PERSONNEL NEEDS IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY: A 10‐YEAR FOLLOW‐UP STUDY ON PREDICTED PERSONNEL SHORTAGES

Concerns regarding whether a sufficient supply of school psychologists exists have been evident for decades. Studies have predicted that school psychology would face a critical personnel shortage that would peak in 2010, but continue into the foreseeable future. The current study is a 10‐year follow‐up investigation based on previously published personnel shortage projections. Data derived from the National Association of School Psychologists 2009–2010 national study were used to examine current personnel shortages as well as to project the extent to which personnel shortages are likely to continue. Findings indicate that the field of school psychology continues to experience a personnel shortage that will continue through 2025. Additionally, greater rates of retirements are projected for the field for school psychologists who are males, who possess a doctoral degree, and for university faculty. Analyses based on the U.S. Census Regions indicate that notable differences are likely to occur in the match between the supply of and demand for school psychologists based on geographical location. Implications are discussed relating to the recruitment and retention of school psychologists and to the services they deliver.     

The impact of teacher preparation on student achievement in algebra in a “hard-to-staff” urban PreK-12-university partnership

Debate about teacher supply, demand, retention, and attrition has been renewed in recent years by an increased concern about the reduced numbers of prospective teachers entering teacher education programs, the high attrition rate of beginning teachers, and the resulting teacher shortages. U.S. schools are experiencing teacher shortages, especially in low-income urban areas, because of increased school enrollment, teacher retirement, reduction in class size, teacher attrition, and turnover related to low salaries, job dissatisfaction, and lack of administrative support and influence over decision-making. Recently, the increased interest in teacher quality has been the topic of debate for policy-makers, the public, and the educational community. The purpose of this study was to determine if a nontraditional teacher preparation program, the Transition To Teaching program, was a viable way to ease the teacher shortages in a high poverty, urban U.S. school district, and at the same time, to evaluate the impact of teacher training on students' academic achievement. The results of this study afford evidence that the students taught by 1st-year, alternatively prepared teachers achieved as well as or better than their peers taught by traditionally certified 1st-year teachers, according to student achievement in mathematics, specifically Algebra I.     

Economic issues in faculty retirement plans in American higher education institutions

Almost every faculty member in an American college or university has a contractual arrangement for retirement income. In recent years a number of factors have encouraged both faculty members and institutional administrators to consider the features of their retirement plans including changes in the assets in which funds are accumulated while the faculty member is working, options for payout at retirement, early retirement incentives, and whether it will be legal to have a mandatory retirement age. This paper explores these issues and suggests possible changes in retirement plans and employment contracts as a result of them.     

华东地区普通高校资源配置效率实证研究

近年来我国高等教育越来越趋向大众化,出现教育需求膨胀、教育资源紧缺、高校经费紧缺等现象,使高等学校的办学效率成为关注的热点.以华东地区普通高等学校教育资源投入产出情况为例,运用DEA模型对这六省一市五年间的高校教育资源人力、物力、财力方面的指标进行运算,得出华东地区的普通高校教育发展水平一定程度上取决于区域经济发展水平.解决建议主要包括:多渠道筹资、建立高校教育资源配置的平衡机制、创建特色的现代高等教育等.     

Reactions of professors to retirement: A comparison of retired faculty from three types of institutions

Dorfman et al. (1982) compared the professional activities of retired professors from liberal arts colleges, a comprehensive university, and a major research university. This companion piece based on the same survey compares the professors' reactions to retirement. Results show that a majority of faculty from all types of institutions plan for retirement, are positive about retirement, and give suggestions for institutional retirement policy. The retired professors recommend the following: (1) help in planning, (2) more information about retirement, (3) support for continued work, (4) gradual retirement. Major differences among institutions are the following: (1) comprehensive university faculty plan for retirement more than do faculty from the other institutions, (2) faculty from both universities begin financial planning at a younger age than do faculty from the liberal arts colleges, (3) research university faculty miss work and like having time to spend on professional activities more than do faculty from the other institutions.     

Chickering's Seven Principles of Good Practice: Student Attrition in Community College Online Courses

As online enrollments escalate, so does concern about student attrition rates. There is an abundance of literature addressing student success in online courses, particularly using constructivist learning theories to create engaging learning experiences. Also emerging from the literature is the Seven principles of good instructional practice by Checkering and Gamson as an accepted rubric for evaluating effective online instruction. This study focused on whether the use of instructional strategies as measured by the seven principles had an effect on student attrition rates in online courses. Full and part-time faculty at three community colleges in Virginia who taught online course(s) in the last three semesters completed an online survey to determine the extent to which they used instructional strategies reflecting the constructivist-based seven principles in their online courses. Scores from the survey were then compared to the attrition rates in their courses. Results indicated both groups strongly used instructional strategies reflecting the seven principles of good practice in their online courses with full-time faculty scores ranging a bit higher. When the results for the principles were examined individually rather than as a set, both groups scored lower on principles reflecting innovative instructional strategies. No relation between the extent to which faculty reported using those instructional strategies and student success as measured by attrition rates were found. However, a moderate relation was found with the third principle, “encourage active learning.” This indicated that faculty who made strides toward actively engaging students found some success in reducing student attrition.     

The relation of disparity in student and faculty educational attitudes to early student transfer from college

Educational attitudes of entering students (N=236) and full-time faculty (N = 48) at a liberal-arts college for women were measured by the Student Orientations Survey (SOS) and the Faculty Orientations Survey (FOS). Attitudes of students who transferred from the college prior to the sophomore year were similar to those who remained on dimensions of educational purpose, peer relationships, and public position. Attitudes of transfers differed significantly from those of remaining students on dimensions concerned with the process of education and faculty-student power relationships. The absolute disparity between faculty and student attitudes on these same dimensions of process and power was greater for students who transferred than for students who remained. Implications for adapting the curricular-instructional process to reduce attrition and for utilizing such an assessment of student and faculty educational orientations in academic counseling are discussed. Suggestions are made for extending the study to identify possible relationships between disparity in faculty-student educational attitudes and attrition at other institutions.     

USING REGRESSION ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE IF FACULTY SALARIES ARE OVERLY COMPRESSED

Whether the salary differential between junior and senior faculty is overly small or is falling (salary compression) is currently a popular topic in higher education. However, simple comparisons of average salaries for junior and senior faculty alone cannot address the question of whether salaries are overly compressed, since there is no standard for comparison. This paper presents a simple five-step regression analysis procedure that researchers can use to determine whether salaries are overly compressed. Faculty salary data in academic year 1990-91 from the University of Minnesota show that contrary to popular opinion the average salaries paid to junior faculty are not above what they would be predicted to receive if they were paid as senior faculty.     

ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATORS AND FACULTY RETIREMENT IN A NEW ERA

ABSTRACT

More than a decade ago, as the end of mandatory retirement for faculty approached, many academic administrators were concerned about its negative impact on their institutions. With the assistance of a variety of incentives put in place to encourage voluntary retirement, a significant number of senior faculty retired during the 1990s. Now, the looming loss of millions of “baby boomer” faculty requires rethinking faculty retirement. Administrators have two urgent issues to address: defining and maintaining a balance of junior and senior faculty, and designing and implementing effective retirement programs for this new generation of aging faculty. Important differences between previous and future generations of faculty suggest that retirement programs that worked in the past may no longer be effective for the institution—and may not appeal to the faculty. Federal and state governments, businesses, and organizations are preparing to respond to the forthcoming biggest wave of retirement in our country's history. Academic administrators, who pioneered phased-retirement programs, will want to stay on top of this wave too.     

Simulation of institutional incentive plans for faculty early retirement using a behavioral model of retirement decision-making

This paper uses coefficient estimates from a model of retirement decision-making for faculty members in higher education institutions to simulate the impact of financial incentives for early retirement. The results suggest that plans can be designed to induce relatively large numbers of faculty members to retire prior to the mandatory retirement age. However, the costs of hiring replacements plus pension subsidies can be substantial, especially if the subsidies are directed toward faculty members with relatively low salaries. Hence, institutions wishing to provide open positions to hire new faculty may prefer different incentive plans than those whose goals do not require filling each position with a new faculty member.     

Deaf adolescents who drop out of local public schools.

This paper looks at correlates of school attrition in local public school programs. A preliminary survey of attrition and background data on a national sample of 451 deaf adolescents concluded that many of the same factors, including individual ability, local educational values, and certain demographic traits, that predict attrition in general education also apply to deaf education. The movement of students out of their original programs for whatever reason was primarily a regional phenomenon. Programs in the Southeast and the Southwest lost more of their original groups of students than did programs in the Northeast, Midwest, or Far West. The regional variations noted in our data suggest that local values about schooling will influence school attrition in local public school programs for the deaf.     

AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN SUBJECTIVE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING

Age and discipline differences in attitudes toward mandatory retirement and related issues were assessed among 85 faculty at a private university. Age differences were minimal and outweighed by discipline variations. In general, both age groups agreed that mandatory retirement should be abolished, even though the impact of this on universities was seen as negative. Concern over the rights of the individual and respect for the potential contributions of older faculty appeared to be the major reasons for the preferred abolition of a fixed retirement age. Attitudes toward tenure among the young and toward projected activities following retirement among both age groups did not appear to be related to the mandatory retirement issue.     

美国大学教师退休政策变革趋势研究

本文运用调查数据对美国大学教师退休收入计划、退休奖励计划、分阶段退休计划、退后福利情况以及退休与招聘、留用的政策进行了比较分析,充分揭示了当前美国大学教师退休政策的变革趋势,得出待遇确定型(DB)计划仍具生命力,分阶段退休计划方兴未艾和教师退休工作相比教师招聘和留用不被重视三个结论,对我国未来高等院校教师退休制度的变革提供了极好的借鉴.     

Retirement proximity's role in the prediction of satisfaction in academe

As of January 1, 1994, the Amendments to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act eliminated mandatory retirement of college faculty. This change allowed faculty to schedule their retirement in accordance to a personal timetable and not necessarily by chronological age. This study proposes a conceptual model of faculty satisfaction as applied to three subgroups, defined by the number of years until voluntary retirement from academe. Findings suggest the model to be moderately predictive in determining the diverse proportions of factors for each group. Paper presented at the 1993 meeting of the Association for Institutional Research May, 1993.     

RECRUITMENT,RETENTION, AND RETIREMENT: COMPENSATION AND EMPLOYMENT POLICIES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

ABSTRACT

Faculties are aging along with the rest of society. Low retirement rates and slow growth limit the number of new hiring opportunities in many institutions. Universities face a series of common challenges that will shape higher education in the 21st century. In order to maintain high quality faculties in the coming years, universities must develop compensation policies and employment practices that are appropriate for the new economic and demographic environment. This paper examines existing human resources (HR) policies and considers potential modifications that will enable institutions to recruit, retain, and retire faculty in the coming years. The analysis reviews the soaring cost of health insurance for active and retired faculty and how these plans are being amended. We also review the widespread adoption of phased retirement plans and the use of early retirement programs as components of HR policy. The increasing reliance on nontenure track faculty is also described. The analysis focuses on the challenges that universities face in the current economic and demographic conditions and the methods that administrators can adopt to fulfill their teaching and research missions. The paper presents the results from a national conference consisting of new research and intense discussion by scholars, administrators, policymakers, and HR consultants.     

延迟退休与否对我国养老保险制度影响的初步研究

近十年来,世界各国掀起了退休制度改革的浪潮,一些发达国家的退休年龄也进行了延迟。由于我国的国情以及与国外在养老保险制度方面有关退休年龄制定上的差别等原因,造成了从年轻人就业状况、从企业经营者以及从生活负担较重人群等角度的对延迟退休的反对观点;也产生了从我国劳动力资源利用程度、从实际的养老金收益以及从老年人的工作延长是否对年轻人就业造成压力等角度对延迟退休的赞成观点。对以上各种观点进行比较,借鉴国外改革方法,建议我国在出台延迟退休政策时,应考虑不同行业、不同工种的具体情况予以区别对待;制定退休年龄范围,不同年龄享受不同养老金待遇。此外,政府应加大相关政策知识普及。     

The student departure puzzle: do some faculties and programs have answers?

University attrition prevention strategies are typically generic, centrally managed, whole of university strategies that have emerged from an examination of whole of university attrition data. This paper takes an intra‐organisational comparative approach, through the examination of faculty and program attrition rates of students who joined an Australian university in the first term of 2004. The faculty with the highest attrition had a rate two‐and‐a‐half times that of the faculty with the lowest rate, and in programs with 40 or more students enrolled the program with the highest attrition had a rate over five times that of the program with the lowest rate. The paper identifies five practical implications of these findings and concludes that investigating the causes of these differences will help in understanding student attrition. It also suggests that universities wishing to reduce student attrition may benefit from adopting integrated and situated strategies that take into account faculty and program differences.     

转龙湾旅游景区客源市场分析与预测

在对转龙湾客源市场现状、需求和走势分析的基础上,运用一元线性回归预测法对未来6年的游客规模做出预测,同时结合内蒙古自治区国内旅游消费抽样调查和经济增长水平对旅游区的消费能力进行了分析。     

Analysis of faculty appointment,promotion, and retirement policies

A mathematical model of faculty flow was used to predict the effects of new operating policies on the age and rank composition of a large group of university faculty. Specific policies analyzed with this model include changing promotion rates for nontenure faculty, extending service times in nontenure, and implementing an early retirement program for tenure faculty.     

Comparing Methods for Addressing Missingness in Longitudinal Modeling of Panel Data

Respondent attrition is a common problem in national longitudinal panel surveys. To make full use of the data, weights are provided to account for attrition. Weight adjustments are based on sampling design information and data from the base year; information from subsequent waves is typically not utilized. Alternative methods to address bias from nonresponse are full information maximum likelihood (FIML) or multiple imputation (MI). The effects on bias of growth parameter estimates from using these methods are compared via a simulation study. The results indicate that caution needs to be taken when utilizing panel weights when there is missing data, and to consider methods like FIML and MI, which are not as susceptible to the omission of important auxiliary variables.