Like most other state and local government employees, teachers participate primarily in defined benefit pension plans whose benefits are largely 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 desirability of continuing to rely on defined benefit pensions for teachers. This article provides a brief history of teacher pensions and an overview of teacher retirement benefits today, including differences in the legal and economic context for public and private sector pensions that are important considerations in plan design. It then introduces issues related to financial sustainability, teacher mobility, and teacher shortages. The article concludes with an overview of key differences between traditional defined benefit and defined contribution plans and raises the possibility of adopting a “hybrid” kind of plan that includes features from both kinds of traditional plans.

This article describes the potential for using K–12 education data to support school improvement efforts and the effective and efficient use of education resources. It examines the availability and transparency of education data in California as part of the Getting Down to Facts effort to improve education decision making in that state. The study addresses three broad questions related to the state's education data system: (1) What is the current condition of California's education data system? (2) What is being done to strengthen it? and (3) What are the obstacles and challenges to improving the system so that it can be an effective tool for helping policy makers and education leaders understand how schools are performing and how resources can most effectively be allocated?