Examining the Antecedents and Outcomes of Contemporary Large Teacher Strikes

As teacher strikes remain a prominent phenomenon within the United States, it is critical to examine their prevalence, potential causes, and consequences to understand the evolving dynamics of education policy, labor relations, and teaching as a profession. Using a unique longitudinal dataset of large teacher strikes between 1993 and 2019, we find strikes occur in waves and various economic, socio-political, and occupational factors predict strike occurrences. We also find evidence that these factors operate differently in right-to-work and non-right-to-work states. Lastly, we find that large strikes are associated with higher average teacher salaries in subsequent years, but with no substantive change in student achievement.