Market Demand for Special Education Faculty

Published: 
May. 02, 2012

Source: Teacher Education and Special Education, 35(2), May, 2012, p. 140-153.

The present study sought to add to the knowledge base of the extent and severity of the chronic special education (SE) faculty shortage.

The authors gathered data on the supply and demand of leadership personnel in SE since the 2001 Faculty Shortage Study;
They combined and compared these data with other sources (e.g., Survey of Earned Doctorates [SED]);
They also produced evidence to assess what changes, if any, have occurred in leadership personnel in SE over the past 10 years;
They described the characteristics of the SE faculty job market, including recent faculty search trends; and
they identified emerging issues as it relates to the demand for SE faculty.

Data were collected from from 36 job-search coordinators for SE faculty position advertisements posted in The Chronicle of Higher Education between June and November, 2010.
Other sources of data include the Survey of Doctoral Training Programs in Special Education and the Survey of Teacher Education Training Programs in Special Education.

The most important finding from this study indicates that although demand markers have improved in the last 10 years, retirements across all SE programs are predicted to increase by 21% per year between 2011 and 2017.

Updated: Mar. 19, 2014
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