No Academic Harm Found in Early Retirement of Teachers

San Diego

Boosting early retirement in cash-strapped districts doesn't hurt students' math and reading scores, according to new studies released at the American Economic Association meeting here, but pension-incentive programs may cost schools some of their most effective teachers.

Separate studies of teachers in California, Illinois, and North Carolina paint a complex picture of the choice increasingly faced by education leaders: Keep your most experienced—and expensive—teachers, or encourage them to retire to ease budget woes.

Cornell University researchers Maria D. Fitzpatrick and Michael F. Lovenheim, both assistant professors of policy analysis and management, tracked 54,550 Illinois teachers in grades 3, 6, and 8 before and after the state's "5+5" pension- incentive program, which took place...