Teacher pensions consume a substantial portion of school budgets. If relatively generous pensions help attract effective teachers, the expense might be justified. But new evidence suggests that current pension systems, by concentrating benefits on teachers who spend their entire careers in a single state and penalizing mobile teachers, may…

When the budget-cutting ended this year in one rural North Texas school district, the people-moving began. Forced to chop its total staff to 55 employees from 64, the Perrin-Whitt Consolidated Independent school system went the route of many districts across the country: It made the majority of its reductions by encouraging early retirements and…

Working with Richard Ingersoll, professor of Education and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) examined and analyzed data from the "Schools and Staffing Survey" (SASS), the largest and most comprehensive source of data on teachers, gathered from a nationally…

This booklet provides a history of teacher retirement benefits in the state of Texas from 1937-97, offering highlights of important state legislation related to retirement and its benefits. In 1936, Texas citizens approved an amendment to the Texas constitution establishing a retirement system for public school employees. Enacting legislation…

This report presents the Teacher Retirement System of Texas's (TRS's) strategic plan for teacher retirement in the state of Texas for the years 1999-2003. The mission of the TRS is to deliver retirement and related benefits authorized by law for members and their beneficiaries and to prudently invest and manage the assets held in trust for members…

The 2009 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" provided a comprehensive review of states' policies that impact the teaching profession. As a companion to last year's comprehensive state-by-state analysis, the 2010 edition provides each state with an individualized "Blueprint for Change," building off last year's "Yearbook"…

"The 2009 Legislative Briefing" is a topical summary of actions during the 2009 legislative sessions that affect education in the 16 SREB states. Topics include: state budgets and the economy; tax and revenue; teacher and faculty pay raises; retirement systems; issues affecting teachers and education leaders; health and safety;…

The purpose of this publication is to focus attention upon a rapidly growing development in public school administration--the increasing interest in personnel administration as a process which can be identified through a description of certain formal functions which every school district must perform. The existence of adequate personnel policies…