California's students, particularly its poorest students, need great teachers. Unfortunately, California's seniority-based teacher layoff system puts adult privileges over student needs. Newer teachers are laid off first, regardless of how well they do their jobs. This system is especially damaging to schools serving the highest numbers of…

This year's "Quality Counts" report, the 15th edition of this annual report produced through the joint efforts of the "Education Week" newsroom and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, arrives at a time of continued fiscal anxiety and education policy ferment in the wake of what has been widely described as the…

This chapter explores recent legal challenges and victories brought forth by part-time community college faculty in Washington State in an effort to attain equity and social justice.

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia) and other jurisdictions, such as Puerto Rico. This report presents information from the Winter 2007-2008 IPEDS web-based data collection. A postsecondary…

Local school districts differ in their ability to pay for teacher quality, and in the amenities they offer as places to live and work. Market clearing with heterogeneous quality yields geographically varying teacher salary levels that confound scarcity with unobserved differences in quality. The paper discusses identification and estimation of a…

This report presents facts and figures on British Columbia's education for 2012. It is divided into the following seven sections: (1) Schools, which covers: (a) Number of public schools; (b) Number of independent (private) schools; (c) School closures; (d) Rural schools and students; (e) School-district amalgamation; and (f) School safety: Seismic…

American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) developed this report to promote greater understanding of underlying teacher education issues, in connection with continuing state-level activity and the pending reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. This paper offers a brief overview of five interrelated topics pertaining to…

This article is concerned with the sustainability of the employment of qualified teachers in the Australian long day care sector in the light of the dual pressures of poor pay and conditions, relative to schools, and the commercialisation of the sector and consequent vested interests in containing staffing costs. Eschewing the usual, narrow focus…

In a new wave of plans to recruit and retain teachers who say they cannot afford to buy or rent homes in pricey school districts, officials are considering measures that would put affordable housing within their reach. Those who have had teacher-housing programs in place for a while say they have seen success, although the programs have not…

Teachers often regard themselves as unlikely candidates for financial success, chiefly because they earn low starting salaries. But people of modest means can build wealth over time if they adhere to certain simple strategies. The goal here is to explain this point as it applies to K-12 teachers. It begins, however, by acknowledging the salary…

A Missouri school system has cut benefit costs by establishing a self-funded health insurance plan for employees. Reviews areas to consider and ways to set up such a plan. (MD)

Once as familiar in the back-to-school ritual as falling leaves, teacher strikes seem headed for a winter freeze. According to the nation's largest teacher's union, about 15 of the National Education Association's (NEA) 14,000 local affiliates have gone on strike since the start of this school year. In Pennsylvania--a traditional union…

This booklet provides information for United States educators who wish to be considered for participation in the Teacher Exchange Program, which entails academic-year exchanges and seminars abroad. The first part furnishes information on: (1) The Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program; (2) application procedures for teaching positions abroad; (3)…

This report summarizes teachers' and employers' contribution rates to retirement, Social Security and Medicare, and major medical plans. Several Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states have adopted multi-year goals to raise teacher pay, which involves additional costs for benefits tied to those salary increases. These benefits can add…

Describes how, despite the economic downturn, some colleges have found ways to hire droves of faculty members. (EV)