RD342 - Commonwealth of Virginia Critical Shortage Teaching Endorsement Areas for 2012-2013 School Year


Executive Summary:
The Appropriation Act (Item 131, paragraph H.1, Chapter 890, 2011 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 October 2010, to determine qualifications for teachers and administrators. Information requested on the survey was based on school data reports as of October 1, 2010. These data were used to determine 2012-2013 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 ten 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 2012-2013 top ten critical shortage teaching endorsement areas identified statewide were determined based on method number one as noted above and prescribed methodology for designation of teacher shortage areas outlined by the U.S. Department of Education. The top ten 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.