The purpose of this data set is to allow you to see where shortages are acute now, and where they are likely to be acute several years from now. This information may be useful to many kinds of people for many reasons. Counselors may find it a useful advisement tool. Data will enable planning, policy evaluation, and research on the depth of the teaching pool. Registration priority can be given to teacher education programs in shortage areas.
Colleges can use the data to evaluate the market viability of their teacher education programs.
Programs in shortage areas will probably result in higher placement rates for graduates, thereby justifying a fair share of institutional resources. Districts with shortages may be better able to target teacher recruitment. To illustrate shortages, numbers of teachers certified are contrasted with numbers of teachers employed. Rather than list each of the hundreds of specific certificate titles currently in use in New York State, thirty title groups were created to reflect both current teaching titles and those anticipated under new regulations beginning in 2004. These data will be expanded and upgraded in the near future.