Yesterday, I posted about the clear discrimination that occurs with Career Technical Education (CTE) teachers in California.  Today, I want to talk a little more about solutions to the problem, as I’m not usually the type of person to just whine about something.  Further, I suspect that most administrators and academic teachers don’t even realize that they are discriminating.

There are two solutions that can help alleviate this problem.

1. Educated CTE Teachers so they know what their credential allows them to already do, so that they can work with their administrators to develop applied/integrated academic courses within the industry sector they are teaching.  For teachers who have had a credential since before July 1, 2002, they can use the HOUSSE process to become recognized as being a Highly Qualified Teacher in academic areas.
2. A simple piece of legislation needs to be passed that allows holders of Designated Subjects credentials (which includes CTE and Vocational credentials) to be able to obtain a supplementary authorization to teach academic subjects (on their own), following the same rules a Single Subjects or Multiple Subjects credential holder follows to obtain such an authorization.   The fact that CTE teachers can’t currently get a supplementary authorization, is another clear instance of discrimination occurring against CTE teachers, as it logically makes no sense that a CTE teacher who is already allowed to teach K-12 cannot teach an academic subject that they also have an in-depth knowledge of, as proven through the number of college credits they have in that subject.

These two things can make a huge difference in lessening the amount of discrimination that occurs to CTE Teachers.  But further, it helps our students to have CTE Teachers teaching them academics, as I will talk more about soon.