elementary Schools." The purpose of the study is to understand the organizational and institutional factors that contribute to the processes used by superintendents and principals to allocate instructional staff to schools and classrooms. According to Cohen-Vogel, this will be the first study to compare teacher assignment practices in districts where bargaining agreements between school boards and teachers' unions limit or promote administrative discretion.

Many school leaders contend that to make the improvements in quality and equity that government provisions demand, they need more flexibility in personnel management, specifically in their decisions about teacher assignment. Previous research suggests that the most significant obstacle to better assignment decisions is collective bargaining, and critics contend that bargaining agreements contribute to inequities and inefficiencies in teacher assignment.

However, recent research conducted by Cohen-Vogel and her colleagues indicates that while staffing rules embedded in the agreements often favor senior teachers, some contracts also grant administrators substantial discretion over transfers, reductions and reassignments. The end result of her new study could have implications for educational policy and practice.

"Should we find that contractual flexibility does not necessarily transform the processes by which districts and schools assign teachers, current calls to eliminate or reduce assignment provisions in collective bargaining agreements may be misdirected," Cohen-Vogel said. "Instead, the reform of teacher assignment may require changes in the routines, norms and conventions used by districts and principals to hire, transfer and terminate teachers."

The Spencer Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to investigate ways in which education can be improved around the world. The organization has granted approximately $250 million since it began making awards in 1971. More information is available online at www.spencer.org.

More information about FSU's College of Education and the department of educational leadership and policy studies can be found online at www.coe.fsu.edu.

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