Last summer, the National Education Association (NEA) developed a New Business Item to explore retrenchment: "The NEA shall make a statistical study on the effect of significant faculty retrenchment at community colleges on future faculty cuts" (NBI 78, 2022). ASA Research (ASA) conducted exploratory research in an attempt to identify…

Objective: This study explored how COVID-related mental health and well-being varied between undergraduate and graduate students. Relationships with physical health behaviors were also examined. Participants: Undergraduate (n = 897) and graduate (n = 314) students were recruited from three US universities between mid-April and late-May 2020.…

"The State of Working Pennsylvania 2022" centered on the continued recovery from the COVID-19 recession, highlighting that Pennsylvania was at a policy crossroads: would political leaders embrace policies to strengthen the individual and collective worker power evident a year ago? Or would austerity and anti-worker policies after the…

Studies of charter closure rates typically focus on year-to-year closures. While important for researchers, such studies provide little guidance to families seeking to understand the risk of enrolling their child in a charter school. That is because studies determining how many schools close each year provide no information on how long the school…

Agricultural education, like many other disciplines, is experiencing a shortage of school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers. We examined the perceptions of Pennsylvania SBAE teachers regarding extended contracts as they have been identified as a possible tool to improve recruitment and retention. The purpose of the study was to sample…

Financial challenges are a major concern for school leaders, a concern that was particularly pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased academic expectations, insufficient funding, and rising mandated expenses in the face of declining enrollment constrain budgets and put pressure on student programming. In this environment, collaboration…

Pennsylvania's public four-year colleges currently confront a funding and enrollment crisis, with three of the most distressed Universities in northern and western Pennsylvania regions that lack community colleges. This crisis presents Pennsylvania, and its state legislators: do they want to continue the policies of the past three decades, which…

Researchers have noted the limited amount of scholarly explorations of the practice of outsourcing administrative services in higher education. This dissertation seeks to add to the body of literature pertaining to the subject by examining the experiences of three universities that grappled with the decision. Using a qualitative approach and a…

This article describes the budget crisis that the School District of Philadelphia has faced for the past few years. Three specific events triggered the 2012 crisis: an abrupt reduction in federal and state funding, the inability of the district to cut many of its costs, and political pressures on the district to spend available revenues in a given…

The purpose of this study was to document the factors (i.e., motivation and perceived constraints) and processes (i.e., constraint negotiation) that influence students' selection of and satisfaction with their internship choice. The study was conducted using a quantitative approach, which included a focus group, a pilot study, and a…

Fueled by declining revenue from the housing crisis, skyrocketing energy costs, and an economy in general disarray, the public is pressuring school administrators to make broader and deeper cuts in their operating budgets. As the baby boomers retire, put their houses on the market, and downsize, one will see more downward price pressure on home…

Policymakers are beginning to take note of the fiscal problems in teacher retirement systems. States have recently taken action by raising retirement ages, lowering benefit payments, and reducing cost-of-living adjustments. These are small steps toward shoring up the system to help ensure that it remains sustainable in the future. But the problems…

Purpose: To examine racial differences in (a) the prevalence of financial exploitation and psychological mistreatment since turning 60 and in the past 6 months and (b) the experience--perpetrator, frequency, and degree of upset--of psychological mistreatment in the past 6 months. Design and methods: Random digit dial telephone recruitment and…

This guidebook was developed to aid mothers who are attending school or training programs and also have preschool or school-age children at home, to find new approaches to their complicated life situations. Based on the experiences of 215 women in Allegheny County Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), the booklet describes some of the problems they faced as…

The 2009 proceedings of the Association for Continuing Higher Education represent the professional presentations of the keynote sessions, the concurrent sessions, and the business meeting of the association's 71st annual conference, held at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel in Philadelphia on November 15-18, 2009. The conference provided an engaging…