The Strength of Teacher Organizations: Factors Influencing Membership in Two Large Cities

Teacher organizations in large cities are exercising increasing influence on local school policies. In this study aggregate and individual data are used to explore correlates at several points in time of membership strength of three teacher groups in New York City and Boston. Factors examined include personal attribubtes of teachers, such as sex and experience; school contextual characteristics, suck as size, teaching conditions, and administrators' affiliations; and organizational activities, particutlarly campaigns to win substantive goals. Findings illustrate how factors va'ry in their relationship to strength, depending upon city, school division, and an organization 's stage of development.