Economic downturns can cause major funding shortfalls for U.S. public schools, often forcing districts to make difficult budget cuts including teacher layoffs. In this brief, we synthesize the empirical literature on the widespread teacher layoffs caused by the Great Recession. Studies find that teacher layoffs harmed student achievement and were…

Baby boomers in Taiwan benefit from better health, economic conditions, and education in comparison to older generations. The participants in this study were older adult learners from the baby boom generation. This study aimed to examine their retirement decisions, adaptation, and learning processes. A qualitative research approach was employed in…

To promote success among all students, schools hire an array of support staff, professional personnel, and administrators. The majority of a school's budget is dedicated to personnel costs, so when the Legislature cuts education funding, they are also cutting staff. However, changes in staffing have not been consistent over time or within staffing…

The purpose of this brief paper is to present initial findings from the recently collected London School of Economics and Political Science-Centre for Economic Performance (LSE-CEP) Social Mobility survey, which was undertaken as part of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) project 'Generation COVID and Social Mobility: Evidence and Policy'.…

Guided by Honig and Hatch's (2004) conceptualization of bridging and buffering, we undertook an analysis of reduction in force (RIF) provisions from 546 Ohio teacher collective bargaining agreements. We asked the following question: Are the most disadvantaged school districts providing greater protections to tenured teachers when making RIF…

This study renews a doctoral dissertation written in 2003 on transformative learning following job loss. An abbreviated literature review compares corporate and worker circumstances from the original study to the present time. Findings show that corporations choose reductions in force due to pressure from investors instead of productivity, and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced many changes in the lives of our students and families. In this article, the responses of students in criminal justice classes at a Hispanic serving institution in south Texas were collected and synthesized. The 252 responses were divided into seven frequently observed and repeated themes: jobs and job related,…

Few studies examine employee responses to layoff-induced unemployment risk; none that we know of quantify the impact of job insecurity on individual employee productivity. Using data from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and Washington State during the Great Recession, we provide the first evidence about the impact of the layoff…

Few studies examine employee responses to layoff-induced unemployment risk; none that we know of quantify the impact of job "insecurity" on individual employee productivity. Using data from the Los Angeles Unified School District and Washington State during the Great Recession, we provide the first evidence about the impact of the layoff…

This study investigated the factors that pushed and pulled social justice educators out of urban elementary and secondary (K-12) schools and into teacher education. The authors utilized an autoethnography and counternarrative methodology to examine the systemic and distinct factors that impacted four social justice educators' decisions to leave…

This First Look presents selected findings on the work and life experiences of recent bachelor's degree earners before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings in this report are based on data from the 2016/20 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:16/20), which took place in 2020. B&B:16/20 is the second follow-up in a…

The context for child care and early education (CCEE) changed rapidly in March 2020 as the global pandemic caused the closure of child care programs and schools, widespread job loss, and negative impacts on the broader economy and family life. Black and Latino families and families with lower income experienced disproportionately negative effects…

COVID-19 has had devastating effects on the financial well-being of many recent immigrants, temporary foreign workers, and international students in Canada. Migrants--regardless of their immigration status--are overrepresented in essential roles and industries that have been hardest hit. To better understand the impact of the pandemic on these…

As schools and families deal with the rapidly changing local circumstances related to the coronavirus, afterschool programs are stepping up and tailoring their services to support students and address gaps: extending program hours, offering access to healthy meals and services, and providing care to the children of essential workers.…

Most teacher layoffs during the Great Recession were implemented following inverse-seniority policies. In this paper, I examine the implementation of a discretionary layoff policy in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. Administrators did not uniformly lay off the most or least senior teachers but instead selected teachers who were previously retired,…