In April 2009, a high school principal in a large Arizona school district met individually with 18 of his most senior teachers to inform them that they would not have a job the following year. Why didn't tenure protect them from wholesale dismissal? The answer is they all had one thing in common: they were retirees who had been leased or hired…

For each of the past 10 years, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning has issued a report on the status of California's teaching force based on research conducted by SRI International. The Center provides practical information to help policymakers and education leaders understand the challenges they face is provided. Context, clarity…

The report highlights the differences among California counties and regions in their use of under-prepared teachers and their needs for new teachers in the coming decade as driven by projected student enrollment changes and teacher retirements. The analyses, based on expected teacher retirements and student enrollment growth, suggest that…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Duncan Makes $44 Billion in Education Funding Available to States: Education Secretary Says Stimulus Money Must Go…

The Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) is sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education and is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. TFS is a follow-up survey of selected elementary and secondary school teachers who participated in the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is the…

This paper examines late career mobility and retirement decisions for a cohort of mid-career Missouri public school teachers. Specifically, the paper follows a cohort of teachers whose combined age and experience totaled 45 or more years in fall 1991 through the 2005-06 school year. Like many public employee pensions, Missouri has a system that…

It is commonly believed that teacher turnover is unusually high and that this is a sign of failure in the education system. Previous studies have tested this idea by comparing teacher turnover with that of similar professions, but have come to contradictory conclusions. We provide additional evidence by comparing teachers with professionals from…

Progress toward equitable gender representation among faculty in higher education has been "glacial" since the early 1970s (Glazer-Raymo, 1999; Lomperis, 1990; Trower & Chait, 2002). Women, who now make up a majority of undergraduate degree earners and approximately 46% of Ph.D. earners nationwide (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES],…

Pensions are an important but comparatively unexamined component of human resource policies in education. In an increasingly competitive world where employees are more mobile than ever, pension policies that were designed in the last century may be out of step with the needs of both individuals and schools. This background paper aims to foster…

Like most other state and local government employees, teachers participate primarily in defined benefit pension plans whose benefits are based on final average salaries and length of service. Such pensions have been replaced in many private sector firms by defined contribution pensions. A number of questions have arisen about the feasibility and…

In response to a journalist inquiry regarding research on funding of Ohio's teacher retirement system and its effect on school district finances, this analysis by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute points to serious questions and profound concerns about the health of Ohio's teacher pension system, and that similar time bombs may be ticking in other…