Concerns over fiscal and personal appropriateness for public retirement pensions have become prevalent within conversations throughout the United States. However, with some important exceptions (e.g., DeArmond and Goldhaber, 2010) limited research has focused upon perceptions of teachers who receive these pension plans. As such, the purpose of this study was to describe and analyze the degree to which teachers' perceptions of their understanding of retirement, sufficiency of retirement, and preference for defined benefit may contribute to retirement satisfaction, career satisfaction, and openness to changing the retirement system.

A survey design was used to gather data from teachers in three California districts. Nearly 230 teachers submitted usable surveys. Factor analyses were used to confirm both independent and dependent variables of study. Four factors emerged related to independent variables: understanding of retirement, sufficiency of retirement, preference for defined benefit, and preference for personal retirement control. Five factors emerged related to dependent variables: retirement satisfaction, personal career satisfaction, compensation satisfaction, openness to major system change, and openness to strengthening the retirement system.

Among the findings were that teachers' perceptions of understanding of retirement, sufficiency of retirement, and preference for personal retirement control were all significant predictors of retirement satisfaction. Furthermore, perceptions of sufficiency of retirement were a significant predictor of compensation satisfaction. Preference for defined benefit and preference for personal retirement control were both significant predictors for openness to major system change. This finding indicated that teachers' preference for defined benefit had a negative predictive effect on openness to major system change. In addition, those preferring personal retirement control had a positive effect on openness to major system change.

Analyzing teachers by experience showed that teachers with high experience (more than 15 years) had a higher satisfaction of retirement, understanding of retirement, and preference for defined benefit than less experienced teachers. Contrastingly, lower experience teachers had a higher openness to major system change and a higher preference for personal retirement control. These differences suggest that experienced teachers are generally more satisfied and content with their retirement but newer teachers are likely more open to potential system overhauls being considered within the state studied.