Annual Survey of IHE Preparation Programs
Associated with Shortages of Special Education Personnel

June 1, 2003

1.  Introduction

The purpose of the survey is to gather information for each of the next five years that could be used proactively to address critical shortages in special education, bilingual special education, and related pupil personnel service and related service areas.  The results of the survey are a deliverable in the Joint Action Plan for the New York State Education Department and the New York City Department of Education Relating to Personnel Issues in the Jose P. Case and are being provided to the plaintiffs, the New York City Department of Education and preparation programs.  The New York State Education Department (SED) and the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) agree that the Annual Survey of IHE Preparation Programs Associated with Shortages of Special Education Personnel will prove valuable in identifying educational institutions to train teachers needed in New York City.

The results will be utilized by the State Education Department, the New York City Department of Education, and institutions of Higher Education to identify where additional State and Federal resources could and should be used to increase capacity, support recruitment, enhance faculty, and implement best practices.

2. Description of the Survey

1. Monolingual English-only and Bilingual Areas

The survey included a two page explanation of the survey and a two page form to be completed by the institution for each of the programs that they operated in the following bilingual and monolingual-English teacher certification preparation areas. (APPENDIX A).

2. Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy Areas; Speech Language Pathology

3. Survey Results

Identical questions were asked of programs preparing English Language-only candidates and those training bilingual professionals.  The results are presented by monolingual-English; bilingual and professional category.  Survey results provide data for the following professional categories: Teacher of Special Education, Teacher of Speech and Hearing Handicapped, School Psychologist and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).  Numerical as well as anecdotal information is provided.  The section will conclude with a review of the results of the Occupational and Physical Therapy survey conducted by the Department through another format.

1. Monolingual English-Only

Responses from universities which operate programs in special education and speech and hearing handicapped in English-only were received from 52 programs in 28 Institutions of Higher Education. The preliminary results will be provided under this heading as these are an aggregate of the two fields. However, a more extensive report that tracks the process used in the bilingual reporting will be issued after the results from the second survey are received. The current sample includes data from Bank Street College, Adelphi University, Fordham University and Touro College.

1. Teacher of Special Education/Speech and Hearing Handicapped

2. Bilingual Areas

1. Teacher of Bilingual Special Education  (Data Source: 14 of 17 Programs Responding)

Fourteen of 17 registered programs of Bilingual Special Education or 82% of the potential respondents responded.  The responding institutions had a current enrollment of 50 undergraduate students and 114 graduate students.  They believed in aggregate, that they could support 20 additional students at the undergraduate level and 244 at the graduate level.  Five of the programs have plans to expand and one believes they will reduce their program size.

CUNY City College reported they could expand their program by 100 seats, followed by Touro College with space for 40 additional students and Lehman College with 20 graduate and 20 undergraduate additional capacity.  Since the last survey in May 2000, CUNY Brooklyn, CUNY Hunter and CUNY York have closed programs.

Institutions believed that they could expand their program either through in-house or on-line programs.   Four institutions or 17% believed that their programs were hampered by a lack of applicants.  Comments also pointed to the concern that certification programs required completion of too many credits for the certification and were expensive.  17% of the institutions also felt that their lack of faculty was causing them to run smaller programs.  Lack of scholarship monies was identified by only three of the institutions as an issue impeding growth.  Five institutions thought that if the issues impeding growth were resolved, they would expand programs.

The institutions provided various suggestions for improvement:  waivers for former NYC Bilingual Psychologists to join faculty ranks and funding for training on-line teachers so that on-line courses can expand.

2. Teacher of Bilingual Speech and Hearing Handicapped (Data Source: 8 of 11 Programs Responding)

Eight (73%) of the 11 registered programs responded with a combined total enrollment of 26 undergraduate and 130 graduate students.  The institutions felt that they could support 10 more undergraduate students and more than 100 graduate students.  Two of the programs have plans to expand their programs and none believe that they will reduce their program.

Touro College felt that they could accept an additional 40 graduate students into their programs.  Teachers College is providing an institute program for a bilingual extension in speech and accepts cohorts of 20 students.  Adelphi felt that they could receive an additional 25 students and CUNY Lehman thought that they could accept an additional 20 students.

Five institutions felt that a lack of applicants was a barrier, two institutions identified lack of faculty and four lack of resources.  However, if given resources three programs would expand.  It was reported that monies were needed to train personnel to instruct in on-line certification programs and that an on-line expansion would result in an increase of 100 students spread throughout the bilingual titles.  One institution was interested in receiving recruitment information and wondered if money was still available to support new program development.

3. Bilingual School Psychology (Data Source: 9 of 10 Programs Responding)

Ninety percent of the programs responded (9/10).  School Psychology is a graduate program-only and reported 116 students enrolled.  The institutions felt they could expand to accommodate an additional 49 students and one program is working on expansion plans.  None of the programs is contracting.

Eight of the 10 programs are offered in independent colleges.  CUNY Queens reported that they could receive an additional 20 students.  Touro College joined CUNY Queens in reporting 20 available seats.

Slightly less than 50 percent of the institutions are impeded by lack of faculty and lack of resources and only two institutions report a lack of applicants.  Again, one institution questioned funding to expand an on-line initiative.

4. Teacher of English to Speakers of Languages Other Than English (TESOL) (Data Source: 19 of 29 Programs Responding)

Nineteen (65%) of the 29 TESOL programs responded.  Their total enrollment is 46 students at the undergraduate level and 817 at the graduate level.  They believe that 10 more students could be supported at the undergraduate level and 385 at the graduate level.  Ten of the programs have plans to expand.  For 8 programs, lack of faculty is the major concern followed by lack of resources for 4 programs and lack of applicants at two institutions.  Eight institutions reported that they would expand if the issues at their institution were resolved.

University faculty issues were a major source of comments from TESOL institutions.  They asked that NYSED consider modifying rigid Ph.D. and EdD requirements for hiring. Need to collaborate in offering courses with other institutions because of increasing SED requirements.

Individual institutional results appear as APPENDIX C.

3. Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy; Speech Language Pathology

1. Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy

No PT or OT programs plan to expand or contract their capacity.  The only limit to full-time capacity is the number of qualified applicants.  For both occupational therapy and physical therapy, colleges reported that, with existing resources, on average, they could only expand their programs by a few students per class.  With the full transition to DPT programs, institutions believe that the capacity will be full.  [Applications and acceptances are down in PT schools that do not yet offer the DPT].  Only one OT school in these regions is in the process of converting to an MS program, the others all offer the MS degree.   No SLP program plan to expand capacity; several will contract slightly.  The most promising way to increase graduates is to create new programs at new schools.

• Mid-Hudson, New York City, and Long Island Regions - Occupational Therapy

Institution	Enrollments	Graduation
Dominican College	38	35
Mercy College	33	27
Columbia University	40	42
York College*	30	20
LIU Brooklyn	35	30
New York University	52	39
Touro College	30	33
SUNY Brooklyn	16	9
New York Institute of Technology	20	18

* York is the only BS OT program.  Application in SED for a master’s program.

Other OT Issues:

High cost of private graduate education limits recruitment of qualified students (1)

Lack of funding at the State level to recruit more students from underrepresented groups (1)

Suggestions from OT Schools:

Need dedicated scholarship, merit aid, graduate assistantships, and financial incentives (i.e., loan forgiveness, agency/facility sponsorship).  Financial incentives to support practicing clinicians to complete terminal degrees (3)

Subsidies and grant programs to recruit and support minority enrollment (2)

• Mid-Hudson, New York City and Long Island Regions- Physical Therapy 

Institution	Enrollments	Graduations
Dominican College	25	32
Mercy College	25	28
New York Medical College*	23	30
Columbia University*	25	36
CUNY Staten Island	24	18
CUNY Hunter College	38	18
LIU Brooklyn*	38	36
New York University*	25	20
SUNY Brooklyn	20	10
Touro College*	35	40
New York Institute of Technology*	30	27
SUNY Stony Brook*	30	32

 *Physical Therapy programs have or are changing from a master’s to a first professional doctoral program.  Prior to the conversions, applicants and admissions dropped 50 percent.  Master’s programs were typically 2 to 3 years; DPT programs are 3 ½ to 4 years.  There may be a year when there are no graduates.

• Barriers to Expand PT Program and suggestions for improvement (number of respondents): 

  • Limited clinical sites in early intervention and school settings (2)

  • Lack of qualified applicants (3)-national trend

  • Need additional financial and equipment resources to expand (1)

  • High cost of private education limits recruitment of qualified students (2)

  •  Need dedicated scholarship, merit aid, graduate assistantships, and financial incentives (i.e., loan forgiveness, agency/facility sponsorship).  Financial incentives to support practicing clinicians to complete terminal degrees (2)

  • Need support to increase recruitment efforts (1)

  • Continued student scholarship support.  Hope the Board of Education will agree to pay for three years tuition for extended period of employment (e.g., five years) (1)

  • Shortage is only in the school settings—target funding for specific recruitment, not training (1)

•  Mid-Hudson, New York City, and Long Island Regions – Speech Language Pathology

Institution	Enrollments	Graduation
Adelphi University	30	23
College of New Rochelle	48	0
Columbia University	96	45
CUNY Brooklyn College	103	30
CUNY Lehman College	100	45
CUNY Queens College	28	13
Hofstra University	N/A	25
LIU Brooklyn	98	N/A
LIU CW Post	28	14
Mercy College	17	13-16
NY Medical College	29	11
NY University	226	N/A
St. Johns University	125	28
SUNY New Paltz	54	25
SUNY Plattsburgh (NYC “feeder”)	15	30

•  Barriers to Expansion of SLP Programs

  • Lack of graduate faculty

  • Insufficient number of practicum sites/supervisors

• Other SLP Issues

  • Competition for graduates of SLP programs limits number who accept employment with the NYC DOE - factors are working environment and salaries.

  • Fund new SLP programs at new schools.  Programs are contracting because it is costly and labor intensive to operate the programs under current teacher/student rations.

4. Summary

The purpose of the survey is to provide a research base on available teacher preparation and professional license opportunities that can support the New York City Department of Education’s staff recruitment and retention goals.  It is understood that the vacancy rates as well as the staffing needs are constantly changing in response to the dynamics of the evolving school situation.  The following section provides a brief summary of findings.

1. Monolingual English-Only

As indicated in the previous section, few responses were received from the monolingual English-Only training programs. 

• The institutions are being canvassed a second time; and the

• results from the canvass will be provided when the analysis is complete. 

In general, the preliminary information received from the 28 responding institutions suggests that enrollment is limited by a lack of applications but that there are additional seats available at the universities and that the respondents would be willing to expand further if additional resources were available.  

2. Bilingual Areas

The Annual Survey was undertaken to establish the capacity of universities to train professionals to meet the needs of a growing bilingual special education population.  This particular survey identifies the university programs in which the vacancies exist and thereby allows focused placement of student candidates. In the case of each of the certification areas,

• the universities responded that they would be able to accept additional students

• in some cases, the ability to accept additional students was unconditional but in other cases the institutions felt that they would need additional resources. 

• three CUNY programs registered bilingual special education have ceased to operate since the last survey of May 2000.

3. Occupational and Physical Therapy; Speech Language Pathology

No Physical Therapy or Occupational Therapy Program indicated plans to either expand or contract their capacity.  No speech language program plans to expand capacity.  Programs are unable to expand capacity primarily due to lack of additional faculty, without which there is an overly demanding ratio.

Future meetings between NYSED and NYCDOE and with the plaintiffs will include discussion of specific strategies to address needs identified through the survey.

---

Addendum for June 26, 2003 Meeting
Summary of Findings and Joint NYSED/NYCDOE Strategies
Annual Survey of IHE Preparation Programs