University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 1996 The Plea of the Land: "Teach Our Children Better". Legislated Educational Reform and National Education Association Affiliates: Stakeholder Reports in Minnesota, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania Phyllis Fox Catz University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Educational Administration and Supervision Commons, Labor History Commons, and the Unions Commons Recommended Citation Catz, Phyllis Fox, "The Plea of the Land: "Teach Our Children Better". Legislated Educational Reform and National Education Association Affiliates: Stakeholder Reports in Minnesota, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania" (1996). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1535. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1535 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1535 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Plea of the Land: "Teach Our Children Better". Legislated Educational Reform and National Education Association Affiliates: Stakeholder Reports in Minnesota, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania Abstract Since the 1983 publication of A Nation at Risk, our country has engaged in an educational reform movement. This study examines the intervening years of National Education Association (NEA) state affiliatee k y members' activities and attitudes in Minnesota, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania involved with state-legislated educational reform. A neglected issue in A Nation at Risk is teacher unionism on reforms. Exploratory field study conducted (1988-89) unearthed salient issues. Five major variables considered in selection of states studied include: known unionism level; reform degree undertaken legislatively since 1983; value ascribed and citation frequency of reform; accessibility of significant players; and Elazar's state political cultures' category: moralistic, individualistic, or traditionalistic.