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POSTED BY FROSTY TROY

The term "teacher union leader" typically evokes a hard-charging labor activist who shares an adversarial relationship with the school district, is focused solely on protecting members' bread-and-butter interests, and flees from phrases like "school reform."

But a new report based largely on interviews with 30 local union presidents who each have spent less than eight years in office paints an evolved picture of leaders who are often involved in collaborative relationships with their school superintendents.

They have to work together constantly to balance the needs of a new generation of teachers with the needs of older members.

They see the importance of framing arguments for improved salaries and working conditions within the context of improved schools and building a better teaching force.

The unprecedented demands for evidence of student success under state and federal accountability laws have changed the mix.

In this new atmosphere, industrial-style bargaining, which pits one side against the other, is of little use in solving different problems or developing new programs.

There are also challenges from within. Today's union leaders deal with two very different groups of members -- veterans who want to preserve traditional approaches to pay and protections, and new teachers who demand strong support from unions in the first years of teaching, and ongoing training, as well as innovations in pay.