t years, on two related fronts in particular: school reform and teacher contract provisions. Indeed, one headline in the literature explains that school reform "ain't 'bout nuttin' but time" (McGhan 337); the article says that teachers cannot implement policies calling for educational reform because in addition to instructional time they are required to devote time to clerical duties (i.e., not lesson plans), and notes that the National Education Association, the principal teachers' union, calls for contractual time for lesson preparation.
Such calls have been translated into direct action on the contractual front, in a variety of venues. In April 1986, after nine months of contract negotiations reached an impasse over salary increases, some 550 secondary and elementary school teachers in Burbank, California, voted to boycott spring open house evenings, at which parents and teachers have traditionally conferred regarding students. Some teachers also refused to turn in grade reports to school administrators. Instead, teachers planned to stand outside school facilities at the meetings and distribute leaflets explaining the teachers' frustration with the Burbank school district (Braxton 6).
In May 1989, after 17 months of negotiations and after working for nearly one full school year without a contract, Los Angeles teachers went out on strike for the first time in 19 years. More than two-thirds of teachers were walking picket lines at one point. Among the most hotly contested issues were the cancellation of mandatory yard supervision by elementary school instructors and the establishment of teacher participation in school policy administration and development (Enriquez and Gordon 1). Although elementary school teachers' contracts provided for a 30-minute planning period before school and 10 minutes after class, teachers reported often spending such times on meetings or supervision duties and using lunch periods to do paperwork, plan ...