The Middle School Initiative, an ambitious plan to convert all New York City junior high schools to middle schools, faced numerous obstacles: loss of leadership support, teacher cynicism and resistance, blindness to difficulties, union regulations, pressures for quick results, administrator retirement incentives, and collaboration problems. (MLH)

This report focuses on the group benefits available to Illinois public higher education employees. The study provides a perspective on the range of benefits and the differences in the administration of institutional benefits. Findings reveal the availability of retirement annuities that increase with each 10 years of service; optional retirement…

This paper looks at the three employee benefit items that are most costly for employers--retirement programs, Social Security/Medicare contributions, and major medical insurance coverage--to estimate the costs of these benefits in school districts in the 15 states of the Southern Regional Education Board (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,…

This guidebook identifies supply and demand concepts and gives examples of how some National Education Association state and local affiliates are addressing the teacher supply and demand issue. While not intended as a how-to manual for conducting full-scale teacher supply and demand studies, the book focuses on some of the problems associated with…

This paper describes the planning and implementation of a veterans' hospital career center program that offers a comprehensive career counseling, vocational assessment, vocational rehabilitation planning, job placement, and follow-up program to inpatients and outpatients, under the direction of a counseling psychologist. Recruitment of volunteer…

The Office of Continuing Education at Edison State Community College developed a community pre-retirement training curriculum, which was designed to make a flexible, practical, locally adaptable program available for use by corporations, chamber of commerce education committees, adult education programs, and public institutions. The objectives of…

The author provides 20 abstracts of programs capable of being implemented in a community. These programs, based in Black Hawk County, Iowa, were developed by helping professionals in an institute at The University of Northern Iowa in dialogue with older adults. The objectives of this institute were: (1) to improve communication between dissimilar…

Three Israeli universities have developed highly successful programs for retirees. Unanticipated results include retired student interest in opening another such program, student organization for extracurricular activities, and the emergence of new forms of retired person volunteerism. (MSE)

The trend toward the use of volunteers to assist teachers in the education of individuals with disabilities is examined, and the significant role of each volunteer group (older and retired adults, mentally retarded adults, and high school and college students) is identified. Strategies for successful volunteer programs are discussed. (MSE)

Results of a 1983 survey of benefits, excluding pensions, for 17 Ontario, Canada, universities are presented. Information is provided on the following areas: whether the university self-administers insurance plans, communication of benefits, proposed changes in benefits, provision of life and dismemberment insurance, maternity leave policy,…

The origins of the faculty development movement in higher education can be traced to the mid-1970's, when low retirement rates were virtually eliminating career mobility for professors, and changes in student demographics, educational settings, and instructional methods required many faculty members to alter their usual teaching practices. Private…

The results of a survey of benefits, excluding pensions, for 17 Ontario, Canada, universities are presented. Information is provided on the following areas: whether the university self-administers insurance plans, communication of benefits, proposed changes in benefits, provision of life and dismemberment insurance, maternity leave policy, Ontario…

The last decade has seen an increase in the number of organized pre-retirement planning programs. An exploratory model for examining such programs utilizes Warren's division of the community into five sectors to provide a conceptual community framework by which pre-retirement development can be analyzed. In the first sector,…

Ohio University's development and implementation of an early retirement incentive program is described and discussed in the context of faculty demographics and faculty attitudes. (MSE)

Eckerd College's Academy of Senior Professionals brings together retired and semi-retired high-achieving professionals for continuing intellectual and cultural stimulation and to work singly or in groups on projects of personal and social significance. The program includes lectures, colloquia, forums, social and recreational events, and individual…