Limited information exists on how early career teachers, particularly those in "Generation Y", feel about the pension system and potential reforms to the pension system. This paper presents an analysis of the appeal of different aspects of pension plans; their influence on charter versus traditional public school teachers; and how…

This article examines the pattern of incentives for work versus retirement in six state teacher pension systems. We do this by examining the annual accrual of pension wealth from an additional year of work over a teacher's career. Accrual of wealth is highly nonlinear and heavily loaded at arbitrary years that would normally be considered…

This paper offers three constructive recommendations that apply specifically to public school teachers, the largest group of state and local government employees, and one of special importance to the long-term economic competitiveness of the country. The recommendations embrace and protect existing defined-benefit pension plans, which are under…

The concluding year of a lengthy career in school administration carries its share of emotional highs and lows. For those leaving the superintendency, it's also an opportunity to reflect on professional accomplishments, the chance to recount one's tangible impact on the lives of hundreds of fellow educators and thousands of school-age children…

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), in conjunction with local school systems (LSS) and institutions of higher education (IHE), has conducted an annual educator supply and demand study since 1986, the original purpose of which was to determine critical teacher shortage areas. Although data are collected annually, since 2008 the…

The Commission to Study the Adequacy and Equity of Certain Cost Components of the School Funding Formula was created in legislation crafted by the Joint Standing Committee on Education of the 126th Legislature (the "Education Committee"). The legislation was enacted as Resolve 2014, chapter 114. Creation of the Commission is the latest…

Teaching is not the safe career bet that it once was. The thinking used to be: New students will always be entering the public schools, and older teachers will always be retiring, so new teachers will always be needed. But teaching jobs aren't secure enough to stand up to the "Great Recession," as this drawn-out downturn has been called. Across…

When people talk about human capital or talent in public education, they generally focus on teachers, not principals. That's a mistake. School districts and states generally don't take a strategic approach toward managing their principal workforce. Often, they lack even the most basic information about who is leading their schools: Where do most…

We offer a concise history of teacher retirement plans in the United States, highlighting the increase in the generosity of the plans over the past 25 years. We employ data from plans in all fifty states to estimate the impact of a set of social and economic variables on the plans' replacement rates for a hypothetical teacher. We find that, at the…

This report is the second in an Illinois Education Research Council series on public school principals in Illinois. This study focuses on principals' movements during the 2001 to 2008 time period, thereby providing recent information on principal retention and turnover during a time marked by increasing school accountability and public scrutiny of…

Recent research (Strunk and Reardon forthcoming) applies Partial Independence Item Response (PIIR) models to teacher bargaining agreements in California to calculate the latent restrictiveness of these contracts. Further research (Strunk and Grissom 2010; Strunk forthcoming) tests the external validity of these estimates. Given that much research…

Chicago teachers voted last week to suspend a 7-day-old strike, sending some 350,000 students back to the classroom and paving the way for the teaching force to vote on a tentative contract. But for many in the Windy City, the contract has raised another potentially tall hurdle: how the cash-strapped district will manage to pay for it. District…

Fueled by declining revenue from the housing crisis, skyrocketing energy costs, and an economy in general disarray, the public is pressuring school administrators to make broader and deeper cuts in their operating budgets. As the baby boomers retire, put their houses on the market, and downsize, one will see more downward price pressure on home…

"Science and Engineering Indicators" (SEI) is first and foremost a volume of record comprising high-quality quantitative data on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise. SEI includes an overview and seven chapters that follow a generally consistent pattern. The chapter titles are as follows: (1) Elementary and…

"Turn and Face the Strain: Age Demographic Change and the Near Future of American Education" outlines a fierce battle looming between the needs of public health care and education. A crisis is fast approaching that makes comprehensive improvement of America's public schools more important than ever. Faced with rapidly expanding…