RD245 - Annual Report on the Critical Shortage Teaching Areas in Virginia - 2006-2007 School Year


Executive Summary:
The Appropriation Act (Item 132, paragraph B, Chapter 847, 2007 Acts of Assembly), requires the Department of Education to report annually to the General Assembly on the critical teaching shortage areas in Virginia. In response to this requirement, data were obtained from the Supply and Demand Survey for School Personnel sent by the Department of Education to each of Virginia's school division superintendents in March 2007, to determine qualifications for teachers and administrators. Information requested on the survey was based on school data reports as of October 1, 2006. These data will be used to determine 2007-2008 critical shortage teaching endorsement areas in Virginia.

In Virginia, "critical shortage" may be defined in two ways: (1) shortages by subject matter as designated from the top 10 academic disciplines identified in an annual survey of school divisions; or, (2) a school personnel vacancy for which a school division receives three or fewer qualified candidates for a position. Determination of critical shortages in specific teaching endorsement areas and their rankings are dependent on the method of calculation used. As such, specific shortage areas identified will differ among school divisions (i.e., geographic regions) and statewide analysis of subject matter designations.

The 2007-2008 top 10 critical shortage teaching endorsement areas identified statewide were determined based on method number two as noted above and prescribed methodology for designation of teacher shortage areas outlined by the U.S. Department of Education. The process for determination of these areas has been completed in accordance with requirements outlined in "Enclosure A, Proposed Teacher Shortage Area Designation Submission Checklist," received from that office. The top 10 critical shortage teaching endorsement areas will be reported to the Virginia Retirement System and will be used to determine candidate eligibility for the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program. Endorsement areas were ranked according to the most severe academic teaching shortage areas.

The ranking is based on an aggregation of the total number of unfilled positions (for vacancies with three or fewer applications) received in elementary education, special education, foreign languages, career and technical education, and middle education grades six through eight. A total of 38 administrative and teaching areas were taken into account to determine the top 10 critical teaching shortage area assignments.