The number of Colorado graduates completing an education degree dropped for the fifth consecutive year, according to the state’s annual report on educator preparation.
The report published by the Colorado Department of Higher Education on Friday reiterates an estimate for “a shortfall of approximately 300 teachers annually throughout Colorado.”
According to the report, there were 2,529 individuals “completing an educator preparation program at Colorado colleges and universities” during the 2014-15 school year.
That’s down 6 percent from the previous year, and down from a high of 3,274 graduates in 2010-11.
The number of Colorado residents completing an alternative licensure program has increased by 42 percent over the previous year.In the 2014-15 year there were 816 people completing such a program.
Officials are researching the trends.
“Additional research regarding out-of-state educator recruitment will continue in an effort to ascertain why various Colorado districts continue to recruit teaching candidates from outside of Colorado, and how the quality of the candidates emerging from Colorado institutions compare with their peers,” the report states.
The Professional Services and Educator Licensing division of the Colorado Department of Education also is expected to implement a new, mainstreamed, licensing process for educators this year.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or @yeseniarobles
Colorado teaching grads
Schools graduating the largest percent of all educators preparation students:
University of Northern Colorado, 23 percent
Metropolitan State University of Denver, 13 percent
University of Colorado Denver, 12 percent
University of Colorado Boulder, 10 percent
University of Denver, 9 percent
