Completers Hired
One of the measures on program outcome that the College of Education is required to list in its annual report to CAEP is the ability of our program completers to be hired into positions for which they have been prepared. The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) provides a list of Penn State students who have been hired in Pennsylvania and the school districts that have hired them. However, because a significant number of completers choose to seek teaching positions in other states, the College has been working on ways to maintain connections with those students using emails and surveys, so as to include their data in our self assessments.
The following tables reports PDE data on the number of Penn State completers hired into Pennsylvania school districts for the past four calendar years at the initial and at the advanced program levels. Please note that 2018 initial completers were new to the job search process, and any very recent hires would not yet be loaded into the PDE system.
Certification Year
Total Certified
Initial
Teaching in Pennsylvania
2014
601
155
2015
484
128
2016
448
109
2017
479
112
2018
458
94
Certification Year
Total Certified
Advanced
Working in Pennsylvania
2014
151
101
2015
137
89
2016
140
81
2017
111
81
2018
98
77
An example of less formal data was collected a year after the first cohort of the new dual degree CEAED PK- Grade 4 bachelor's program with a one year Special Education PK- Grade 8 Master's degree graduated. Seven completers were emailed asking for feedback on the following questions: Are you working in an elementary school, are you in a general or special education classroom, and do you believe that your master's degree helped you obtain your position or made you better qualified.
Six students (85.1%) responded, and all six reported that they were working in an elementary school. Three were working in general education and three were working in special education. All six reported that their second degree helped them obtain their position over the other candidates. Additional comments described satisfaction with their program, such as "I feel much more comfortable as a teacher" and "I thinking staying and getting my Master's was the best decision I could have made" and "I'm thankful to have had such a great education to prepare me!"