Teacher Vacancies in New MexicoDecember 2015

Prepared by:

Dr. Karen Trujillo, NMSU Alliance for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning

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IntroductionThis report was created in order to document the teacher shortages in New Mexico. Initially data was collected by the New Mexico Superintendents Association in June and again in August of 2015. In September, an inquiry was sent to all school districts through the New Mexico School Personnel Association. Once data was received from a majority of districts using these methods of collection, the final step was to collect data from online sources for the remaining districts. The websites for each school district were reviewed in November and a database was created to include all vacancies and job postings either reported by district officials or advertised online. Although this information changes as people are hired, this data represents the information gathered as of December 1, 2015. Please note, this data DOES NOT INCLUDE State Charter Schools, Private schools or Bureau of Indian Education Schools located in New Mexico, it strictly represents data from the 89 school districts defined by PED.

Total Vacancies for Public School Districts in New Mexico There are currently 513 openings in New Mexico. This number includes teaching positions, instructional coaching positions, counselors and ancillary services such as speech pathologists, social workers, and other certified therapists. This does not include administrative vacancies. Of the 513 openings, 468 are teaching positions, 12 are counseling positions and 35 are for ancillary services.

Table 1: Vacancies by Discipline

91%

7%

2%

513 Vacancies

Teaching Ancillary Counseling

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VACANCIES BY REGIONIf we look at New Mexico in terms of regions, the data shows a clearer picture of where the needs are. The data was separated using geographical regions defined by the following map.

REGIONS:

Central: 11 DistrictsNorthwest: 15 DistrictsNortheast: 21 DistrictsSouthwest: 13 DistrictsSoutheast: 28 Districts

Table 2: All Vacancies by Region

257

58

91

97

10

Vacancies By Region (Teaching and Ancillary)

Central (11 districts) Southwest (13 districts) Southeast (28 districts)Northwest (15 districts) Northeast (21 districts)

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Table 3: Teaching Positions by Region

230

54

86

86

10

Teaching Positions

Central (11 districts) Southwest (13 districts) Southeast (28 districts)Northwest (15 districts) Northeast (21 districts)

Table 4: Ancillary Positions (SLP, SW, Counselors, OT, PT and Psych) by Region

27

4

5

11

Ancillary

Central (11 districts) Southwest (13 districts) Southeast (28 districts)Northwest (15 districts) Northeast (21 districts)

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Table 5: Districts with more than 10 openings

The majority of these schools represent the larger school districts in the state, so this data is not surprising. As you can see, 4 of the Central districts have more than 10 openings, 4 of the Southeast districts have more than 10 openings, 3 of the Northwest districts have more than 10 openings and 2 of the Southwest districts have more than 10 openings. The entire Northeast side of the state has a total of 10 openings.

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Vacancies by Subject AreaThere is also a need to define what types of teaching positions are available in New Mexico. In an effort to capture this data, the vacancies were divided into various subject areas. Although this graph is representative overall of the specific needs, there are some areas where data was difficult to distinguish. The following issues occurred when gathering this data:

1. Early Childhood and Elementary: There was an effort made to distinguish between early childhood (K-3) and elementary vacancies, however, this chart may not capture all of the early childhood vacancies. If the job postings specifically stated PreK-3rd grade it was included in Early Childhood, if not then it was included in Elementary.

2. Reading Coaches and Instructional Coaches: Reading coaches and instructional coaches were placed in Language arts because grade levels were not specified.

3. Electives: Electives include FACS teachers, computer teachers or other electives teachers that did not specifically fall under arts, music or foreign languages.

4. ELL and Bilingual: There was an effort to distinguish bilingual or ELL positions, but if the advertisement did not specify it was not included. It is very likely that many more ELL or bilingual positions are available and are not captured completely.

Table 6: Total Vacancies by Subject/Area

Math

Science LA

Early Ch

Elem PE ELLSPED

Arts/M

usic

Foreign Lang SS

Elective

s

Supp(SLP, S

W, E

tc)

Counselors

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

34 29 33 25

94

7 14

166

235 9

1835

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Vacancies by Subject/Area

The SPED vacancies make up 32% (166) of the total vacancies. Elementary and Early Childhood together make up 23% (119) of the openings and Math and Science make up 13% (63) of the total.

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Alternative Licensure, Long Term Subs and Waivers:In addition to teacher shortages, districts were asked to report the following information:

1. Number of Long Term Subs2. Number of teachers who have an alternative license3. Number of teachers working under a waiver.

42 Districts responded to this request and it is important to note that Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and other large districts DID NOT report this information and are therefore not represented in the data below.

Table 7: Substandard Certifications and Substitutes Reported by 42 School Districts

Long Term Substitutes 182Alternative Licenses 365

Waivers 34

Other interesting things to note in this are:

3 Districts reported having over 30 Long Term Subs 9 Districts reported having over 10 Teachers with an alternative license with 5 that reported having

over 30. The largest number of alternative licenses reported by a single district was 64.

Conclusions:1. The Central region has the direst need for teachers in the state of New Mexico. In fact, the central

region has 50% of the openings (257)2. There is an extreme shortage of Special Education teachers in New Mexico. SPED accounts for 32%

of the vacancies.3. Elementary teachers are needed throughout the state. Elementary (PreK-6) openings represent

23% of the vacancies.4. There is a shortage of Math and Science teachers throughout the state of New Mexico. Math (34)

and Science (29) account for 13% of the vacancies.5. It is important to include counselors and ancillary service providers when we discuss vacancies in

New Mexico. There are currently 47 openings in these areas.

Next Steps:1. Develop programs to recruit and retain qualified teachers in all subjects and at all grade levels.2. Encourage students to consider Special Education as a career choice during college.3. Offer incentives for current Educational Assistants to get the training and certification necessary to

become teachers, especially in Special Education.4. Develop programs that attract and retain highly qualified teachers in Math and Science to fill the

need for qualified STEM teachers.5. Determine how many classrooms are currently staffed by teachers working under an Alternative

license or an otherwise substandard license.

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