This research investigated the supply and demand of technology education teachers in each of the United States. The research goals guiding this study were to determine (1) the number of technology education teachers produced in the United States, (2) the number of technology education teachers employed in the United States public schools during the spring of 2009, (3) the number of vacant technology education teacher positions in United States public schools during the spring of 2009, and (4) the projected number of technology education teacher vacancies for the fall semesters of 2009, 2012, and 2014. The 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, and 2007-2008 Industrial Teacher Education (ITE) Directories were reviewed to determine the number of teachers (supply) produced during those years. In 2004-2005, 34 institutions produced 338 technology teachers, in 2005-2006, 32 institutions produced 315 teachers, in 2006-2007, 29 institutions produced 311 teachers, and in 2007-2008, 27 institutions produced 258 technology teachers.
State technology education supervisors were surveyed to answer the remaining three goals. Their responses indicated that there were 12,146 middle school and 16,164 high school (a total of 28,310) teachers employed in the United States during the spring of 2009. Supervisors also reported that there were 367 middle school and 549 high school vacancies. Supervisors expected that there will be 823 vacancies during the fall of 2009, 1,152 in 2012, and 1,435 in 2014, for a total of 3,410 vacancies.
The survey also asked supervisors questions concerning alternative technology education teacher processes. Forty-three of the 50 states offered alternative technology education teacher licensure processes. Of those 43 states, 34 modified existing state teacher licensure processes.
Supervisors were asked if their state had incorporated or were planning to incorporate pre-engineering curriculum into their technology education programs. Forty-nine of the 50 state supervisors responded with a “yes.” Data indicated that there were a total of 1,969 Project Lead The Way ®, 939 Engineering by Design™, and 368 other types of pre-engineering programs in the United States. Forty-seven state supervisors also indicated that their state had or were planning to integrate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) components into their technology education programs
