The vast majority of public employees--including teachers--are enrolled in defined-benefit pension plans. These plans are usually the product of state legislation that determines eligibility, benefit formulas, employer and employee contributions, and how payments will be calculated when an employee retires or leaves the system. Once an employee…

This article reports that across the country, retired superintendents are finding fulfillment as mentors, either formally or informally, spontaneously or planned. Some are paid, but most are volunteers who remember their first year running a school district and want to ease the transition for others. Some want to focus on leadership development.…

The Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) is a follow-up of a sample of the elementary and secondary school teachers who participated in the previous year's Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The TFS sample includes teachers who leave teaching in the year after the SASS data collection and those who continue to teach. The objective of TFS is to provide…

Over 50% of the nation's teachers and principals are Baby Boomers. During the next four years the nation could lose a third of its most accomplished educators to retirement. The wave of departures will peak during the 2010-11 school year, when over 100,000 veteran teachers could leave. In less than a decade more than half of today's teachers--1.7…

The hunger for significance in life never ends. What changes in one's retirement is how one fills that need. For most school administrators, introspection and investigation into possibilities for post-retirement years begin prior to one's resignation; however, the intensity of thought, feeling, and deliberation moves to a much higher plane once…

School business officials should attend workshops and seminars to help them plan for retirement. When approaching retirement, SBOs should invest for low-risk growth, determine retirement goals, match insurance with needs, and decide when to stop full-time work. Retirees should invest for growth and income, withdraw assets at the right time, and…

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…

The teaching force in the United States is facing an impending crisis, one that Scherff (2008) describes as a "perfect storm," due to massive retirements, increasing impractical mandates related to the No Child Left Behind Act, and an alarmingly high teacher attrition rate. This unprecedented crisis in both the supply and retention of…

This document was developed to help school administrators plan procedures to assist district staff prepare for retirement. A district is not required to offer the services suggested in these pages. Furthermore, this document is not intended for and should not be used as a handbook or guide to be given to district employees. However, a district may…

As many teachers near their retirement years, they discover that their retirement plans are insufficient and their financial planning was inappropriate. This paper describes some of the problems with the 403(b) plan (an investment plan for public school employees and certain tax-exempt organizations), explaining how teachers are beginning to…

Briefly outlines the reasons some school districts are withdrawing from the social security system. Also notes some advantages of the social security system over alternative plans. (IRT)

The social security commissioner argues that the system's varied protection--against loss of earnings due to death, disability, and even inflation--makes it a better deal than most private plans. (Author/IRT)

Despite their popularity, early retirement incentive programs (ERIPs) remain controversial. Although early retirement may be appealing to some teachers, others bristle at being shoved into retirement. Following a historical overview, this article summarizes recent state legislation and addresses ERIP legal status under the Age Discrimination in…

School systems must be able to attract high quality teachers and, if necessary, to attract them across state boundaries. Pension portability, which allows workers to change jobs and retirement systems without losing retirement benefits, is essential to accommodate an increasingly mobile work force. This paper reviews the National Governors'…