Alternative Teacher Certification: The Center for American Progress recently published an analysis of alternative teacher certification programs sponsored by organizations other than institutions of higher education (IHEs). Researchers examined the types of sponsors, states in which these programs operate and how enrollment varies by demographics to reveal the following findings:
- Regional education service agencies (50%), non-profit organizations (23%) and for-profit programs (14%) were the largest operators in the non-IHE alternative sector in 2018-19.
- Despite only being 14% of the non-IHE alternative sector, for-profit programs enrolled 70% of students in non-IHE alternative programs, a nearly 280% increase since 2010.
- Between 2010-11 and 2018-19, enrollment in non-IHE alternative certification programs grew by 76%, while IHE-based programs experienced an overall decline. Despite enrollment increases in the non-IHE sector, completion rates dropped by 19%.
- From 2010-11 to 2018-19, non-IHE alternative programs enrolled a higher percentage of students of color than IHE-based programs.
Teacher Shortages: Recently, Brown University released a report and an accompanying interactive map that provides national- and state-level estimates from 2014-22 on the K-12 teacher shortage. Researchers examined news reports, U.S. Department of Education data and publicly available information on teacher vacancies and certifications to uncover the following:
- An estimated 36,504 full-time teacher positions are unfilled; however, this number may be as high as 52,800. Overall, vacancies amount to almost 2% of positions nationwide.
- About 163,650 positions are filled by teachers who are teaching a subject different than their area of preparation or have an alternative, temporary or emergency certification.
- Mississippi had the highest relative vacancies with 68 vacancies per 10,000 students while Missouri had the lowest with less than one vacancy per 10,000 students. (Thirteen states did not have credible data related to teacher shortages).
General Education Data: In May, the National Center for Education Statistics released its annual Condition of Education report, which summarizes the latest data available on P-12 and postsecondary education in the United States. The following are some of the report’s main findings:
- P-12 public school enrollment decreased from 50.8 million in fall 2019 to 49.4 million in fall 2020, a 3% drop, which is the largest single-year decline since 1943.
- In 2017-18, there were 3.5 million full-time and part-time public school teachers. About 8% of these teachers held a provisional, probationary or emergency teaching certificate, and 2% held no certification.
- Between fall 2009 to fall 2020, postsecondary undergraduate enrollment declined by 9%, which was driven by a 35% drop at two-year institutions. In fall 2020, 31% of undergraduate students (4.9 million) were enrolled in a two-year institution.
- The number of associate degrees earned increased by 20% from 2010 to 2020. The most popular fields of study included business, health professions and STEM.
State Report Cards: The Data Quality Campaign released its annual analysis of state school report cards for the 2020-21 school year to identify what school data is accessible, or may be missing, for students and their families. At the time of the study, 43 states had submitted their 2020-21 report cards. The following are some of the analysis’ key findings:
- Twenty-eight states disaggregated data by all federally required student groups.
- Many states did not include data on the 2020-21 school year. For instance, 16 states did not include 2021 assessment data, 25 states did not include 2021 graduation rates and 26 states did not include 2021 chronic absenteeism data.
- About 25 states included some form of language translation for their state report card; however, only seven states had high-quality translations.
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