Teacher Shortages and Additional Certification for Teachers

New York State is experiencing teacher shortages in specific subject areas. There are several ways to address these shortages, including the certification of new teachers and the additional certification of experienced teachers. Using data from the New York State Education Department, REL Northeast & Islands conducted two related studies to better understand the pathways by which both new and experienced teachers obtained certification, in what areas, and where they were employed. New teachers were those with less than one year of experience teaching in New York State public schools, including teachers with prior out-of-state experience who are new to teaching in New York State. Experienced teachers had at least one year of experience teaching in New York State public schools.   One study focused on certification patterns among new teachers who began teaching in New York State public schools between 2015/16 and 2017/18. Findings from this study include: While the majority of new teachers earned certificates through the traditional in-state pathway, this varied somewhat by certification area. The proportion of teachers who earned certificates through the individual evaluation pathway was higher for the shortage certification area of career and technical education than for other certification areas. The most frequent certification area for new teachers was in the shortage certification area of special education (40 percent), while the shortage certification areas of career and technical education and bilingual special education were among the least frequent areas (1 percent each). New teachers employed in high-need districts had higher rates of retention in the same district for a second year than did new teachers employed in average and low-need districts The other study explored patterns in how experienced teachers in 2015/16 earned additional certificates between October 2015 and October 2017. Findings from this study include: About 5 percent of experienced teachers in 2015/16 earned additional certificates between October 2015 and October 2017, and these teachers had fewer years of teaching experience in New York State public schools on average (7 years) than did teachers who did not earn additional certificates during that time (15 years). More than half of experienced teachers earned additional certificates through the traditional in-state pathway, while about a third did so through the individual evaluation pathway. Special education was the most common shortage certification area in which experienced teachers earned additional certificates (27 percent).