Enjoying the general economic affluence experienced by most Americans, the classroom instructor is no longer dominated by the "depression syndrome." Although affected by the nation's teacher oversupply, he does not feel tied to his position or institution because of economic necessity or the lack of other available employment…

For the last two decades, Ohio has given its new public school teachers choices among retirement plans. Early in their employment, they are handed a form that allows them to opt for a traditional pension plan, a 401(k)-style defined-contribution (DC) plan, or a plan that combines elements of each. If they make no affirmative decision at all--that…

How might school funds be spent more effectively in today's uncertain environment? This up-to-date volume explores a range of ideas to help schools and districts better manage their resources, including: how to rethink staffing and management to get more value for employee compensation; how policymakers might revisit pension arrangements in ways…

Defined benefit (DB) pension systems determine the size of pension payments using an employee's "final average salary". Thus, employees enrolled in DB pension systems face an incentive to "salary spike" -- strategically increase late career pensionable compensation -- to increase their retirement income. This is an important…

America's workforce is aging, and popular press articles have warned of a "silver tsunami" of retirements, particularly among the baby boomer generation. Dramatic headlines aside, even gradual changes in workforce demographics will affect hiring, budgeting, training, and more. Higher education tenure-track faculty may be uniquely…

The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) has published studies on equity and diversity among higher education administrators. They have found that women and ethnic minorities--analyzed separately--continue to face disadvantages regarding representation and pay. They were thus prompted to consider the…

Many higher education institutions seek to attract and retain diverse faculty in an effort to intentionally diversify campuses and make their college campuses more inclusive. The development of a diverse faculty body that matches the diversity of the student body is crucial, but the representation of foreign-born with doctoral degrees that are…

Earlier this year, College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) published research briefs on representation and pay equity for women and racial/ethnic minority administrators in higher education, using data from 15 years of salary surveys. Although there were a few successes highlighted, gains in representation and…

In this paper, we draw upon in-depth interviews with teachers and administrators in 18 unionized charter schools around the country to investigate teachers' motivations for unionization. Our results suggest that while mismanagement and distrust are often the proximate cause of charter unionization efforts, both material and purposive…

In many countries around the world, the number of new doctorate recipients graduating from universities has grown sharply in the past few decades, but the implications of this expansion for the employment situation of doctorate recipients remain largely unexplored in longitudinal studies. In Germany, as in various other countries, the expansion of…

In this 2023 NEA Special Salary issue, a post-pandemic look at faculty salaries in 2022. What was found, looking at federal data, is that U.S. faculty's purchasing power--that is the value of your salary, considering inflation--is at historical lows. All the gains that were made incrementally since the Great Recession of 2008 have evaporated in…

School boards remain one of the most powerful forces in American education, helping to set curricula, evaluate teachers, and direct hundreds of billions of dollars in education funding. Yet teachers' unions play an outsized role in determining who serves on these boards. If the interests of teachers are perfectly aligned with those of students,…

Educational reforms have occurred throughout the history of public education. In 2009, the federal Race to the Top initiative was born and included many educational reform models. To have these reform models gain traction at the state level, a call was made by the U.S. Department of Education (Race to the Top Program Executive Summary, 2009) for…

This paper estimates private and social returns to investment in education in Azerbaijan, using the 2015 Azerbaijan Monitoring Survey for Social Welfare. The private rate of return to education is 6 percent; this is the first estimate of returns to schooling in Azerbaijan since 1995. The returns to schooling are 6 percent for men and 8 percent for…

Research Findings: Provision for Learning (PFL) is a composite of indicators reflecting the structural quality of Early Childhood Education (ECE) classrooms such as physical environment, materials, and daily schedule. This study explored profiles of PFL among 118 Chinese rural preschool classrooms based on Space and Furnishing (SF), Curriculum…