Email Cover Letter

E-MAIL TRANSMITTAL

DATE: [Mid-August]

Dear CSSO:

This email and accompanying letter [Web site link to the letter] notifies you of the requirements for submitting teacher shortage area proposals for the 201X – 201X school year. The proposals are due by December X, 201X for designation by the U.S. Department of Education. We have also posted the letter and enclosures at the following OPE Web page:

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/pol/csso-letter.html

Here are some important guidelines/tips to assist you:

1] Please complete all questions in the accompanying “Checklist”. Please write “Not Applicable”, “N/A”, or something similar if a question does not currently pertain to your State’s proposed list.

2] Please define any terms specific to your State’s list of shortage areas – especially if these shortage areas have not been proposed in prior years.

3] Please spell acronyms and abbreviations that are mentioned in your listing (e.g., CTI; Exceptional Children-EBD, FMD, LBD, and PD; ELL/TBE-ELL/ELD).

4] Please be consistent with names of the proposed shortage areas. Unless school districts or geographical areas have changed the name of a subject area/academic discipline (e.g., changing the name from “Biology” to “Biological Sciences”), use the name of a proposed shortage area that has been previously submitted to this report.

I sincerely appreciate your concern about educating your State’s students through their high school graduation. The publication of the teacher shortage areas continues to be an extremely important reference document to alert the nation where States and school districts are looking to potentially hire academic administrators, licensed teachers, and other educators and school faculty in specific disciplines/subject areas, grade levels, and/or geographic areas; and where recent graduates of Schools of Education and trained, experienced teaching professionals aiming to serve school districts with shortages can find prospective positions and fill the current voids in each State’s and territory’s Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 classrooms, in areas that match their certification credentials; as well as to inform Federal financial aid recipients on reducing, deferring, or nullifying/discharging/cancelling student loan repayments and meet other specified (e.g., teaching) obligations.

Your careful contributions each year lead to this report’s continued success.

Best wishes,

Freddie Cross

Freddie Cross

Senior Statistician

Office of Postsecondary Education

U.S. Department of Education