The researchers reported that while most teachers are taking steps to plan for retirement, teachers do not have the basic knowledge to effectively plan for it.

"Teachers struggled to identify their plan type, how much they are contributing to their plans, retirement eligibility ages, and who contributes to Social Security," they said. "These results suggest that teacher retirement reform may not be disruptive for teachers and that better, simpler, and clearer information about teacher retirement plans would be beneficial."

Teachers with more experience demonstrated more knowledge about their retirement than those with less experience, according to the study. And most teachers who are or have been married said their spouses also have retirement plans and that they will rely equally on both sets of benefits.

The researchers also reported that:

• Just under half of the teachers with eight years or less of teaching could identify their retirement plan based on descriptions. Mid-career teachers were correct 55.1% of the time and 62.6% of the late-career teachers could identify their plans.
• Less than 20% of the teachers surveyed knew their retirement eligibility age.
• Only 2% of those surveyed knew the exact rate of their contribution to their retirement plan.
• No teacher surveyed knew the exact rate of their employer's contribution to their retirement and less than 15% answered within one percentage point of the rate.
• 69% of the teachers responding said that they will rely equally on both their partner's retirement benefits and their own.

The researchers said that the lack of knowledge about retirement benefits is particularly important since teacher retirement systems lack hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for all retirement benefits.

They said that some aspects of teacher pensions make understanding them more difficult. For instance, they said, many plans are backloaded, with teachers earning smaller benefits in the early part of their careers and much more later.

While retirement systems provide teachers with information about retirement plans, the information they receive from states generally concentrates on how long teachers must work to qualify and how to calculate benefits for teachers who work a full career.

They added that benefit handbooks often contain complicated minutia about such issues as service credit and instructions on designating beneficiaries.

As a result, some teachers may simply have faith that whoever designed the plans will have their best interests in mind.

That's a problem they said.

"States and districts should do more to improve teachers' understanding of their retirement plans," the study concluded. "Lacking knowledge could result in poor retirement planning among teachers, especially for short- and medium-tenure teachers."