In 1987, the Rochester Teachers Association and the Board of Education negotiated a ground-breaking contract that included a professional career ladder for teachers, mandated shared decision making at the school level, and called for strengthening the relationship between teachers and their students' families. This article analyzes the teachers' response to these reforms and suggests a number of issues to be resolved as implementation of the reform continues. Teachers were positive about the reform ideas but raised a variety of critical concerns about various aspects of the reform initiatives.
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