Boosting early retirement in cash-strapped districts does not hurt students' math and reading scores, according to new studies released at the American Economic Association meeting, but pension-incentive programs may cost schools some of their most effective teachers. Separate studies of teachers in California, Illinois, and North Carolina paint a…

California has promised its public employees lavish pensions and retiree health benefits without setting aside nearly enough money to pay for those benefits. As a result, California already admits to a $75.5 billion shortfall in paying for these promises to public employees--$40.5 billion for the teachers' retirement plan (California State…

This study explores the differences among California's counties and regions in their needs for new school-site administrators in the coming decade, as driven by a combination of projected administrator retirements and projected student enrollment changes. The projected need for new school-site administrators, based solely on these combined…

Community college leadership programs may take a variety of forms, among them university-based programs, leadership institutes, community college-based "grow your own" programs, professional organization-based institutes, or a combination of these. University-based doctorate leadership programs are the principal providers of these…

Although estimating how many school districts offered early retirement plans during 1990-91 is difficult, the practice is fairly widespread and is generally initiated by states, not local school districts. Early retirement options (an alternative to massive layoffs) were offered teachers and administrators in New York City, Washington, D.C.,…

Using personnel data from 106 California community colleges (CCC) and through interviews with officials of 25 representative community college districts, a study was conducted to determine: (1) the total number of certified full-time staff and faculty who separated from employment after the passage of Proposition 13; (2) the subject fields or…

In creating an early retirement incentive program for the Marin County (California) schools, the author examined the early retirement ethic, other early retirement plans in the public and private sectors, the impact of early retirement on Social Security benefits, opposition to such programs, and the factors in the California school districts that…