The ongoing crisis in teacher pension funding has led states to consider various reforms in plan design to replace the traditional benefit formulas, based on years of service and final average salary (FAS). One such design is a cash balance (CB) plan, long deployed in the private sector, and increasingly considered, but rarely yet adopted, for…

The growing fiscal cost of K-12 teacher pension plans and pension-induced labor market distortions have led to calls for teacher pension reforms. Dynamic structural econometric models are a useful way to analyze the fiscal and staffing consequences of current and alternative retirement plans. This article lays out the benefits of the structural…

In 2019, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) began exploratory data collection for the School Pension Survey (SPS). The SPS is a new data collection of elementary/secondary school teacher pension data collected at the school district level. The SPS was developed primarily in response to public demand for data on teacher and other…

This mixed methods study examined teacher attrition and burnout, along with factors contributing to teachers' intent to leave their positions due to job dissatisfaction, work-related stress levels, and student behavior. The following questions guided this study:What was the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and intent to leave? What…

Do employees at public colleges and universities have better retirement benefits than K-12 employees? This is the central question in the new report "Choice and Quality Among Retirement Plans for Educators." To answer this question, we evaluate the quality of higher education and K-12 retirement plans using five key variables: (1)…

Public school districts are facing twin challenges: maintaining a labor supply of qualified teachers while shoring up the deteriorating system that compensates them. Keeping public-school teachers' pensions plans flush is expensive, and it accounts for a growing share of education spending. In some states, public charter schools provide an…

Considering Black women's historic contributions and enduring legacy in education, their continual disproportionate underrepresentation in US public schools is severely problematic. The absence of Black women in many public schools nationally is disconcerting given their potential to improve school outcomes for students of Color. Despite this…

Teacher turnover is a significant issue in education that negatively affects students' academic performance and instructional continuity. While multiple factors impact turnover, the effects of violence directed against teachers on turnover have rarely been explored. The current study examines the extent to which (dis)empowerment applies to…

This study investigated a sample of California elementary, intermediate, and high school employed teachers (N = 247) to assess the effects of retirement perceptions on career commitment among teachers who are in different age groupings. Using path analysis, the influence of five retirement perceptions variables was examined: concerns about…

African American (AA) men have unique perspectives, talents, and insights that are currently absent from public school systems, despite the fact that they have made significant contributions to the field of education and to African American children in particular (Hayes, Juarez, & Escoffery-Runnels, 2014). Studies outline the importance and…

Retirement savings are often described as a three-legged stool: Social Security, employer retirement plans, and personal savings. For many American workers, Social Security is the most consistent portion of the three-legged model, providing a solid plank of retirement savings. But nationwide, more than 1 million teachers--about 40 percent of all…

Using a qualitative, multiple case study research approach, the personal stories of eight K-12 educators who retired within the past six years were gathered and analyzed. The goal of the study was to understand how educators struggle, or do not struggle, with the life changing event of bringing closure to a career after spending decades in the…

This study, conducted by the Office of Shared Accountability (OSA) in Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), aims to describe the characteristics of the teaching staff in MCPS, as well as to examine differences across levels and types of schools. The analysis is mainly descriptive and intends ultimately to inform policies and…

After Ava McCall retired from university teaching in June, 2015, she spent the 2015-2016 school year volunteering in a fourth-grade classroom helping to teach Wisconsin history. Her volunteer work was similar to other retired teachers in the local school district who returned to mentor new teachers, volunteer in classrooms, and serve as substitute…

The purpose of the study was to explore retirement planning, challenges, and counseling among teachers of public schools in the Sekondi Circuit in the Western Region, Ghana. A sample of 50 teachers was selected through convenience sampling. Only teachers who expressed interest in participating in the study were sampled. The main instrument for…