Career-Technical Education Research News

Heather Boggs Sass of the Southern Regional Education Board is a principal investigator of the Alternative Licensure Career/Technical Teacher Induction Model. Dr. Sass talked about the current status of this project with Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). Joining Dr. Sass was Stephanie Hyder, Leadership and Professional Development Specialist with the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education.

In conjunction with the NRCCTE, SREB is developing an induction model for new career and technical education (CTE) teachers pursuing an alternative route to certification that will increase their competence, self-efficacy and retention. A series of professional development sessions will emphasize four areas of knowledge and skill teachers need to improve student achievement and preparedness for further learning and the workplace: planning standards-based instruction, using research-based instructional strategies, assessing students to promote learning, and effectively managing classrooms. Support elements will include mentoring from an educator in the teacher’s school, coaching from the professional development instructor, the guidance of a school principal, and the support of electronic communities of practice with cohort peers. Recently, Dr. Sass and Ms. Hyder have been field-testing the model in Oklahoma. Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

HBS: Well we’ve seen an increased need for really high-quality alternative certification routes. In this country we’re seeing more and more teachers entering through alternative routes for a number of different reasons. Sometimes teachers are seeking different certifications, sometimes they don’t always have a traditional program nearby, and we’ve actually seen a drop in the number of traditional teacher preparation programs in career-technical education. We also see that there is a wide variety across the country of alternative certification programs, and they vary widely in quality. And this project is really looking to cull some if the best practices across the country and put this together into a model that states, or districts, or even colleges could use to improve their alternative certification programs.

The other thing we’ve seen is there are a lot of increasing demands on career-technical teachers, which put even more pressure than usual on new teachers. We’re really expecting career-technical teachers to, for example, integrate academics at a much higher level then we’ve done in years past through No Child Left Behind and the demands of Perkins IV. We’re really looking at increasing our expectations for these teachers. So we’re looking for a very high-quality fast-track program that’s going to help those new teachers hit the ground running with the most important competencies that will get them through that first year, and really launch them on a good career in career-technical teaching.

Read more about the Alternative Licensure Career/Technical Teacher Induction Model at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

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