The reason teacher retirement benefits have been much in the news in recent years, and a topic of close attention by lawmakers and budget-watchers, is not because their existence is in dispute but because their financial underpinnings are often shaky and sometimes truly precarious. If a state or district doesn't set aside enough money now to cover…

Why aren't teacher salaries rising? This puzzle can be explained by three trends eating into teachers' take-home pay: rising health care costs, declining student/teacher ratios, and rising retirement costs. Retirement costs are the most hidden of these three factors. The result is that most teachers are getting the worst of both worlds. Teachers…

For years, the debate about American education was like a bad marriage. The arguments were about everything but the core issue--instructional quality. The other issues--education finance, school choice, standards--all matter, but are secondary to the importance of effective instruction. In the labor-intensive education field, effective instruction…

Adults tend to lose their information-processing skills as they age, especially if they do not use them. While older adults may compensate for this loss by developing other valuable skills, the importance of being proficient in information-processing skills in determining wages and employment does not diminish as workers age. Probably the most…

The 2019-20 AASA Superintendent Salary & Benefits Study marks the eighth edition of this study, employing an annually revised and updated survey instrument. This survey tracks the demographics, salary, benefits, and other elements of the employment agreements of school superintendents throughout the country. This year's study is based on more…

Purpose: To explore employment as a social determinant of health through examining the relationship between employment status and physical health. Method: The authors explored the causal relationship between employment status and physical health through conducting a systematic review of 22 longitudinal studies conducted in Finland, France, the…

In what ways and to what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted racial and socioeconomic inequities in educational opportunity and access in North Carolina? This report, commissioned by the Brady Education Foundation and prepared by researchers at the Public School Forum of North Carolina and the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at…

Districts across the country are facing severe shortages of teachers--especially in certain subjects (math, science, special education, career and technical education, and bilingual education) and in specific schools (urban, rural, high-poverty, high-minority, and low-achieving). The severity of the teacher shortage problem varies significantly by…

Panama has achieved socio-economic improvements in recent decades thanks to strong economic growth and consequent poverty reduction. Its growth model is characterised by a dual economy in which a small number of activities, including those related to the Canal and Special Economic Zones, have exhibited high productivity growth but limited job…

This report provides an overview of the financial health of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded higher education sector in England. The analysis covers the financial results for 2015-16. This does not include further education or sixth-form colleges, or alternative providers of higher education.

AISD conducts an online survey of professional & administrative employees leaving the district. The Human Resources Exit Survey asks 34 questions about a variety of topics. This report describes campus-based, non-teaching professionals' reasons for leaving in 2014-2015.

"The SEA of the Future" is an education publication series examining how state education agencies can shift from a compliance to a performance-oriented organization through strategic planning and performance management tools to meet growing demands to support education reform while improving productivity. This volume, the second in the…

To shore up the $46 billion pension debt the state has accrued over the past several decades, Illinois has been using its teachers as a piggy bank. New legislation adopted in December 2013 will raise the retirement age for mid-career workers and limit the amount retiree pensions can increase with inflation over time. State and national union…

Having enjoyed teaching during my active career, I continued to teach summer school following retirement. Self-observed sensory and cognitive impairments, although not mentioned by students in their evaluations, induced me to consider the pros and cons of continuing to teach. My hope is that this list of benefits and problems will be of assistance…

Teacher salary decisions are often made with little connection to the pension obligations they entail. In this paper, authors Marguerite Roza and Jessica Jonovski model the impacts of late-term raises on teacher pension obligations showing that on average each dollar raise triggers $10 to $16 in new taxpayer obligations. The authors provide…