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Industrial Actions in Schools: Strikes and Student Achievement

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  • Michael Baker

Abstract

While many jurisdictions ban teacher strikes on the assumption that they harm students, there is surprisingly little research on this question. The majority of existing studies make cross section comparisons of students who do or do not experience a strike, and report that strikes do not affect student performance. I present new estimates from a sample of strikes in the Canadian province of Ontario over the period 1998-2005. The empirical strategy controls for fixed student characteristics at the school cohort level. The results indicate that teacher strikes in grades 2 or 3 have on average a small, negative and statistically insignificant effect on grade 3 through grade 6 test score growth, although there is some heterogeneity across school boards. The effect of strikes in grades 5 and 6 on grade 3 through grade 6 score growth is negative, much larger and statistically significant. The largest impact is on math scores: 29 percent of the standard deviation of test scores across school/grade cohorts.

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  • Michael Baker, 2011. "Industrial Actions in Schools: Strikes and Student Achievement," NBER Working Papers 16846, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16846
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    Cited by:

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    2. Harold E. Cuffe & Glen R. Waddell & Wesley Bignell, 2017. "Can School Sports Reduce Racial Gaps In Truancy And Achievement?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1966-1985, October.
    3. Piero Montebruno, 2020. "Disrupted schooling: impacts on achievement from the Chilean school occupations," CEP Discussion Papers dp1696, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Martin Gustafsson & Carol Nuga Deliwe, 2020. "How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting educational quality in South Africa? Evidence to date and future risks," Working Papers 23/2020, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    5. Blaskó, Zsuzsa & da Costa, Patricia & Schnepf, Sylke V., 2021. "Learning Loss and Educational Inequalities in Europe: Mapping the Potential Consequences of the COVID-19 Crisis," IZA Discussion Papers 14298, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ludger Wößmann, 2020. "Follow-up Costs of Not Learning: What We Can Learn from Research on Coronavirus-Related School Closures," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(06), pages 38-44, June.
    7. Lee Elliot Major & Andrew Eyles & Stephen Machin, 2021. "Unequal Learning and Labour Market Losses in the Crisis: Consequences for Social Mobility," CEPEO Working Paper Series 21-02, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, revised Mar 2021.
    8. Stefan Bauernschuster & Timo Hener & Helmut Rainer, 2017. "When Labor Disputes Bring Cities to a Standstill: The Impact of Public Transit Strikes on Traffic, Accidents, Air Pollution, and Health," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-37, February.
    9. Silke Anger & Malte Sandner & Alexander M. Danzer & Axel Plünnecke & Olaf Köller & Enzo Weber & Samuel Mühlemann & Harald Pfeifer & Bernhard Wittek, 2020. "School Closures, Lack of Apprenticeships, No Jobs: Generation without a Future?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(09), pages 03-24, September.
    10. Ardington, Cally & Wills, Gabrielle & Kotze, Janeli, 2021. "COVID-19 learning losses: Early grade reading in South Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    11. Jaume, David & Willén, Alexander, 2021. "The effect of teacher strikes on parents," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    12. Michael Baker, 2013. "Industrial actions in schools: strikes and student achievement," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 46(3), pages 1014-1036, August.
    13. Darmody, Merike & Smyth, Emer & Russell, Helen, 2020. "The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for policy in relation to children and young people: a research review," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number SUSTAT94, August.
    14. Sangeeta Lal & Rahul Mourya, 2022. "For CS Educators, by CS Educators: An Exploratory Analysis of Issues and Recommendations for Online Teaching in Computer Science," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, August.
    15. Werner, Katharina & Woessmann, Ludger, 2021. "The Legacy of COVID-19 in Education," IZA Discussion Papers 14796, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. NISHIHATA Masaya & KOBAYASHI Yohei, 2022. "Inequalities in Student Learning and Screen Time Due to COVID-19: Evidence from Japan," Discussion papers 22107, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    17. Sirvan Karimi, 2020. "Strikes in the Canadian Higher Education Sector: The Feasibility of Compulsory Binding Arbitration," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 9(2), pages 1-54, April.
    18. Giorgio Di Pietro & Federico Biagi & Patricia Costa & Zbigniew Karpinski & Jacopo Mazza, 2020. "The likely impact of COVID-19 on education: Reflections based on the existing literature and recent international datasets," JRC Research Reports JRC121071, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
    19. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila, 2023. "Lifetime consequences of lost instructional time in the classroom: Evidence from shortened school years," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277608, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Andrew Eyles & Stephen Gibbons & Piero Montebruno, 2020. "Covid-19 school shutdowns: what will they do to our children's education?," CEP Covid-19 Analyses cepcovid-19-001, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    21. Kamila Cygan-Rehm, 2022. "Lifetime Consequences of Lost Instructional Time in the Classroom: Evidence from Shortened School Years," CESifo Working Paper Series 9892, CESifo.
    22. Alban Conto, Carolina & Akseer, Spogmai & Dreesen, Thomas & Kamei, Akito & Mizunoya, Suguru & Rigole, Annika, 2021. "Potential effects of COVID-19 school closures on foundational skills and Country responses for mitigating learning loss," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    23. Abadía Alvarado, Luz Karime & Gómez Soler, Silvia C. & Cifuentes González, Juanita, 2021. "The effect of teacher strikes on academic achievement: Evidence from Colombia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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