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Industrial Actions in Schools: Strikes and Student Achievement

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  • Baker, Michael

Abstract

Many jurisdictions ban teacher strikes on the assumption that they negatively affect student achievement, but there is surprisingly little research on this question. The majority of existing studies make cross section comparisons of the achievement of students who do or do not experience a strike. They conclude that strikes do not have an impact. I present new estimates of this impact of strikes using an empirical strategy that controls for fixed student characteristics at the school cohort level, and a sample of industrial actions by teachers in the province of Ontario. The results indicate that teacher strikes in grades 5 or 6 have negative, statistically significant impact on test score growth between grade 3 and grade 6. The largest impact is on math scores: 29 percent of the standard deviation of test scores across school/grade cohorts.

Suggested Citation

  • Baker, Michael, 2013. "Industrial Actions in Schools: Strikes and Student Achievement," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2013-8, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 25 Feb 2013.
    • Handle: RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2013-8
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    2. Hall, Caroline & Hardoy, Inés & Lundin, Martin, 2022. "Schooling in the Nordic countries during the COVID-19 pandemic," Working Paper Series 2022:13, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    3. 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.
    4. Werner, Katharina & Woessmann, Ludger, 2021. "The Legacy of COVID-19 in Education," IZA Discussion Papers 14796, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. 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.
    6. Piero Montebruno, 2020. "Disrupted schooling: impacts on achievement from the Chilean school occupations," CEP Discussion Papers dp1696, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    7. Major, Lee Elliott & Eyles, Andrew & Machin, Stephen, 2021. "Unequal learning and labour market losses in the crisis: consequences for social mobility," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114413, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Kóczán, Zs., 2024. "Lasting scars: The long-term effects of school closures on earnings," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    11. 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).
    12. 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.
    13. Kamila Cygan-Rehm, 2022. "Lifetime Consequences of Lost Instructional Time in the Classroom: Evidence from Shortened School Years," CESifo Working Paper Series 9892, CESifo.
    14. Ludger Wößmann, 2020. "Folgekosten ausbleibenden Lernens: Was wir über die Corona-bedingten Schulschließungen aus der Forschung lernen können," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(06), pages 38-44, June.
    15. 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.
    16. Silke Anger & Malte Sandner & Alexander M. Danzer & Axel Plünnecke & Olaf Köller & Enzo Weber & Samuel Mühlemann & Harald Pfeifer & Bernhard Wittek, 2020. "Schulschließungen, fehlende Ausbildungsplätze, keine Jobs: Generation ohne Zukunft?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(09), pages 03-24, September.
    17. Michael Baker, 2013. "Industrial actions in schools: strikes and student achievement," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(3), pages 1014-1036, August.
    18. 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).
    19. Jaume, David & Willén, Alexander, 2021. "The effect of teacher strikes on parents," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    20. 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.
    21. 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.
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    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

    Keywords

    Child development; human capital; universal access;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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