Charles Taylor Kerchner

Charles Taylor Kerchner is professor emeritus in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University and a senior research fellow. His work focuses on institutional change in public education, including teacher unions, education reform, and unconventional learning environments. He has studied large-scale system transformations, including an analysis of education reform in the Los Angeles Unified School District and other major city school systems. Kerchner has examined the implications of teacher unionization, co-authoring United Mind Workers: Unions and Teaching in the Knowledge Society and advocating for new approaches to labor negotiations in education. His work has appeared in the American Journal of Education, The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and Education Week, where he wrote the On California column. Before joining Claremont, he was a faculty member at Northwestern University and a staff member at the Illinois Board of Higher Education. He was formerly a journalist for the St. Petersburg Times. Kerchner earned his MBA and BS from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and his PhD from Northwestern University.

updated 2025